Mirky Water?

[juelz]

hey all

my tank is clean but the water is kind of mirky is this normal

if not what should i do to clear it up

thanks in advance

 

[Alex_]

What do you mean clean?

How long has it been up?

Did you just add gravel/sand?

 

[Durbkat]

How long has it been running and did you cycle the tank? Most likley this is because of a bacteria bloom caused by so many fish that are to big for the tank. What are your water stats?

 

[juelz]

i dont kno my water stats cuz i dont have a water testing kit

so should i add sum water conditioner and bio support?

and alex my tank has been up for about 4 months and the only thing i did recently was added a new filter cartridge

 

[Durbkat]

Did you mean you took the old one out and placed a new one in? Well thats why you have mirky water because you just took out about 97% of your bacteria and most likley your experiencing a mini cycle.

 

[juelz]

im pretty sure i rinsed it but i have a very bad memory so maybe i forgot to

if that is the case how long do u think before the water goes clear

 

[juelz]

alrighty then

thanks for the help

 

[Durbkat]

Did you mean you took the old one out and placed a new one in? Well thats why you have mirky water because you just took out about 97% of your bacteria and most likley your experiencing a mini cycle.

This is actually what happened the dust wouldn't have caused this your experiencing a mini cycle from throwing away about 97% of your bacteria.

 

[juelz]

ok but for future reference how r u supposed to change the filter cartridge so that my tank doesnt go threw a mini cycle

 

[DoyouWantsum]

If you want to replace the filter in future.

Add the new filter to the tank with the old still in there, and leave both filters in there for atleast 4 weeks before taking the old filter out.

this will give the new filter time to build ub the benifishal bacteria.

 

[love cichlids]

i change filter cartridges at least every 2 months or so, i rinse them out a couple of times in between when i see they are getting dirty. I never have a mini cycle. I just make sure that it is not at the same time as a water change and gravel vac, that is too much for a tank to handle. How else do you think people change them, they take them out rinse the new ones and put them in. No expert way to do this. I have done this from day one and not one problem. I just waited until the tank was cycled if I couldn't clone it. You must have just forgot to rinse or your water stats were off in the first place. Take a water sample to the petstore and make sure you tell them to give you numbers for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. They always say that it is fine and you don't know the numbers.
Just thought, how often are you changing them, they don't have to be changed as often as you think. Like i said I change mine every couple of months, they last longer than petstores say they do.

 

[Durbkat]

People don't replace the filter media they just rinse it off in a bucket of tank water.

 

[juelz]

well its been 2 months since my 29 gallon has been running so i decided to change it

nd i got a question my penguin biowheel filter has 2 filter cartridge spots so when i want to change the cartridge should i justput the new cartridge in the 2nd slot and after like a week take out the old one?

 

[love cichlids]

there is a cartridge that you buy for your filter with carbon in it, that is what i am talking about, you can't keep that forever.

 

[love cichlids]

Why don't I have any problems, I change both of them at the same time and don't keep an old one in? And I have the same type of filter. I need both in since it is a goldfish tank and they are messy fish.