Very Dumb Question

[madjoker14]

Hi all, i have a cartridge type filter, well 2 of them, i have a 20 gallon tank and i have 2 filters on it, i have a 10g and also a whisper 20g filter, both of the media are ripped and shredded and now when i change my water within 4 days the water is green n foggy,my friend told me its the filter but i wanted to ask u guys first. should i change them?? and if i do should i change 1 at a time to prevent the bacteria from dieing all together

thanks for any input

 

[ox5477]

do you mean the filters are running without any media in them, or just that the appearance of the media is a little disheveled?

If your running without media... then your running without filtration basically....

If your media is just a little beat up then you can replace it by replacing one piece of media at a time. for example... if you have three sponges total from both filters... replace one sponge... let things go a week.... then replace one of the other old sponges... wait another week...and then after that replace the last sponge. Doing this allows the already mature sponges (mature meaning have bacteria growing and living in it) to help quickly seed the new and barren sponges.

The green is most likely an algal bloom. Is your tank in direct sunlight for any period during the day? Do you do wc's every week?

Ox

EDIT: Didnt even notice the foggy part... that is usually a bacterial bloom due to something changing in the tank. did you rinse the media at all? This may have killed most of the bacteria causing a mini-cycle.

 

[madjoker14]

yup, i wash the filter about once a month, not like completely washing it but i tap it in the water,and the tank isnt in direct light but i thought maybe it was due to the filters being shred and maybe u are right, about the algae bloom or bacteria bloom, i did do a water test this morning and all the readings where perfecting ph,7.2 am,0 nitrate,0,nitrite,10ppm so the water is good but that fog is ugly lol

 

[Miss Wiggle]

have you got the nitrate and nitrite readings muddled up there, if you've got 10ppm of nitrIte then you're in big trouble!!