New Filters

[Inker]

I am about 3 weeks into my cycling on my 29 gallon tank, and I am wondering (when I am gonna add a new cartridge) about where in the tank I do place my new cartridge to get some growth on it. I am curious if just placing in the tank it will be disturbed by the fish in there.

The current filter cartridge is 3 weeks old as of sunday that just passed, when should I get a new one and can I place the new cartridge in a bucket I been using to rinse the filter cartridge I do have with tank water for a week before installing??

Here is something else I am not sure of, I was cycling with 5 adult fish in the tank and my sister decided on the weekend to introduce 4 more adult guppies. The ammonia levels still read 0 mg after 2 weeks (first week was 0.3 mg plus). In the beginning the Nitrite was very low, and now ranges from 0.3 - 0.8 mg(nitrite). when it has reached 0.8 I have done 50% water changes right after the test and test again in 24 hours.

I added last week a few plants (whisteria) and seem to be thriving well, The preganant guppy loves to lay on the gravel after the lights go out under the plants.

Does everything I have mentioned to be doing sound right?

TIA

Inker

 

[Lithril]

What make/type of filter have you got? my current one I clean the sponges out once a month in tank water that I've taken out but apart from that rarely change the sponge at all, I've heard some people on here say yearly and other say 6 monthly but unless it gets totally clogged and you can't clean it or it starts to fall apart I would leave it.

With regards to water changes you're probably better off doing smaller, more frequent changes than 50 %. If the Nitrite in my 10 gal gets anywhere near 0.5ppm I usually do a 15-20% change once a week in this tank, the tank is cycled but with the small volume the levels can increase quite quickly so sometimes I have to do it twice a week, may transfer some fish out of this tank soon so that will help. In the process of setting up a 30gal at the moment so not sure how often that will need to be done.

You definately don't want to be getting any more fishes for a while now, it can take up to 2 months for a new tank to start cycling fully, you'll be able to speed this up by transfering some plants, gravel, sponge etc from your existing tank.

Just by placing a cartridge in a bucket of existing tank water won't help as the bacteria need oxygen and unless you've got oxygenated water flowing through the bacteria will die off.

Just to check and apologies if I'm pointing out the obvious, you are dechlorinating the water before you add it to the tank during a water change aren't you???

Think that covers most things, if you start getting too many problems with the tank its worth having a read of Alien Annas pinned article on New Tank Syndrom

Hope that helps and good luck