ignorant newbie

[Michaela521]

This is the pump I have the Magnum 350 Canister Filter

It basically has carbon in it with a cartridge filter over this and then a foam sleeve. It is capably of handling a 55 gallon freshwater tank and I have a 36 gallon tank. I thought that I read somewhere that said that carbon wasn't good for bio-spira but perhaps I just read it wrong. I tried to find some info on how I should use the bio-spira in a tank that is, well, messed up like mine but couldn't.

This is adequate thought isn't it. I don't really have a bio-wheel or anything like that. I just have that magnum 350 canister filter, aerators, a heater, no live plants, and your common looking rocks on the bottom of the tank. Thank you for the help.

 

[FroggyFox]

the magnum is definitely plenty for the tank, its a good filter. Unfortunately I dont know them very well. Usually in Canisters it is your choice what media you put in there (carbon or little rocks that are porus etc) so if you can take that carbon out and replace with something else...that'd be best. Its not that carbon is bad for biospira, its just that its not really necessary in the tank.

The only thing I've heard with using biospira on a tank that already has ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings is that its not going to be instant magic like it appears to have with new tanks. It should HELP, but its not going to fix everything magically as soon as you put it in. This is why you do a big water change first, to give it as much of a head start as possible when those levels start going back up.