5-6 Weeks After Fish Have Been Added Now What.

[mr2essions]

Hi all not been here for a while, so hope alls well in the relm of fish'ys. ive cycled my tank and had my fish in the 30l biorb for abount 6 weeks now. i do a 30% water change each week and that seems to be keeping it going clean. should i buy a vac? and how often should i use it? i was told on thsi forum to change the filter after 8 weeks of adding fish then every month after? is this correct and wont changing the filter / washing it just kill all that good bacteria i spent all this time growing? i was told some time back that changign teh filter is fine because teh bacteria will be in teh gravel.. however if im vacing that and changing the filter wont that put me back to square one? any help would be great

Thanks yall.

Scott.

 

[GRJ]

I wouldnt have thought yu would need to change your filter media at all unless its falling to bits! Manufacturers just say that to get you to buy more and doing that would certainly be a big set back for your beneficial bacteria. You just just squeeze the filter sponge ect out in old tank water (Obviously when doing a water change)and then just putting it back. However, i have no experience with Biorbs and their filters so, some one who does have experience in that field may post back. I would have thought that all filters are the sam in principle though. There will be minimal bacteria in your gravel, but its the bacteria in your filter thats most important. If you ant to gravel vac, just do half the gravel when doing a water change and then the other half on the next water change, in rotation, that way, you wont get rid of all the good bacteria that is in the gravel. HTH. GRJ

 

[buttercupbabe078]

I've just got a biorb so i'm pretty new to this. What I understand is that the filter just takes out all the nasties and the cermaic media you should have builds up the bacteria.So therefore you do need to charge the filter every 1-2 months all deping on the type of fish you have got, but the bacteria will still say in the orb with the ceramic media.

 

[Fish2u]

I have found from experience that very substantial amount of bacteria actually live on substrate. Whenever I vacuum more than 20% of gravel and disturb the bacteria colony, ammonia and nitrite shows up on test. Ammonia and Nitrite disappear after couple of days as the bacteria colony reestablishes.
I have heard theories claiming that unless there is an under gravel filter, substrates do not hold significant bacteria. My experience is, however, very different (My tank doesn’t have under gravel filter).