thanks for all this help guys........
okay, the way it was set up before was, water in.....goes through filter floss, then coarse sponge, then gap, then fine sponge, then up past heater and through pump.....
the filter floss has been in since day 1, it is now day 70 and it looked pretty brown and was due to be changed. Was scared to do it before in case my cycle slowed, now I don't care, nothing to lose as its stuck . So I added new floss, but between the sponges, filling the gap. The sponges are so clean, makes me wonder if any bacteria are even in there or if it was all in the floss at the start, Im sure there are some though lol....
okay, so now it goes like this......water in, goes through coarse sponge, then floss (no gap now), then fine sponge then up past heater and through pump.......
each piece of sponge is around 4" x 4" x 2"...........here is a link to the filter system on juwel, mine is the bottom picture, where the sponges are on their sides, you can see the gap between the sponges in that too, but mine is now filled with floss and no floss at top........
[URL="http/www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/filter_full.htm"]http/www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/filter_full.htm[/URL] btw.....I have never used the nitrate removing sponge, I swapped it for the normal juwel coarse sponge instead
I am expecting a spike in stats now, but I had nothing to lose, so am prepared to go back a bit in order to establish a better filter bacteria colony.
still considering moving fish across with their old sponge in new filter, but will wait to see what happens first,