librarygirl
Look It Up
Hi,
I'm currently doing a fishless cycle on a Marineland 12 gal Eclipse Bowfront. I'm using the filter that came with the tank.
I found out that the filter cartridge that goes into these is a carbon pad with a plastic casing on the bottom (you can see one here). I read carbon can hinder cycles and wouldn't be good if my fish ever got sick and I needed to medicate the tank so I figured I'd try to take it out. Pics below of what I did to the filter.
Since the filter was running with fish in it for a few weeks (they didn't make it ) and it's a bit gunky I don't want to get rid of it, at least not yet. If I close the holes you can't really tell. There are still some carbon pieces inside as I couldn't get them all out but I got the majority of it.
Anyway, my question (finally!): I'd like to have some extra media on hand if I ever wanted/needed to turn my 5 gal into a QT tank or if I ever wanted to upgrade, etc. Would another filter on this tank be too much? If I added more media or another filter now would it disrupt the fishless cycle (keeping the current media; I'm only 6 days in)? Should I add a whole other filter system, like a HOB filter, or should I just buy some filter sponges/foam and stick those into the spaces next to (to the left of) the current filter? It's pretty tight in there, there are a couple of spaces before and under the current filter, it should get wet though).
Any advice/recommendations would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
I'm currently doing a fishless cycle on a Marineland 12 gal Eclipse Bowfront. I'm using the filter that came with the tank.
I found out that the filter cartridge that goes into these is a carbon pad with a plastic casing on the bottom (you can see one here). I read carbon can hinder cycles and wouldn't be good if my fish ever got sick and I needed to medicate the tank so I figured I'd try to take it out. Pics below of what I did to the filter.
Since the filter was running with fish in it for a few weeks (they didn't make it ) and it's a bit gunky I don't want to get rid of it, at least not yet. If I close the holes you can't really tell. There are still some carbon pieces inside as I couldn't get them all out but I got the majority of it.
Anyway, my question (finally!): I'd like to have some extra media on hand if I ever wanted/needed to turn my 5 gal into a QT tank or if I ever wanted to upgrade, etc. Would another filter on this tank be too much? If I added more media or another filter now would it disrupt the fishless cycle (keeping the current media; I'm only 6 days in)? Should I add a whole other filter system, like a HOB filter, or should I just buy some filter sponges/foam and stick those into the spaces next to (to the left of) the current filter? It's pretty tight in there, there are a couple of spaces before and under the current filter, it should get wet though).
Any advice/recommendations would be much appreciated!
Thanks!