What do you do during vaction??

[mrvincent]

If it's a kind of filter cartridge, and if there's a lot of small white looking piece inside, it's ceramic. If not, it can be active carbon, and Carbon is not so good to keep BB. BB go on ceramic.

 

[Jujubee]

It's carbon. I have an insert in the 10 and 20 just for the bb to latch on to. The smaller 3 gal do not :/ that's why I ask if adding it to the water would be okay. There is gravel in the frog tank about 1/2 to an inch. I only have a handful in the fry tank. Is there anything I could add to the water like I sponge or other little thing to catch and grow bacteria on?

 

[mrvincent]

Then I would say this filter suck, because you can't cycle your tank with this... It will not harm to add Cycle directly to the water, but I don't really think it will change something...

Bacterias in this product need to glue to something where there's water flow... In normal filter, if you add it to the water, it will result to glue in the filter media after some time...

Do you think you can add some biomax in the bottom of your carbon filter or something like Fluval C Nodes ? If those C-node are dropped where there's water flow, BB will grow.

These component will make a place for BBs to glue and do its job.

 

[Jujubee]

I can deff try and I don't disagree with you on the Filters I do need to upgrade but hey can't beat free when you have none to begin with right? I'm waiting for the fry to get bigger they're maybe a week old so I can move them into the 20 gal (it's unstocked right now since cycling) until they get a bit bigger than I have a friend who might want one and the others will go to an lfs who will take them. The tank they are in will end up being my quarantine tank.
I'm considering getting rid of the platys even though I do love them I just don't want to deal with fry from them every 30 days haha. My husband is adamant about me keeping them though, surprisingly he likes them a lot. Who would have guessed? He doesn't even want me to get rid of my african dwarf frogs! Haha.

But yes I will try finding those little inserts and placing them in the little filters until I manage to get some better ones. They don't make very good filters for such small tanks least that I've found yet!

 

[mrvincent]

Ahhh If you want to transfer your frog, just overdose BBs, can't be harmfull, when it'll be fully cycled, you'll have no need to use it again.

I personally use it again only if I do 50%WC or more for some reason, I don't want any ammonia spike.

 

[Jujubee]

I usually have to do 2-3 wc with 3-4 gal on my 10 gal a day right now so I might add a little more but not nearly as much as I dosed today. For the 20 I'll just let it sit until ammonia and nitrite are 0
They're were sky high earlier as well as nitrates so hopefully a get a better test reading tomorrow since I dosed with the bb. I also do a 75% water change on the fry tank and a 50% every other day on the frogs as of now.
It's been a lot of work for weeks so I'm hoping this does work so I can finally find some relief.
I appreciate your help, you've been great

 

[mrvincent]

Yeah when aquarium are well doing, it's easy to maintain. When I'll buy my first house (in 3 years), I want a 200 gal in the basement.

Not sure about the word "basement", I mean the floor under the ground of a house (I'm not expert in english)