Where Is My Nitrate

[Rhykiru]

what is a nitrate sponge and what does it look like o.0

i have the same problem as you djceri q but thats in my cycled tank. Both ammonia and nitrite are 0 but no nitrate...

 

[Jabba]

Once in use it is hard to tell I think, best to get new filter sponges so you know what you have, if you check your filter on the web it may tell you what it has as standard.

Many of the tanks that come with built in hood or internal filters have spopnges that do more than just filter such as carbon sponges too.

In any case none of the sponges work indefinately I believe but have little or no experience of how long they do work for.

I just have plain sponges in varying 'grades' of filtration, I don't use any chemical treatments or sponges including carbon, the only thing I use is Tetra Aquasafe for water changes.

I think a lot of the ammonia / nitrite / nitrate removers whilst supposedly making your like easier don't do the fish any favours and they actually make your life more complex and add unnecessary expense because once started on this path it is hard to stop, I also think they mask problems instead of making you real with them. I only ever use carbon if I need to soak up leftover meds after a problem.

 

[djceri_g]

The nitrate removal spounge is a green one in Jewel, I removed the one I think is nitrate removal, the green on the top but it could have been mistaken with others. I know the course filter is a blue one, and fine filter is also a green. I obviously know the black carbon spounge and as you, I only use that to remove meds. I have heard the carbon spounge is used all the time can cause hole in the head disease on Discus.

If I got new filter spounges, the cycling would have been a waste of time. Im convinced this tank is cycled and maybey the spounge in the juwel filter is consumoing the nitrate, i think i will take the juwel spounges from the internal filter thats in the tank I am cycling the External filter and see what happened, I dont think the External filter has a nitrate removal spounge.

 

[Jabba]

Actually no this is a misconception, the bulk of your bacteria are not in the sponges - they are in your gravel or in those bioballs or 'lumpy bits' ;-) in your filter - the Eheim wet and dry I use on the hospital / quarantine tanks don't have sponges at all.

I actually use the EhfiSubstrat from Eheim - the sintered glass stuff .... some use ceramic noodles. This is where most of your important bacteria live not the sponges, they just get rid of the solids .... thats why it is important to get a good bacteria substrate in your filter.

I think the Eheim EhfiSubstrat is just about the best there is because of the surface area it presents for bacteria to live.

 

[djceri_g]

what is a nitrate sponge and what does it look like o.0i have the same problem as you djceri q but thats in my cycled tank. Both ammonia and nitrite are 0 but no nitrate...

Well, i know in a Jewel tank, a nitrate removal spounge is the green one, when you buy your tank, the nitrate spounge and carbon spounge are individualy wrapped and have intormation inside the packaging on when to replace it and what its for etc. I have the same problem in my mature Jewel tank also like yourselfI will read the instructions ont he ehimen filter tonight to see whether there is a nitrate removal material in it, it is a ehimen classic 2213 i think i have

 

[Lhutch]

OMG SAME THING HAPPENING TO ME!, my tap has 5ppm of nitrates i put it in my fish tank and after i was done cycling(fishless),0 ammonia,0nitrite,0nitrates,and know im making sure everthing is cycled so i added ammonia and i had readings of 8ppm of ammonia and its gone way down in a day and a half now i have .50ppm so im donecycling until i hit 0ppm, but im very skeptical wether i will have any nitrates

 

[djceri_g]

OMG SAME THING HAPPENING TO ME!, my tap has 5ppm of nitrates i put it in my fish tank and after i was done cycling(fishless),0 ammonia,0nitrite,0nitrates,and know im making sure everthing is cycled so i added ammonia and i had readings of 8ppm of ammonia and its gone way down in a day and a half now i have .50ppm so im donecycling until i hit 0ppm, but im very skeptical wether i will have any nitrates

Whats your filter?

 

[Squidman]

I suggest using Mardel 5-1 test strips for testing. They test ammonia, nitrares, nitrites, the hardness and the ph the level. Its a great product.

 

[jayjay]

Actually no this is a misconception, the bulk of your bacteria are not in the sponges - they are in your gravel

Most of the bacteria will be in the sponges over the gravel, the sponges have a higher water flow over them which equates to the bacteria being able to get more oxygen and more food. There are some bacteria in the substrate but not the majority; the majority of the bacteria will be present in the filter.

 

[Jabba]

Whilst I agree the bacteria do live in the sponges in surface area terms the amount isn't large when compared to the bioballs or substrate within the filter, this was the advice given to me by both Hagen (Fluval) and Eheim. I didn't mean the substrate in the tank itself although this can also play a part in varying degrees depending how you configured things.

As I said my Eheim Wet/Drys have no sponges whatsoever and the chemistry is fine, water clarity is fine.

If you have an undergravel filter almost all your substrate in the tank becomes a bacterial filter and for some this is the only filtration they have. This is not a method I use but some recommend using a reverse flow through an undergravel filter i.e. pushing water through it after drawing it through an external / internal filter and up through the gravel instead of drawing all manner of stuff down to go bad when things go wrong, this turns every tiny piece of the gravel into a bacterial host.

I guess I'm just odd, I prefer to cultivate my bacteria on the substrate in the filter and not the sponges that I treat more as a mechanical filter than a biological one, that said I do wash the filter sponges out in a monthly cycle but I don't bother doing them in tank water ... in the sink they go when their turn comes around, top one. Touch wood I have never had any problems with water conditions except a recent mini cycle following some meds but then with 5 times the filtration than the recommendedations for the tanks needs plus UV I could be said to grossly overfilter, never to much I say.

Things are now back to normal, the water is crystal, odor free with all the stats in the right place .....

 

[djceri_g]

I suggest using Mardel 5-1 test strips for testing. They test ammonia, nitrares, nitrites, the hardness and the ph the level. Its a great product.

Im afraid I do not agree with you on the test strips, I prefer the liquit master test kits.

 

[scouse_andy]

The nitrate removal spounge is a green one in Jewel, I removed the one I think is nitrate removal, the green on the top but it could have been mistaken with others. I know the course filter is a blue one, and fine filter is also a green.

In my Juwel tank (Rio 240) the course and fine filters are both blue and the nitrate removal sponge is green. It may be the case that you actually have a nitrate removal sponge in there after all. My nitrates are next to nothing in my heavily planted tank but higher in the others, nitrates are stripped from the water by lots of fast growing plants.

 

[Lhutch]

i use a powerfilter 55gal penguin one,very good filter,but yeah i dunno whats with my tank i guess tis a good thing not having any readings,just all 0,0,0

 

[Jabba]

tis a good thing not having any readings,just all 0,0,0

True enough dead patients can't complain .....

 

[Lhutch]

fishless cycling,no fish in there that can be alive, i am however getting some nitrites now as we speak, on my final steps cycling 8)