# Filter Advice



## thbstwthn1 (Jun 17, 2013)

Hey guys,

Just finished cycling a 60 gal tank for 3, 3" red bellies. I cycled the tank with goldfish and tetras etc. Ammonia went down to 0, nitrites.0 and nitrates 15.

I put the 3 rb's in 3 weeks ago and in a matter of a week ammonia went up to 1, now the filters i have are AC110 hob, and a fluval 306 canister filter (70 gal).

Performed the usual 25% weekly water change, but ammo is always at 1 when its time again for another change.

Im assuming i need more/better filtration as i dont want to run into problems.....

*what do you guys recommend to add to the filtration i currently have ?

* Also, both filters are loaded with biomedia, should i "clean" the filters when the biomedia go bad...or every 3 months as per instructions?

* Aside from filtration...anything else you guys recommend to add, to better the quality of the environment for the 3 rb's? ...besides filtration/i use stress coat during weekly water changes/ use vitachem in food, i have a mix of river rocks and gravel, with enough plants (fake)....anything else?

Thanks in advance !


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## Da' Manster! (Sep 1, 2009)

First of all, you have ample filtration...secondly, is there any uneaten food anywhere in the tank?!...this would also cause an ammonia spike...Do you have at least one sponge in the AC-110?!...this where aerobic bacteria and/or BB (beneficial bacteria) colonize...and also in gravel...which is one of the main reasons why I always use gravel in my tanks instead of sand or bareback (empty tank)


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Da said:


> First of all, you have ample filtration...secondly, is there any uneaten food anywhere in the tank?!...this would also cause an ammonia spike...Do you have at least one sponge in the AC-110?!...this where aerobic bacteria and/or BB (beneficial bacteria) colonize...and also in gravel...which is one of the main reasons why I always use gravel in my tanks instead of sand or bareback (empty tank)


Agree on the food, or waste settled somewhere? If not, a mini cycle from increasing fish size and load.

Gravel and sand are great partial hosts to bacteria, but due to the lack of actual flow they dont do as much "work" as linear flow situations like HOB or canisters. Sand can actually be a better "filter" when it is deep enough to create anaerobic zones (DSB or deep sand bed, used frequently in saltwater) but can also be extremely toxic if you start gravel vacuuming and disrupt lower zones. In freshwater, as seen with older under gravel filters, when the gravel gets clogged up you start running into serious parameter problems.

When it comes to "washing" the media, I typically just shake mine in a bucket of tank water during a change... as long as you dont use tap water, or overly hot / cold you arent going to hurt anything. The typical media I run: filter pads in the HOB filter, with a bunch of ceramic rings or llava rock behind (the pads hold it in fairly well, kinda a pain to clean the pads but worth the extra media) and then my canisters were almost all ceramic rings, llava rock, a sponge and filter buffing floss on the top (output)

How long have the fish been in the tank? With what you listed, assuming there is no waste or food setting in the tank, I would say its a small mini cycle from increasing your bioload. The goldfish and tetras dont produce as much waste as the RBPs, so give it a week or two to catch up. Keep up on your water changes, and let the filters run.

Keep us updated!


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