What is my snail doing?

[creic38]

It is not bacteria. When you change your tank water, rinse out the media in a bucket of that water and keep using it. You should only change your media when it is completely falling apart. Do NOT follow the instructions and change the media every month or two. My media is approaching a year old, and it's still going strong.

Now my question is why do you have so much "gunk" in your filter media? What kind of substrate do you use?

 

[Cammywammy]

Dirt capped with sand. My platies graze on plants all day I think I'll move one platy out and my betta in while this tank cycles that reduces waste by a lot.