sponge question

[Mattzilla]

i have just set up a new tank and have put a few sponge filters in it. my question is, i have just put them in the new tank and threw in another sponge from a full cycled tank. have a look at the picture below because i have literally just thrown the extra cycled sponge in with the new ones. this is to help promote good bacterial growth in the new sponges. does the cycled sponge have to be on a running air stone or can it just sit next to the running new sponge filters??? the cycled sponge is the one sitting next to the other sponges...

will this work?

thanks

[kalebjarrod]

bacteria need three things for good growth, air food and moisture (i think)

i think you will find the filters will promote bacteria growth better if there is air to promote their growth.

Ryan

[flukes]

Being that it is that close i dont think it would make much of a difference if it was running. Although it might i couldnt see huge changes.
Have you tried fishless cycling?? I tried it on a tank a few months ago and now i wouldnt use anything but, no harm to fish, cycles in maximum 2 weeks and once finished you can stock that tank too the tip...

[fishpimp]

run air thru it mat surely the air flowing thru will promote it's cycling as kale mentioned, and circulate it thru the water too. i've heard the good bacteria is also waterborn? as well as growing on surfaces.

[nicholas76]

guys just in relation to cycling how can anyone really tell the diffrence between a non cycled tank and cycled if your LARge tank contains 2 fish like in a 4 x 18 x 18

you wont get ammonia spikes or anything of that nature with such a small fish load, anyone have any information about this ??

I have currenlty been cycling my new planted tank for 3 weeks now. Ill be adding my fish in 2 weeks.

posting pics soon

Cheers

[chrissyoscar]

Check for ammonia and nitrites. If these are zero then you could add more fish but do it in stages. I'ld add another 2 then after a week do another ammonia and nitrites test. If everything looks fine then add another 2 if not wait another week. You can also test for nitrates but I don't think that's as important as testing for ammonia and nitrites. Also if your tank is heavily planted then the plants will also help break down ammonia and nitrates, not sure about nitrites though.
Please note that Nitrites and nitrates are two different things. As Kev said in another post Nitrites is poison to your fish were as nitrates is basically fertiliser for your plants. Having said this though Discus will tolerate low levels of nitrates but don't do well with high nitrate levels.
Hope this helps.

Oscar

[flukes]

Or use fishless cycling then when its finished stock it as full as you want!!!!

Please tell me someone else uses fishless cycling??? I cant see why people wouldnt its soo much easier and increases the time of cycling ten fold.

[chrissyoscar]

I'm actually doing one now for the first time. Everything is looking great and it should be ready in a week or 2.
With Nick though he has a large tank with only 2 fish in it and it's planted so I don't think there's a problem, just takes a bit longer.


Oscar

[nicholas76]

when dealing with large volumes of fish its is required!

but when your dealing in small numbers of fish in comparison to large volumes of water the only thing you really have to ensure is that the water is aged and clean

nick

[luvfishies]

Or use fishless cycling then when its finished stock it as full as you want!!!!

Please tell me someone else uses fishless cycling??? I cant see why people wouldnt its soo much easier and increases the time of cycling ten fold.

Yep, I've done it many times, how I just stuff extra filter sponge in all my filters, and "raid" the seeded sponge when I start a new tank.

As for the question at hand here, it's not the air that the bacteria need, it's WATERFLOW, which isn't happening here. I would get that sponge hooked up to the airstone, which promotes water flowing thru the sponge.

[kalebjarrod]

i think that you may be misunderstood.

Why does the bacteria need waterflow?

[luvfishies]

i think that you may be misunderstood.

Why does the bacteria need waterflow?

Our Nitrifying bacteria require Oxygen-rich water in order to thrive. Airstones do NOT supply that, as they are primarily for increasing the surface area of the water, thus adding O2 into the water column. Moving water over the sponges, whether in a cannister filter, HOB filter, or sponge filter, is "the" sure-fire way to be sure the bacteria have enough O2 to do the job.

While they will colonise any hard surface in the tank, the vast majority of the bacteria are found in our filters, due to the "ideal" living conditions for them.

[fishpimp]

hey luvfishies, what are your thoughts on having bio media above the waterline, ie- on top of your tank and using gravity drain. therefore your media isn't submerged in oxygen rich water, it is suspended in moist air (oxygen rich).
what is in your opinion more efective for beneficial bacteria growth and cycling- submerged in water, or suspended in moist air with rain?
appreciate your thoughts

[Proteus]

a Bio Wheel set up works well, but in my experience can be a P.I.T.A. to keep going if the other filter media slows the flow down.

[luvfishies]

hey luvfishies, what are your thoughts on having bio media above the waterline, ie- on top of your tank and using gravity drain. therefore your media isn't submerged in oxygen rich water, it is suspended in moist air (oxygen rich).
what is in your opinion more efective for beneficial bacteria growth and cycling- submerged in water, or suspended in moist air with rain?
appreciate your thoughts

I feel that biowheels are unnecessary, and I shudder at the thoughts of tossing filter media in the belief that the biowheel houses "enough" of the biobugs to prevent a mini-cycle. If you stuff your filters correctly, you should NEVER have issues with ammonia and nitrite. In fact, biowheel/bioballs/cannister filters in general are frowned upon in SW setups, due to them being Nitrate Factories. Live Rock and watermovement is enough for most SW setups. In CO2-injected high-light planted FW tanks, biowheels cause far too much surface agitation, gassing out the CO2. For NON CO2-injected tanks, surface movement is actually a good thing, as ambient atmospheric CO2 is generally higher than in-tank CO2, thus the agitation will ADD some (not much) CO2 to the water.

To correlate to FW, Live Plants, Water Movement, and Mechanical filtration (sponges, biomax, bioballs) is sufficient amounts are generally more than enough to handle even heavy fishloads. Trickle/biowheel-type filters engender a false sense of security, IMO, as the media baskets are usually of insufficient size to handle the bio-waste if the trickle/biowheel aspect of the filtration should fail. . Of course, this is assuming that we RINSE our media, rather than tossing it, as manufacturers want us to do, in order to increase sales of media.

Sorry to ramble, it's late here and trying to get some info out there as food for thought ;)

[Proteus]

and to follow that up...

thank god for AquaClear H.O.B. filters...

:wink:

[kalebjarrod]

i thought the topic would be easy!

i'm baffeled................................. :?