Zeolite ? - again !

I need to treat my tank for slime disease/velvet but the bottle says to remove the zeolite for 7 days whilst treatment takes effect, but if I do wont the healthy bacteria die whilst its out of the water ? Does anyone know why the zeolite needs to be taken out (ie what effect will the treatment have on the zeolite if I leave it in, will it neutralize the medication ? ). Alternatively is there any way I can take it out and keep the bacteria alive ? If I put it in to standing water presumably it will stagnate and they will be killed off anyway. I have foam as the main filter medium so there will be live bacteria in there, will this be sufficient to re-stock the zeolite after a week ?

Please help soon as I need to treat today to catch it early and avoid the more serious symptoms of the disease

Actually, i think the filter floss should be able to take the strain. The zeolite isnt absolutely necessary. If you're worrid, maybe you can do a little more water changes.

Good luck
P.T.

Maybe I'm completely mistaken here, but I don't believe zeolite is a filter media intended for bacterial growth, is it? In this case, removing the zeolite probably wouldn't have a huge effect on your bacteria (the bacteria are mostly in your mechanical filter anyway, as Phantom Thief mentioned). I've always been under the impression zeolite is an "adsorption" type of media for removing phosphate and heavy metals from the water. Things like lava rock and such are more meant for bacterial colonization. You're probably just supposed to remove the zeolite so it doesn't "suck" the medication from teh water. Same with carbon filter, I would assume.

Maybe I've got it backwards. I've not used zeolite personally.

pendragon!

well anything that is classed as chemical media is not going to have mich bacteria in it. zitolite is like carbon sometimes its a wast of money and a good biological mesia like bio stars will be much better for ur tank and 'cos ur useing zitolite i don't think ur bactera count is that high as they need the wast to survive and u've use zitolit to do it's job and so u might wanna condiser not useing zitolite.

I use active carbon and bio stars from rena, along with filter sponge and floss that keeps my tank healthy and as well as that my water changes are reduced slightly cos my filter is made for a 150 - 300 liter tank and i've only got a 57 liter tank.

My advice is do what i says on the instruction and invest in a bigger size filter than u need, just incase u wanna add more fish

Just to confirm, the attatched pic is zeolite isnt it ? It was my understanding that this substance (whatever it is) was pourous but with microscopic holes, much smaller than in any synthetic foam medium, thus supplying a much larger surface area for the bacteria to breed on. Is this correct or have I been misinformed ?

pic didnt seem to come out on my last post

Short answer: I don't know. If that's zeolite, I've never seen it a form like that. Zeolite is generally supplemental media for your filter, like this.

It looks like what you have in your photo is something that is meant to be left in the tank indefinitely (doble-duty as a decoration)? I wouldn't think zeolite (or any functional adsorption material) would be sold like that, since it needs to be removed and changed periodically - else it becomes saturated and eventually leaches the contaminants back into the tank water.

Based on my very limited knowledge, if I had to hazard a guess I would think what you have there is likely just a very porous decorative stone of some kind (my LFS sells several porous rocks as decor), but I'm not certain. Was the shop where you bought it selling it as decor or as a filter material?

pendragon!