Cycling and an AC

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Danh

Piranha
MFK Member
May 31, 2006
1,426
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South East
I have a 125g that I got as a package a couple of weeks ago. It's been running with a rosie and a comet since then with an Penguin 330 and an AC 110... Definitely not my choice of filters, but they came with it, so I figured they would work until my real fish grew a little. I also have a power head with a sponge on it. In two weeks I have only been slightly over feeding every other day flakes to help with ammonia generation. I have had ammonia for 10 days now with no sign of decrease, nitrites or nitrates. Test kits are good, I tried them on a 3 year established tank that I use the same conditioner on.

I would think the powerhead and the penguin would be enough with the 2 fish and the amout of food I'm putting there, but if somehow they're not and it's the AC's fault, maybe it didn't come with all of the parts? I've got one large sponge and some scraps on top of that. It seems though that water is coming up from around the intake tube and just passing over the top of the sponges. It doesn't seem like it's being forced to go through them. Is there supposed to be some kind of a gasket that keeps the water from coming back up around the intake tube and makes it go across to the sponges before up and out?

On top of that I took maybe 2-3 gallons of large river rocks from an established tank. I'm going to add more rocks and some established media from the other tank that I would have to believe would do it, but at this point, it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't.
 
Another vote for some substrate pro . Or ehfi substrat is on clearance at Dr fosters better swoop some quick I just got a bunch :)
 
I feel like I have plenty of bio media for a 125g. I've got both packed with sponges.

Last night I added a bunch more rocks from my established 90g and a couple of hand fulls of bio balls to float in the AC. This morning it's cloudy... It looks like an ammonia spike, but I haven't tested to confirm this yet.
 
Danh;3224799; said:
I feel like I have plenty of bio media for a 125g. I've got both packed with sponges.

Last night I added a bunch more rocks from my established 90g and a couple of hand fulls of bio balls to float in the AC. This morning it's cloudy... It looks like an ammonia spike, but I haven't tested to confirm this yet.
Click to expand...

lol well then....... are u ignoring what was mentioned earlier... i don't think u have plenty of bio media.... i think u got some stuff that's not cutting it..

bio balls and lava rock in the AC :cry::cry::cry::cry:

get some real media in there.. bio balls are good for wet dry applications... and lava rock is just inferior compared to real bio media..cloudy water is a sign of high nitrites, ur tank is probably still cycling..
 
I don't see anywhere that I said lava rock... I put the bio balls in the AC to help jump it. They are not the main media in the AC.

My tank wasn't cycling at all when I posted this.. Ammonia was just sitting around in it. My problem was that I haven't cycled a tank in 3 or 4 years. I always use a completely established filter on new tanks. I forgot how long it takes for it to start. The tank is cycled now.


My main questions here were first that if the filters were just all together too small for a 125g and two measly fish... I have had sumps on all my other tanks recently. And second if there was something wrong with my AC. I've never used one before.
 
no, those two filter aren't to small for a 125 unless you massively over stock. I have two ac110 filters on a 180g.

2 small fish will take a long time to cycle a tank
 
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