First tank, second hand. Need help!

[Beeman]

it'll tell you what you can do to change your filter up a bit, if you choose to.

I have a little bio wheel thing for my 5g too. I've never changed the cartridge before, I just emptied out the carbon stuff and stuff it with my own media.

I have a couple questions about what you're saying here.

Are you saying that you can filter the water with just the "floss" (nothing inside of the cartridge?)
I dont necessarily want to buy a $14 pack of 4 cartridges with the activated carbon inside every time they need changed. And I don't mind doing a little extra work if it will save me some money in the end.

If you are reusing your cartridges, what are you stuffing in there? I followed the link that you posted and under the "Suggested Biological Filter Media" all of the links just go to http://www.bigalspets.com/ so im not sure what they're pointing to.


UPDATE on the state of my tank: Last night i completely drained my tank, hand washed all of my gravel, rinsed out my tank very well and did a 100% water change. The water is nice and clear again, I cleaned out the whole filtration system of all of the water and rinsed everything in that as well. I've started over with the dechlorinating drops and water clarifier. I'll give those a couple of days and test my water and will probably go with a heavily monitored fish-in cycle.

 

[angelfishlover]

Hmm so you have decided to go with a fish in cycle. Bad idea... The fishes will have to go through excruciating pain from the ammonia and it will be a very tiring job as you will need to constantly change the water.
Go with the fishless cycle. It maybe slow but the rewards is that your fish won't have to go through a tough trial which some will die in the end and you know you can add fish without losing em

Patience is the key for the success of your fish tank. A lot of newbies love to go through the fish in cycle so that the tank won't look dead.

Hope you really reconsider about the fish in cycle...

 

[toasty]

You can just go to a petstore and ask them to show you where filter media is. You'll see all this stuff like ceramic rings, filter floss, etc. You'll be able to see what will and won't fit with your filter much more easier than reading vague definitions Make a list and go home, research what you want to use.

Or you can just use the boxed cartridges you already have and figure out the DIY stuff after your tank is already cycled. That would be the easiest.

It's cheaper and safer to do a fishless cycle, imo. You'll probably lose the fish you use for a fish-in cycle, and it can take just as long as a fishless cycle if anything happens. If you make mistakes during a fishless cycle (put in too much ammonia, etc) you just do a water change or two. Mistakes in a fish-in cycle end up with dead fish, more water changes and another trip to the petstore for more fish. Not saying fish-in doesn't work, 'cause it does.
If you feel more comfortable with fish-in, more power to you. I'm just telling you 'cause it was cheaper for me to do a fishless cycle (and I'm a college student, so budget was important).