Filter and waste

[LowCel]

If you have multiple filter pads just clean one of them at a time. This will allow you to keep some of your beneficial bacteria. When you rinse them do so in tank water, when you do your water change put some of the water in a bucket and rinse the filter pad out in that.

Adding a canister is a great idea. Canisters are very efficient and hold onto a lot of good bacteria.

 

[bob965]

Nitrates are the end product of a properly functioning cycle in your tank. You remove them by doing water changes. Fish poop is removed by vacuuming the substrate. No filter is going to suck up every single poop particle that is pooped into the tank. Judging by your problems with cloudiness, I would say that filter is less than adequate. I would add another one, or add a canister to use with it. If a filter is rated for a 75g tank, that means it's probably good for a 29g tank.

 

[Confidence]

Great info thanks guys! ill be picking up another penguin filter or a canister this week and hopefully this takes care of the issues. As for rinsing the filter pads one at a time how often do you rinse just one of them. like one every water change?

 

[jagd24]

Honestly your filters dont need to be rinsed once a week. If you keep up on the water changes/gravel vacs you can leave your filters alone for a month or more. I know some people one here will disagree...but its all about building up bacteria. Fussing with your filters so much is more harmful than beneficial.

 

[Confidence]

Honestly your filters dont need to be rinsed once a week. If you keep up on the water changes/gravel vacs you can leave your filters alone for a month or more. I know some people one here will disagree...but its all about building up bacteria. Fussing with your filters so much is more harmful than beneficial.

doign wc every 6 days and doing gravel vac same days, so ill just rinse a filter out once a month and you jsut swish the pad in aquirium water correct? sorry just wanna be sure i have it all down

 

[jagd24]

Sounds good to me. You can do a gravel vac/wc at the same time with a python/syphon filter. Just do that once every week...and once you get a canister filter you dont have to be that prompt. I started out with a 125 that came with 2 aquaclear 70s for really cheap. I didnt know much about anything really, and always had poop buildup in my tank. I invested in a rena xp4...and put all bio filtering within it. I kept the HOB filters just as mechanical filters to polish the water. Youll learn as you go.

 

[Confidence]

cool thanks for info hope i got it down this time, i am noticing my water clearing up today so hopefully nitrates are gone, ill have to do another test.. also lowering my feeding down to 1 time per day

 

[jschall]

You need to adjust the flow pattern and add some little pest snails to break down the waste into smaller pieces.
If waste collects on the bottom, you don't have enough flow in the tank. Direct more flow so that it picks up the waste into the water column.

 

[kurare]

Throw some green plants in the tank, it'll help keep nitrates down a bit... and if you wanna go big... have an add-on somewhere with a powerhead to feed a bucket with nitrated water for plants!

Look up ATS. algae turf scrubber here on MFK and see that stuff in action! Remember Mother nature does not do water changes [Aesthetic sacrifices do have to be made]