fish in cycle with extra filter media

[HeatherW]

HI. just finished my fish i cycle on my 20 gallon tank yay!!!

So, to do this I bought an angels plus filter, cut it up in pieces and put some in behind my existing filter stuff. I had extra and couldn't fit it in there, so I put it in a filter media bag and have it just hanging in the tank kinda infront of the water flow. it is now all brown and yucky looking (like it should be I guess)

so here is the question. I want to get rid of the bag (obviously - it doesn't look nice) but I don't want to send my tank back into cycling. how do I get rid of this extra stuff and get the tank to handle everything with just the HOB filter.

should I take out small pieces at a time until it is all gone? and how long between each removal to not recyle my tank?

thanks for everyone's help!!

 

[jlk]

Congrats, Heather!!! I would give your newly cycled tank a few weeks first before starting to change up anything. Then, do so slowly removing only a piece per week & making sure everythings stable before considering removing another piece. I would personally stick the removed piece in another tank to keep it alive until your sure your new tank isnt spiking before throwing it out or move it to another filter (extra cycled media is good!). No guarentee you wont see spikes though- if you do, do wcs as needed.

 

[HeatherW]

OK, so I will let it settle for a couple of weeks then try removing a small piece and see what it does. if my numbers go up do I put it back in and take out a little less or just WC until I am stable again?
Kinda like adding fish but in the reverse hehe

 

[jlk]

I would probably just approach it gradually. Remove or snip off a small piece & see how everything goes. I dont think you will see any big spikes if you do this slowly and all you may have to do is an extra wc or two. Obviously, if you do see big spikes, add the removed stuff back in, wait a day or two & then try removing a smaller piece. A bit of trial & error but everything should go pretty smoothly!