White Cloudy Tank

Charcoal does make a nice place for bacteria to grow. I have the same filter and when I replace the bag I keep the old charcoal. The little foam pad in this filter is a joke for trying to hold on to bacteria. Perhaps in a much more established tank it would have worked for you.
 
milrtime said:
OK, I understand don't throw out the media. The confusing part is the instructions on the filter say to change the filter every 4-6 weeks. After all I was just following instructions. I will do some research on this and come up with a better plan for next time.

In the mean time how long should it take? It has been more than 5 days since the fish died and still very cloudy.

Thanks again for all the tips.
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the instructions are there for the sole purpose of making you buy more filter cartriges
 
leeser28 said:
If you keep throwing them out, they keep making money :) Maybe I'm cynical, but I was making the same mistake until I came to this site and I really believe that a certain of the instruction to replace things is so they can sell the expensive replacements. I also found out here that you don't need to use charcoal - something else filter producers tend to leave out of their instructions.
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I would have to agree knowing that disposables (filter media, printer cartridges, etc..) are where many manufacturers make thier money.:)

Anyways, if you look back to my first post am I doing the right thing to fix this issue? How long does it take to reestablish a cycle?

Thanks.
 
milrtime said:
20% Partial water change treated with API Stress Coat Plus daily
adding Nutrafin Cycle with every change
adding API Ammo Lock with every change
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First, I'd do 50-75% water change daily (I personally don't believe 20% is enough).

I think the stress coat and ammo lock are good additions. I have started conditioning my water with SeaChem's Prime, it not only locks up amoonia, but also nitrite -- makes them safe for the fish and still useable by the bacteria.

And then it's a waiting game getting the bacteria built back up. I recently went through something similar when I increased the bioload of my 40 gallon tank -- had a spike in the ammonia and nitrite. I ended up replacing about 20 gallons per day for 4 days in a row, and my ammonia was only .25 ppm -- so keep in mind that this might take a while. Of course, taht's only one person's opinion -- but you're definitely trying the right things! keep it up.
 
Here is an interesting change to the situation. My filter media is full/clogged whatever you want to call it. Basically the water flowing around the filter and not through it. This is what was happening a week ago Thursday and when I replaced the filter and started this whole mess.

So I have done two water changes today both approx 8 gals each. During the scond change I noticed the filter was clogged so I tried to squeege it out out in the bucket of old water. I rinsed, shooked and squuezed the filter and when I placed it back into place the water still flows around it.

Now what do I do? I was thinking of placing a new filter in place but leaving the old filter in the tank so I don't remove any good bacteria. Should this work?
 
What's in your filter and what's clogging it? Can you tell?
 
to clarify -- "in" -- as in any media?
 
Unless the filter is assembled wrong, the only thing I can think of that is causing it to clog so quickly is overfeeding on a large scale.
 
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