my mother in law has an old tank, which is currently running with no filtershe wants to get a filter the same as ours (an internal 3 stage one with carbon and crystal max) - what i was wondering is my filter has two sponges, if i swapped one of mine for one of the new ones firstly would it affect my tank as my filter is quite happily cycling what we have would the loss of half the bacteria cause us problems? secondly i know it would kick start her filter but her fish are living in pretty high ammonia and have gotten used to it... would the absence of ammonia and addition of nitrite/nitrate kill them from the shock?
Donating one of the sponges might cause your filter to mini cycle as you'll be losing half your bacteria stock. you'll just need to monitor and take action if needed.
As for the effect of an ammonia free tank, I would have thought that even though the fish 'have gotten used to it', it'll have an impact on their lifespan. Why not start doing water changes in her tank to slowly bring down ammonia levels until the bacteria have caught up?
my mother in law has an old tank, which is currently running with no filter
Donating one of the sponges might cause your filter to mini cycle as you'll be losing half your bacteria stock. you'll just need to monitor and take action if needed.
As for the effect of an ammonia free tank, I would have thought that even though the fish 'have gotten used to it', it'll have an impact on their lifespan. Why not start doing water changes in her tank to slowly bring down ammonia levels until the bacteria have caught up?
humm, you loose far more bacteria, just cleaning your filter.
as a couple of truly knowledgeable member have said, 1/3 will have no detrimental effect on your system.
oh, hum, blind leading the blind! or trying to, anyway.
my mother in law has an old tank, which is currently running with no filter
Donating one of the sponges might cause your filter to mini cycle as you'll be losing half your bacteria stock. you'll just need to monitor and take action if needed.
As for the effect of an ammonia free tank, I would have thought that even though the fish 'have gotten used to it', it'll have an impact on their lifespan. Why not start doing water changes in her tank to slowly bring down ammonia levels until the bacteria have caught up?
humm, you loose far more bacteria, just cleaning your filter.
as a couple of truly knowledgeable member have said, 1/3 will have no detrimental effect on your system.
oh, hum, blind leading the blind! or trying to, anyway.
not entirely sure how to take that comment.... Anyway...
i cant donate a third, its unfortunately half or noting as the sponges in my filter (2 of them) have a hollow centre for the carbon to go in and a foam plug to stop it falling out... if i were to cut one of the sponges the carbon would then fall out.
