Media Change

[Kwenbee]

Okay, I hope I did this right...I followed what I THINK were the directions in another thread about my filters.

This morning, I took the filter media (or is it medium) out of both the 5 and 10 gallon tanks. I dumped out the carbon and tossed it. I took the new floss stuff and put it on the frame that is inside the filter and took the old floss stuff and clipped it behind the new floss stuff.

Now, how long do I leave the old floss stuff in the filter? Or do I leave it until I replace the new stuff I just put in today? I read on here that the carbon wasn't necessary so I threw it all away.

I had a slight nitrite spike in the 5 gallon tank when I checked it today, so I did a 10% water change. The tank is a bit cloudy...sort of a whitish cloudy look. I think it might be an overfeeding bacteria bloom since all we have in there are 5 neons and 2 catfish and we're having a little trouble figuring out how much to feed such small fish. I'll just keep an eye on it for a few days.

Another question, sort of off the subject. The 20 gallon right now has 6 neons, 5 zebra danios, 2 blackskirt tetras, 1 goldskirt tetra, and 2 cory cats. I was considering a few silver dollars, but don't want to overload my tank. Any thoughts?

[Endgame319]

Not silver dollars, they grow much too big for your small tank

[tkos]

For the 20 gallon I would add 3-4 more cories first then see how things look. Cories like to be in schools of 5 or more if possible.

For the filters, you can leave the old floss in, no need to get rid of it unless it is falling apart. If that is the case then I suggest leaving it for a couple of weeks. You really just need to rinse it out during water changes.

To get rid of the bacterial bloom, do water changes every day and for a week or so just feed the fish every other day. When thing settle down start back to every day feeding, just a pinch will do ya!

[malkore]

and honestly, I'd get rid of that piece of crap filter you have now, and get something like an AquaClear that uses real filter sponges, and not those junky cartridges. Sponges last for years...you just rinse them in the tank water you siphoned off each week, and put them back in. Then you can add carbon if you need to, and use filter floss to polish the water if you want...heck you can even put ceramic rings in it for more biological surface area.

[Enki]

What filter is it that you have? I could not find the previous post you referred to. Some HOBs have cartridges that are more easily reused than others. Some are pretty good, some are a POC as described above

I do know that you don't want to change all of your filter media at once, 1/2 at a time works pretty well.

I recently got my first canister filter, and I have to say I am going canister all the way from here on out, especially with the deals available online

[Kwenbee]

We have a Whisper HOB Filter on the 10 gallon and a Top Fin HOB Filter on the 20 gallon. The 5 gallon I believe also has a Whisper. They were all purchased with the aquariums, and I know they aren't the top of the line, but now that we are about $500 into this "hobby" that started with 2 free goldfish, I am a bit over budget for fishy type supplies.

The next purchase will be a sponge type filter for both the 10 and 20 gallon. The 10 will be soon, though, because the filter we have is having some issues filtering through the divider for the bettas. One side seems to stay sort of still, while the side with the filter is moving fairly well. So, I know I need a better filter on them.

I just want to be sure I am changing the filters properly. I've finally got my tanks cycled and I just don't want to have to deal with dead fishies because now the filter is all gunked up!