Emperor Filter

[njnauticalnut]

My new 75 gal tank is cycling. I am using 2 Emperor 280 biowheels. I had the filter running with just the filter catridge and decided to add media to the second optional cartridge. I added activated carbon. After I added the media and turned the filters back on, some carbon went into the tank. Personally, I think that the Emperor design could be better as it could have a media bag like the whispers have, but it doesn't. Anyway, what is the best way to get the carbon out of the tank. I am not sure if siphoning will work. Any suggestion on how to remove the carbon would be appreciated. Also, any way to avoid this happening again?

Thanks!

 

[njnauticalnut]

I tried siphoning out the pieces of carbon and it worked. I believe I got just about all of it. If I see a piece I can just net it out. What a pain.

I also decided to remove the activated carbon after reading some past threads on filter medium. I am going to most likely put some sponge in there. That seems like it will be easier to upkeep and should work, correct?

What is filter floss? I am not familiar with that? I still find I have so much to learn.

On another note, I have been cycling my tank since Thursday night and have not had any nitrite spike yet. Is there a point where it definitely should spike?

Thanks,
M.E.

 

[Sky042]

I tried siphoning out the pieces of carbon and it worked. I believe I got just about all of it. If I see a piece I can just net it out. What a pain.

I also decided to remove the activated carbon after reading some past threads on filter medium. I am going to most likely put some sponge in there. That seems like it will be easier to upkeep and should work, correct?

What is filter floss? I am not familiar with that? I still find I have so much to learn.

On another note, I have been cycling my tank since Thursday night and have not had any nitrite spike yet. Is there a point where it definitely should spike?

Thanks,
M.E.

This may sound like a stupid question but lemme ask you. You say your looking for a nitrite spike. Are you doing a fishless cycle? DId you add any ammonia? If so what is your ammonia level? and finally what did you use as a source for bacteria?

 

[njnauticalnut]

Sky,

Thanks for your response. Yes I am doing a fishless cycle. I have added amonia and actually my amonia is about 6ppm. Have been adding a little less each day to bring it down to 5ppm. I have added nothing as a source of bacteria. Last week I posted a topic entitled "Fishless Cycling" or "Fishless Cycle" and asked about the bacteria and some folks stated that they added nothing as a bacteria source so I wanted to try it that way. It feels cleaner and newer. It seems like it takes about 3 weeks to cycle this way which I am fine with. Someone who did it this way said they had a nitrite spike on the second day. I was wondering if there is a typical amount of time to see a nitrite spike.

Thanks.

 

[Sky042]

Sky,

Thanks for your response. Yes I am doing a fishless cycle. I have added amonia and actually my amonia is about 6ppm. Have been adding a little less each day to bring it down to 5ppm. I have added nothing as a source of bacteria. Last week I posted a topic entitled "Fishless Cycling" or "Fishless Cycle" and asked about the bacteria and some folks stated that they added nothing as a bacteria source so I wanted to try it that way. It feels cleaner and newer. It seems like it takes about 3 weeks to cycle this way which I am fine with. Someone who did it this way said they had a nitrite spike on the second day. I was wondering if there is a typical amount of time to see a nitrite spike.

Thanks.

I don't think you could EVER have a nitrite spike on the second day without a bacteria culture.

And you say you feel it's cleaner without doing a bacteria culture. Well clean isn't what you want. you WANT and NEED the bacteria in order to process the ammonia and later on the fish waste. I guess it'll be a neat experiment to see if your tank will cycle on its own without a culture. Are you seeing any nitrite reading at all?

 

[njnauticalnut]

Sky,

One of the reasons I added no source of bacteria was because of the two posts below. I also read about the cycle from a report from the Aquaculture at the University of Massachusetts and it sounds like bacteria will form. I figured I would try it this way, I can always add a source if necessary.

When I mentioned it felt cleaner and newer, I didn't mean that I didn't want bacteria, I just wanted my own bacteria not someone else's. There just seems to be a difference between our own dirt and someone else's!

I have not had a nitrite reading yet.

M.E.

>heresmike wrote:
>
>You don't need to add bacteria, just ammonia. The bacteria will form on its own, >kinda like mold does on food that sits in the fridge too long.
>
>My first fishless cycle where I didn't add any form of bacteria took close to 3 >weeks. Others I've done since then I've added BioSpira and/or filter media from >another tank... those have taken about 10 days.
>
>pondfreak4365 wrote:
>
>I'm with heresmike on this one. We do the fishless cycle, adding only ammonia >with no plants, it takes right at 3 weeks to cycle. We had a nitrite reading on day >2.

 

[njnauticalnut]

I decided to add some bacteria starter as I was not seeing any nitrite spike after 6 days. This should speed things up a bit.

heresmike, how long did it take for your tank to have a nitrite spike when you cycled without adding bacteria?

M.E.

 

[Sky042]

YMMV is the phrase that comes to mind here. at least you're giving whatever bacteria has grown a nice kick in the pants