Hey, all....

Some folks here know about my problems with my 20-gallon and 30-gallon tanks (they're cycled, then they start cycling again, etc., etc.). Well, in the last 3 weeks, I've tried a different approach: smaller, less frequent water changes.

I was changing 25-35% of the water in each tank every other day. Unfortunately, this always meant unplugging my filters (two Aquaclear 200s on the 20, and two Aquaclear 300s on the 30). And sometimes the impellers would get stuck and I'd end up having to clean the impellers and rinse the filters. I think that maybe I was over-rinsing the filter sponges. I was rinsing them in fish-tank water, but I think maybe I was rinsing them too well, and killing the good bugs. :angry:

So for the last 3 weeks, I've been doing twice weekly water changes of 20% in the 20 and 15% in the 30. This way, I've changed the water to keep the nitrites and ammonia down without messing with the filters. All is well now, and my parameters are consistent--0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.

So now I'm going to have to rinse the sponges--the waterflow is slowing down. Could someone walk me through how YOU rinse your sponges? Should I not squeeze them out and try to get all the yuck off the outer surfaces?

Thanks in advance,
Kristi

I take a brush and brush the outside to get rid of any outside gunk. I do this in a bucket of tank water. Then after most of the bigger pieces are gone, I give it a (very) light squeeze and swirl it around the bucket. Then I throw it back in. I killed the cycle once when I squeezed the sponge pretty hard and then rinsed it with tank water over the sink.

wish I had seen this post before I squeezed mine out today..

It is probably a good idea to get additional filteration system.. since you have a bio wheel, you might consider another external.. with extra filter, you have no worries about cycle crash when you cleaning out one of them.. and you dun clean both of them on the same day too.. having extra filter also provides better filtering capability that keeps ur tank cleaner too.. as such, no worries, jus clean out the filter sponge as clean as u wish, but not under running tap water.

The Aquaclears aren't bio-wheels.

I have Aquaclears as well, and I do the squeezing in a bucket of tank water. I can squeeze mine good, never had a problem. Most definetely follow Fi5hkiller's advice to not do both filters on the same day. That way, if you should do a little harm to the bugs on one filter, the other one is still fully functioning, since you left that one alone. Do the other one than a week later instead....

thanks ranchugirl..

usually it is quite useful to have at least 2 filtration system.. for buffering purposes.. 1) buffering of bacteria as per discusses 2) buffering for filter power lest one fail or losing power due to choke..

cheers