Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
I am currently running a UGF w/power heads on a 55g planted freshwater community of livebearers & tetras (see my tanks) with 69 (yes) fish. 45 of them are fry, most are less than 2 months old. I have my brand spanking new Marineland C360 coming this week via eBay.
My plan is like this: bottom tray standard filter floss that is suggested for stage 1. The next 3 normally go carbon, bio-balls, then bio-tube, from the bottom up. I'm not using the carbon, so my idea to get the bio colony going is to mix the bio balls and tubes in the next 3 compartments along with a bunch of gravel currently in the aquarium.
The question is, how long will I have to leave it like that until I can take the gravel out of the filter trays and pull the UGF?
Once I pull the UGF, the bio-colony will still exist in the gravel, from what I understand, but mainly on the top inch and on all other surfaces. I just don't want to pull it too early and end up cycling the tank.
Also, and I think I know the answer to this, is putting the gravel in the trays a bad idea? The stack is topped off with fine floss, so it's not like anything can get to the impeller, so I figured no big deal.
Any comments are welcome
My plan is like this: bottom tray standard filter floss that is suggested for stage 1. The next 3 normally go carbon, bio-balls, then bio-tube, from the bottom up. I'm not using the carbon, so my idea to get the bio colony going is to mix the bio balls and tubes in the next 3 compartments along with a bunch of gravel currently in the aquarium.
The question is, how long will I have to leave it like that until I can take the gravel out of the filter trays and pull the UGF?
Once I pull the UGF, the bio-colony will still exist in the gravel, from what I understand, but mainly on the top inch and on all other surfaces. I just don't want to pull it too early and end up cycling the tank.
Also, and I think I know the answer to this, is putting the gravel in the trays a bad idea? The stack is topped off with fine floss, so it's not like anything can get to the impeller, so I figured no big deal.
Any comments are welcome