Fluval prefilter

Goraman

Feeder Fish
Sep 1, 2014
2
0
0
United States
After a complete tear down and restart of my sons 36 gallon bow front, The tank started the first stage of the bio cycle as ammonia was at .0 ppm till I removed the fluval prefilter from my fx5,still leaving two full trays of bio rings my ammonia went up to .25 ppm in less than 24 hours. My nitrites also increased some.
So Fluval prefilter dose indeed hold bacteria.
I had the prefilter mixed with bio rings in the first tray,and wanted to reduce the number of rings to use more biofoams the 1st 2 in the top tray kept the rings much cleaner, so I thought I would put one foam over the rings in each tray like a prefilter/polishing pad for a total of 4.
I have 2 bio foams in the top tray, and in the following trays I have a biofoam on top of bio rings like a polishing pad.
So the FX5 has the 6 large outer foams,4 bio foams, and 2 baskets of bio rings.
My other filter is a very large sponge filter for up to a 124 gallon tank powered by a fluval Q2 air pump running full out.
So my sons 36 gallon with 2 fancy gold fish will stay pretty clean.
And yes, there is a lot of flow, and the fish love it.
But I was told the prefilter dose not make good bio media at the LFS and this has shown me they are very wrong.
I squeezed a very old polishing pad from a well established tank into the water so in a day or two the bacteria should start to wake up and cycle.
Sadly it takes for ever even in ideal conditions for beneficial bacteria to divide and multiply so I'm not expecting miracles. If it completes in 2 weeks I'll be happy.
 

brich999

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2010
4,312
11
38
New Hampshire
Hello and welcome to mfk. Yes prefilter does hold bb but it isnt specifically designed to. Any surface area kept wet will be a place bb can colonize. Look at all the types of media out there everything from cut straws (kaldness) to pvc strands (biobale) to legos can hold bb colonies. Ive seen tanks mini cycle from removing plastic plants so your lfs telling you prefilter didnt hold any bb was silly. Might not hold as much as some other medias but it certainly (as youve noticed) does hold bb
 

Goraman

Feeder Fish
Sep 1, 2014
2
0
0
United States
I am assuming it takes a whole lot of bacteria to keep gold fish cycled.
I had this tank very heavily planted with red and purple plants 7 watts per gallon and co2.
The plants took care of all the ammonia from the 10 neon tetras.
My five year old then 4 had no interest in helping with the weekly trimming and daily dosing with ferts.
And it took way to much family time so we went simple.
But after removing all the plants the cleaning and starting over the filter had little to no bacteria because the plants did all the uptake.
I have learned how little I knew in the early 70's with my 20 gallon and underwater filter.
My Dad had me cleaning the tank once a month,running the gravel under the hose through a screen strainer /sieve.
Can you say goodbye to the little bio filter we had going! No wonder we lost so many fish before I gave up.
Also the blue pen plex brick air pump made alot of noise.
The Fluval stuff is dead quiet these days.
I'm 48 and fish keeping has advanced do much since the early 70's. God help us we where so daft back then.
 

DDK

Plecostomus
MFK Member
May 25, 2013
1,173
24
53
us
well a good rule that is always true is that where ever there is water flow there is also bb if the food source allows it so yep prefilters a spot where its possible.
 
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