I had to remove my eheim 2215 from my 90 gallon today (Reinstalling in 4 days I had leak issue) ... It had the most bio media and oldest in my system. I kept all that I could fit in one of my trays in the fluval 405 (Replacing the pre filter medium I was using in there and another small sack where my carbon was on my AC110 for that tank. All in all 1/2 the bio was removed from one filter we shall see if I get a spike. I am running purigen though hopefully that absorbs the excess if there is any excess ammonia.
How Important Is Bio Media?
- Thread starter Toby_H
- Start date
tcarswell;3431179; said:
it would be interesting if you could do tests for us to see if your tank needed the extra bio or not.
I bet this will not be sticky because most of the mods believe in TONS and TONS of bio media. Hell, most of them say that you need a sump that is 1/3 the size of your aquarium!
Yet we have "Beginners Guide to Filter Media" which is just encouraging.
Yet we have "Beginners Guide to Filter Media" which is just encouraging.
Why not you? You previously posted that you had a system of 175g that was effectively filtered with just a single AC110. Now your current 125g has 2 Ac110s plus the magnums. How about reducing that tank down to just a single Ac and letting us know how that goes?nc_nutcase;3426480; said:
Amount of bio media needed is a variable and only a small part of the equation. Without the right knowledge this info(NOT SAYING IT"S WRONG) could cause more harm then good for a newbie. As for making it a sticky, who knows.
Here's one of my experiences. My son had a 65g tank with a peguin 350 bio wheel filter. This was during a phase were I tested water params before and after every water change. So my son wanted pirahna and found someone giving away 4x 6"ers on craigslist. These turned out to be pacu, but we took them anyway and fed them pellets twice a day. For 3 months he kept the pacu and the peguin filter and 50% w/cs kept ammonia and nitrite levels at zero.
We then found someone selling 3x 5-6" Red belly pirahna. We bought them and gave away the 4x 8" pacu. After about a month of having the pirahna the levels of ammonia, then nitrites would show up the next day after feedings. The RBPs being fed shrimp or fish fillets every 3 days. I added a nice little established 55g rated wet/dry to the tank and no more issues.
So why would this filter/tank setup work for 4x 8" fish yet not 3x 5-6" fish?
First day I tested water and sure enough ammonia .5 at a ph of 8.3 YIKES!tcarswell;3431265; said:You got it! I already started and got 0 ammonia 5 hours after it was removed (today). I am using api liquid for this testing.My seachem tests might be fooled by my prime use as it states so.
Bderick67;3431840; said:
Ive made my experiments and Ive shared my results with the forum 125 gal, heavily stocked, filtered by 2x AC 110s w/ sponge only as media and a tier of three tanks (50 gal / 50 gal / 75 gal ) plumbed together, heavily stocked, filtered by 1x AC 110 and 1x 500 gph pump
But naturally me sharing my results isnt enough for everyone which is why I said I was interested in seeing others perform their own tests and share their results
And again as a reminder when any of use remove a portion of our system that is likely housing bacteria, we should expect a mini cycle (ammonia & nitrite spikes) since we removed bacteria from the system. This does not constitute a biological failure. Proper detoxification of these spikes via water changes or adding Prime or similar should be take for a period of time until the bacteria has time to reproduce to replace that which was removed.
My point is not that we can remove bacteria with no ill result, this is not true
My point is that the vast majority of our systems have ample surface area to accommodate a sufficient amount of bacteria without Bio Media
Bderick67;3431840; said:
Since you reduced the bioload and the waste byproducts increased there is obviously a detail being overlooked somewhere I would have to question if the fish were being overfed and you werent being told about it
tcarswell;3432857; said:
I think this should be expected. You removed a portion of the bacteria when you removed the filter now give the existing bacteria time to reproduce to replace it. Detoxify via water changes, Prime, etc and my bets are within a weeks time your ammonia will be at zero with normal maintenance.
i have to agree that simple sponge filters are more than capable at taking care of bio-filtration. case in point is discus hans setup. the discus is reportedly a very difficult fish to keep & requires very clean water. if you look at hans's filtration setup, all he uses is water dripping on a sponge.
