Filter Media

[ThePiggy]

I'm not sure if this is in the correct section of the forum, but I don't know where else it would go.

A while back, my sister gave me her 10 gallon fish tank with a Jewel cichlid and a Jack Dempsey in it. They had little white worms. I'm not sure what exact type of worm they were; they would wriggle through the water when the bottom was disturbed. I moved the Jewel into its own 10 gallon and treated it for the worms and they are gone. The Jack Dempsey's tank seems to keep the worms no matter how many times I treat it. Here is the part that has to do with the filter:

I've heard that you shouldn't change your filter media, but just rinse it and change the carbon so you don't lose the bacteria. But I believe that the filter media is housing the worms. I have a whisper i 20 in each of the tanks. I remove the media when I treat the water so the carbon doesn't take the medicine out of the water. I put the media in a bag of tank water so the bacteria doesn't die. If I throw away the old media, I will have to cycle the tank again, right? So what should I do?

 

[ThePiggy]

Can anyone help me, please? I don't know what to do.

 

[squeakytoy]

well, it sounds like you have two tanks working at the moment. Thats a good thing. I think that what I would do would be to tear the one tank all the way down to get rid of all the worms. Then, get the tank back together but use the filter media from the good tank in the new tank. Use new media in the current good tank. This should give you a balance of bacteria in both tanks, and should help to speed the cycle. It would either be that or house the two together and do all the above but let the rebuild go through a fishless cycle before restocking.

But I am an idiot, quite often...

by the way, you were right about the filter media. Never wash in tap water, or you will kill your good bacteria.

 

[Scotty001]

I'm not sure if this is in the correct section of the forum, but I don't know where else it would go.

A while back, my sister gave me her 10 gallon fish tank with a Jewel cichlid and a Jack Dempsey in it. They had little white worms. I'm not sure what exact type of worm they were; they would wriggle through the water when the bottom was disturbed. I moved the Jewel into its own 10 gallon and treated it for the worms and they are gone. The Jack Dempsey's tank seems to keep the worms no matter how many times I treat it. Here is the part that has to do with the filter:

I've heard that you shouldn't change your filter media, but just rinse it and change the carbon so you don't lose the bacteria. But I believe that the filter media is housing the worms. I have a whisper i 20 in each of the tanks. I remove the media when I treat the water so the carbon doesn't take the medicine out of the water. I put the media in a bag of tank water so the bacteria doesn't die. If I throw away the old media, I will have to cycle the tank again, right? So what should I do?

what types of filter do you have ?? is it possible to put extra media in the filter of the good tank for the time being to cultivate bacteria then after a few weeks when the bacteria has grown do a FULL strip down of the other infected filter & tank get rid of all that media etc etc give the hardaware a good thorough clean tank included, boil any hard decor and replace anything else so you have a fresh set up, then take out your new cultivated media into the cleaned filter, top the tank up and your away,

Another option is if the 2 fish were together and get on well you could FOR A TEMP MEASURE put them both back in the healthy tank (Ensuring now bugs go with the JD) strip the infected filter down scrub out, all new media and put that filter in the tank wit the 2 fish to run in tandem, after 2 weeks when the bacteria has cultivated on the new media and having scrubbed out and fuly cleaned the tank reset it back up take one filter to the cleaned tank fill with water and put JD back in.

I wouldnt as suggested take all the media from the good tank and put in fresh new media as you will then start too to a full fish in cycle !!!!! NOT GOOD.
you can use some of the media from the good filter (NO MORE THAN 1/3) to give the cleaned filter and new media a kick start an not have a bad affect on the good running filter but remember to replace what you took out of the good one.

I personally put extra media in all my filters just in case i have a prob with one i have enough extra media to resart a tank if needed.