Where do the beneficial bacteria reside?
- Thread starter borracho
- Start date
What kind of HOB? Ideally there is a sponge that acts as mechanical filtration that you can rinse, then some sort of porous materail such as ceramics. In a well esablished tank a lot of bacterial will also live in the gravel. So if you have a catrige type that has to change out the contents of the whole HOB every once in a while don't distube the gravel much durring that period. Also if you do this an ammoina and nitrite check a couple times afterwards would be good to make sure you aren't throwing things off.
Hm, so I should be careful and do some tests for harmful compound if I change the filter (HOB) for whatever reason, huh? The filter I use right now is a hang-on-back filter that takes in a filter cartridge. It did come with another removable piece inside that was not part of the filter cartridge package. It's hard to explain, but it looks like a loose (or not dense) scrub that goes in front of the cartridge..
The piece your talking about houses some bacteria too. Most filters(HOB) have something called a bio-wheel or something of that nature where a lot of the bacteria collect. If your changing the filter cartridge in a HOB you're not really removing that much bacteria, or not enough to put you into a mini-cycle IMO. The bacteria live everywhere in your tank so you plants, ornaments, gravel, random pieces in your filter (like your removable one). Now if you change your HOB unit out with another one then you should be careful.
I think my cheap 10g filter has no bio-wheel, but it's good to know that I should be careful when replacing the entire filter unit for whatever reason (broken, for example).
At first, I thought keeping fish was the easiest thing, but it's actually quiet challenging in terms of commitment and, in turn, fun! I hope at the end of the cycle, my new fish will be happy in there! I already wish I had more space or a house so I can have at least a 30g aquarium as opposed to the 10g one I have on the kitchen counter in my little apartment, haha.
At first, I thought keeping fish was the easiest thing, but it's actually quiet challenging in terms of commitment and, in turn, fun! I hope at the end of the cycle, my new fish will be happy in there! I already wish I had more space or a house so I can have at least a 30g aquarium as opposed to the 10g one I have on the kitchen counter in my little apartment, haha.
I doubt I'll be helpful to person who post this originally but maybe it'll help anyone who reads this from this point forward. If using HOB filters well there's no such thing as too much filtration so get two and double the filteration needs of the aquarium. When you do change the filter media you can alternate the filter system each change out leaving one of them bacteria loaded.