Quick Question

[scappaflow]

Have a 65L tank, and unfortunately my filter stopped working.

Sadly the town I live in doesn't have too much in the way of decent pet shops. Managed to get a replacement but it's a Carbon one, where I was using foam before.

Had planned to use some of the foam in the new filter to keep the bacteria etc going but obviously can't do this. I have left the old filter in the tank, next to the new one so hopefully this gets the new filter up and running quite quickly.

My tank is very modestly stocked at the moment - so hopefully this should be ok?

Also - what's folks thoughts on the carbon filter? Should I get a new foam one and keep this for emergencies only... or will it do the trick?

Thanks

 

[OldMan47]

The material that a filter is made of has little effect on how much bacteria can build up on it. The main thing it needs is a very high surface area. I assume the carbon is not one big block but is somehow a porous material that water can flow through. If it is full of open pores with good water flow the bacteria will become established. The bacteria in your foam won't last long without some flow through the filter so you should do what you can to promote flow through or across the foam filter media. By keeping it alive, you have a better chance of avoiding a new cycle in your tank. You do want to closely monitor your parameters and make sure that if you have a mini-cycle you are ready for it.
I just re-read the post. If the foam was in a plastic frame of some sort and the carbon is in a similar setup, you could cut the foam to fill the space in the filter and replace the carbon with the foam. Just a guess from how you said what you did.

 

[waterdrop]

I agree with oldman47. The benefit of the mature media (mature meaning the 2 good species of bacteria are growing strongly to the surfaces) in your old filter, while not entirely without effect, is mostly being wasted sitting in a non-operational box. If you can cut up that mature media and somehow get it mixed into your emergency filter it will greatly speed the maturation of the new media.

Carbon is primarily used as a chemical media and for that specialized purpose is only effective for about 3 days and then is ready to be tossed. oldman47 is correct however that the nitrifying bacteria know no difference and will populate the surfaces of carbon just as anything else. I think there are a couple of reasons carbon is not a popular choice though as a biomedia (biomedia meaning main surfaces for bacteria.) It is rather delicate in most cases and begins to crumble are be reduced to smaller and smaller particles over time. In particular, the smaller particles then get washed away when the material is rinsed out at a filter cleaning. This means larger amounts of valuable bacteria may be lost in a filter cleaning of carbon as opposed to an ideal biomedia such as ceramic rings, ceramic pebbles or sponge. Ceramics can be swished through tank water, releasing nearly all their debris without losing hardly any bacteria. Sponges can be gently squeezed in tank water and retain nearly all their bacteria.

So while I think it is good that you quickly found a replacement filter to begin cycling, I think it might be best to view it as a stopgap measure and begin considering how you can transition to a filter with the normal pairing of mechanical and bio filtration and then leave the special chemical carbon media on the shelf for the special situations it is ideal for.

oldman47 has also importantly pointed out that it will be particularly important to be performing appropriate water testing during this period. A liquid-reagent based master test kit (hopefully you have) will be important for performing the twice-daily or so ammonia, nitrite and pH tests. Unfortunately test strips are not accurate or reliable enough.

~~waterdrop~~