Biofilter

[Zastrus]

I know there are 2 parts to a fish tank filter.. the regular filter, and a biofilter..

What should a fully cycled biofilter look like? :duh: :duh: :duh:

And i swear this is my last thread for today. :duh::duh:

 

[fish_freak]

It wont really look any diffrent then it did before you put it in the filter besides maybe some gunk on it. What type of filter do you have? There is lots of diffrent types of bioligical filtration and some filters use three types of filtration Mechanical "floss", Chemical "carbon" Biological "bacteria" on a special media or in the floss and carbon.

 

[echoofformless]

A fully cycled biofilter looks like a whole bunch of crazy really hungry bacteria...under a microscope.

 

[Zastrus]

Im not sure which brand of filter I have, because all the parts of the fish tank came as aprt of a package. But there is a large blue filter cartridge, which is kinda ugly and gunky, which I suppose I should change soon. Then theres a white plasticy-floss kind of stuff, that is still white, and I dont see anything on it...

The weird this is that all of my waters stats are normal. Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, everything is fine. Since the cartridge is the mucky part (I'm assuming with bacteria and other gunk), and the biofilter seems clean.. if I change the cartridge, will my water go back to being 'uncycled'?

 

[CaptnDan]

Most of the gunk you are seeing is probably fish food, either uneaten, or post-fish.

You could rinse it off in safe water (no chlorine/chloramine) and keep on using it.

If you do water changes in a bucket, you could rinse it in that.