need filter advice

[sokol1312]

hi,
I need advice re:filter. curently I have bio life wet/dry filter on my 20 g tank.my nitrate is high.I was told it is becouse biocore and ceramic prefilter rocks.
Wright now I cant spend any more $$$,I do have fluva 2 internal power,
filter. If i take sponge from my biolife and put it in fluval will that be ok.
I had some bad expirience with changing filter media all at once(amonia and nitrite spiked up and killed almost everything).
flow rate on fluval is 400 gph.will I be ok with that.i do have skimmer as well.
thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Generally, but not always, cleaning the rings and media in incremental stages helps keep it from becoming a nitrate factory ... and carries a lower risk of a chemical spike in your water.

At the end of the month, clean half the rings.
At the end of next month, clean half the media.
At the end of the 3rd month, clean the last half of the rings
At the end of the 4th month, clean the last half of the media.

Hopefully the dent in your bacteria colony wouldn't be enough to cause a spike.

that being said ... I would still keep looking for a way around the problem entirely. can you describe your setup further? how often do you do a water change and do you have any other filters on there? like a protein skimmer? i might consider takign the wet/dry out completely ...

 

[sokol1312]

I do have skimmer,18lb of live rock, I change 4g of water every 2-3 weeks.I was gonna use just sponge in my filter,I was gonna take sponge from my biolife and put it in my new filter,hope there will be sufficient amount of bacteria to take care of ammonia and nitrite.bio life has some
extra filter media(fine sponge filter,carbon pouch,and biocore).but I i not sure should I do the switch.

 

[Anonymous]

I think that sounds like it would work ... maybe get more advice before you do anything drastic tho ...

 

[sokol1312]

thanks,
anyone else with advice

 

[ricky1414]

I dont have a hob filter. only LR, LS, a skimmer and decent water flow. I heard that the bio rings in the nano cube were to be utilized for FW only?

 

[sokol1312]

I took biolife out,placed fluval 2 internal filter,I got 5 more lb of LR.
Everithing has been ok for 2 days,hope it stays like that

 

[ricky1414]

got any pictures?

 

[sokol1312]

go to posting "my tank" just below this one.It is from last week,i did some
aquascaping changes.

 

[sokol1312]

sorry name of the posting is "my 20 g tank"