Hello. I am just getting back into the hobby after many many years. I have had a betta for about 6 months now and recently decided to move him from his 5 gallon to a 10 gallon AIO (Aqua Japan AJ-45) and try out a few other fish with him.
So I used the gravel from the tank he'd been in and crammed all the used filter media into the new tank, thinking I wouldn't need to cycle it. I had not been testing water when he was in the 5 gallon. (Didn't feel the need. One fish in a 5 gallon well filtrated and well maintained)
So I risked picking up some german rams, knowing if they didn't get along with the betta, I have a 5 gallon I could dust off. Grabbed a test kit and started testing as I know rams are sensitive.
So the last four days I've had a very very slight ammonia reading, barely perceptible. Zero nitrites and zero nitrates.
So I am assuming tank did not establish itself like I thought it would. Maybe not enough waste to feed any beneficial bacteria, I don't know.
So I'm concerned the AIO I have isn't functioning the way it needs to. Maybe I have the media in the wrong places, I don't know. Not much seems to be happening in the internal sump as far as movement. The pump is 75gph, but I have it slightly turned down to decrease flow in the output for betta.
I have a media reactor on order, a small one I can fit into the internal sump. Hoping that will increase the movement in the sump, but honeslty I don't know what I'm doing with the "filter"
It's got two "intakes" (holes where the water goes into the internal sump). One at the top and one at the bottom, same side of tank. There are three compartments in the sump. The first, with the intakes. I have a huge bag of ceramic media in there) That one's divider has about an inch gap at the bottom where the water is supposed to flow to the second compartment. In the second compartment I have a bag of carbon and plan to replace that with the media reactor when it comes. The divider there goes to the bottom, but is about 4-5" from the top, allowing the water over it into the last section that has the heater and pump. Pump has outake to the tank.
1- Do I have this thing set up right?
2- The yellow lines at top and bottom of left are the intakes. Why the set on the bottom? I wonder if that bottom set is making the water not flow through the chambers right?
3- why would i be having tiny amounts of ammonia after this thing has been set up for 3 weeks and used old gravel and filter media?
Here's a rear shot of the tank, the internal sump.
the red lines show the dividers
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