Nathan7378
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2015
- Messages
- 5
Hello everyone
First things first, this is my first post on this forum, so I apologize if I do anything incorrect in my posts. I'm also 14, but I have done a lot of research on aquariums. I have a question about my family's 30 gallon that I can't find an answer to anywhere.
Our 30 gallon is filtered by a Penguin 170 HOB filter. It has served this tank well until a few days ago. Recently, the flow throught the filter has been worryingly small. The majority of the water goes either over the filter or aroubd it over the tube that brings wayer to the filter, back into the tank. Today, i sat down for a good 30 minutes with the filter and gently swished it around some aquarium water, but it seemed to be to no prevail. I kmow it is the cartridge because the fliw was absolutley fine when the filter was removed, and there is nothing that seems to be obstructing the flow when I peaked into the box.
After a bit of web surfing, I theorized there must have been a large formation of detritus behind the blue floss that cannot be removed by the usual swishing the cartridge in water technique. My yoynger brother also has had a bad reputation for overfeeding, which supports my theory. My dad insists that I just throw in a new cartridge, however I fear that will cause a fatal ammonia spike.
This brings me to my question:how do I seed a new filter cartridge with beneficial bacteria? How long should I do it for? My tank contains a male and fenale swordtail as well as a small rainbow shark (yes, we are planning a new home for the rainbow shark). Placing the new cartridge in the filter box is out of the question as the Penguin 170 is a relatively compact HOB filter system.
Any advice is appreciated. Sorry for the long post, I wanted to get in as much information as possible. Thanks!
First things first, this is my first post on this forum, so I apologize if I do anything incorrect in my posts. I'm also 14, but I have done a lot of research on aquariums. I have a question about my family's 30 gallon that I can't find an answer to anywhere.
Our 30 gallon is filtered by a Penguin 170 HOB filter. It has served this tank well until a few days ago. Recently, the flow throught the filter has been worryingly small. The majority of the water goes either over the filter or aroubd it over the tube that brings wayer to the filter, back into the tank. Today, i sat down for a good 30 minutes with the filter and gently swished it around some aquarium water, but it seemed to be to no prevail. I kmow it is the cartridge because the fliw was absolutley fine when the filter was removed, and there is nothing that seems to be obstructing the flow when I peaked into the box.
After a bit of web surfing, I theorized there must have been a large formation of detritus behind the blue floss that cannot be removed by the usual swishing the cartridge in water technique. My yoynger brother also has had a bad reputation for overfeeding, which supports my theory. My dad insists that I just throw in a new cartridge, however I fear that will cause a fatal ammonia spike.
This brings me to my question:how do I seed a new filter cartridge with beneficial bacteria? How long should I do it for? My tank contains a male and fenale swordtail as well as a small rainbow shark (yes, we are planning a new home for the rainbow shark). Placing the new cartridge in the filter box is out of the question as the Penguin 170 is a relatively compact HOB filter system.
Any advice is appreciated. Sorry for the long post, I wanted to get in as much information as possible. Thanks!
