filter cleaning

[sissy58]

Greetings to all! Once again I have learned soooooo much on these forums that I doubt I would ever have lasted this far because once learning of the cycle process I was freaking out 8O until I found that it's NORMAL....

I have a 29 gal fw tank with 1 cherry barb, 1 rosy barb, 2 guppies and 1 molly. I'm in my 8th week and still haven't completely cycled yet :x but I know, patience, patience, patience.....

I wanted to know what is normal when you rinse the filter (white mesh looking thingee inside box). It seems that no matter what I do it the water looks icky It has things floating thru the water like little white linty stuff.....is this normal?

Also, I had the nasty brown algae this time on my back pane and cleaned it off and it also made the water yucky...I guess it will clear up ????

Thanks in advance for any information you can give me on this...I am going to check my water to see where I am at in the cycle process in a few hours as before the water change my nitrItes were still alittle high. If need to I'll get back with more questions.


Have a Happy

 

[deli_conker]

I am assuming you have a HOB filter. On mine I clean it out when it starts to get clogged. I do this when I do a water change as you want to clean it in aquarium water (chlorine in your tap water will kill your bacteria that you are trying to grow). Just swish it back and forth gently to get the chunky stuff out.

I use a magnetic algae scraper on my tank and the brown algae eventually ends up in the filter. I don't know about the white linty stuff. It may just be a byproduct of cycling...

 

[Todd2]

I think the brown algae is normal when your cycling. I had it during my cycle. After your tank is done cycling it should go away.

 

[pkremer]

My tank has been cycled for nearly two weeks and I just got a buildup of brown algae. My LFS told me that there is an algae cycle as well that may or may not correspond with the nitrogen cycle.

I wasn't big into the idea of cleaning up algae all the time, so I bought a 2.99 CAE and won't have to worry about it anymore...hehe.

Maybe you could get a algae eating catfish, then you won't need to constantly worry about algae.

Paul

 

[sissy58]

Hey thanks guys for the info..I also had heard that the brown algae was a "cycling" thing. My nitrites are now going down so hopefully I'll get to the end of the cycle soon. I was thinking of getting an otto since they don't get too big in the tank once my tank has cycled (don't reliquish the idea of doing so beforehand as I don't want to ever intentionally harm a fishie). Do you think that this is a good choice?

 

[kristen]

I think the ottos would be better than a chinese alage eater....i started with the CAE but ended up getting rid of them b/c they were just too agressive. They would jump on my bigger fish and were too territorial. I now have four ottos and they are doing great! My local fish guy told me to eventually get up to eight of them cause they really like to live in schools but for now they are doing a fine job in my 29g. Hope this helps!

 

[deli_conker]

I've always had brown algae in my tank. It's caused by having too many nutrients floating around in the water. I plan on taking care of mine when I buy a diatom filter...