Spikester wrote:MarineLand brand Rite-size something, with carbon.
I dont know about the starting a new cycle... i kept the little bits of old gravel from before in there,
What i did was drain the tank and made sure all the much was off of the bottom of the tank, did what i did with the filter, removed the ornaments and added gravel and some different ornaments, and i filled it back up
When i had made the descision to go barebottom before, i had some gravel left in there because you can get it all up, so i left that in there.
And yeah my dad had always done that. he started fishkeeping at 15 in england and i started fishkeeping with bettas when i was 6 or seven in that hex. tank i have now. then after my first, Mr. Rainbow had died, about two years after getting him, i had gotten two small comets that died overnight. My ded was still in england and my mom didn't know you had to rinse the gravel and cycle tank and all that jazz.
Anyway, when my dad came over he always did that with the tanks and when he did stuff with my tanks, normally my fish lived a long time. so i just do as he says most of the time, and when im unsure i ask on here, or when my dad doesn't have an answer
(and i dont mean bio dad obviously... stepdad)
And by a long time i mean when my parents were planning to move they purposely tried to starve the mollies out but they never did die so my grandma flushed them.
Cruel, right? they didn't wanna transport them 3 hours away though, so thats what happened sadly enough
i was maybe eight and had a 10 gallon so i got no say whatsoever and my second beta Mr. Blue went with the mollies as well.
Oh my gosh, yes that was cruel and unthinkable not to mention likely illegal in some places. I know where I live, if you get caught "flushing" or are reported doing so and they prove it, you can be fined for cruelty. The fish you mentioned could have survived the trip with only a few inches of water or in a jar full of their own water rather than flushing them.
Filter floss such as is used in box filters is ok, but I doubt it would work in a fluval, and it is typically removed after it gets brown and new put in, hence more purchases.
However, like others have mentioned, you can make your own pillow case style filter out of white polyester "filter" material which you can find at a fabric store or craft store or even Walmart and other department store craft sections. It's called fiberfill sometimes and typically it's fabric application is for the padding you find inside quilts so it's typically housed in the quilter's section in craft stores. It comes in bolts like fabric, or it can also be purchased by the bag in pre-cut sizes.
I have used this exclusively for years now in my filtered tanks (Versus my bare bottom which use sponges.) instead of paying $5 to $6 for 1 filter pad I paid maybe $3.98 for a whole yard of the material and get like 20 filters from it by measuring the original filter pad, cutting a piece large enough to fold in half making it the size of the filter pad, and sewing it into a little "pillowcase" and inserting some granular activated carbon (Not the big gravel sized chunks, it's more about the size of large seeds). I then place the pillowcase over the frame provided with my one original filter cartridge. I've saved probably hundreds of dollars over the years. The filter pad can be re-used by just rinsing it out thoroughly with tank water. To do this, siphon or scoop out some water into a bowl or basin and use a moderate back and forth motion with your hands on either side of the filter pad to loosen debris (Which does eventually stretch the pad out beyond use.) Next, drain out the dirty water and rinses the pad again in clean tank water and re-distributing the carbon evenly. Occasionally replace the carbon or add to it.
I'm big on saving bucks and that's been my biggest savings over buying new filter pads. The activated carbon is important because it filters out colors and odors from the water and assists with the biological cycle as well.
On quick tank cycles. As I mentioned before, Fritzyme or any other product that has the starter enzymes for the tank "cycle" will work to quickly allow you to put in your angelfish. Otherwise, yes, it can take a week or 2 to cycle. That doesn't necessarily mean you can't have a fish in it, but I wouldn't put the angelfish in it unless it's good water. You also want to acclimate the angelfish to the new water by putting him in a bag or other container with his existing water and gradually adding a little bit more and more of the new water in with him until both the temperature and parameters have leveled out. Then net him out of the bag or container and put him in the new tank and dispose of the merged water.
Good job on the recycled media/gravel. It's not required to remove it once the new gravel and thank have established themselves, but most people do remove the old starter material and put it back into their other tanks or start another new tank with it.
On the sponges and rinsing notes, mine are box sponges designed for the corner with slate bottoms. I've never had to replace one but I do take them out and squeeze them out to remove debris about once a month. I use some of the water I have drained from the tank. I do NOT use tap water. I then dump out the dirty water and rinse them out again using some additional water from the tank.
On the fish and depression notes. While I don't know of any research done on the subject, I do know that fish will mope around and fish do suffer ptsd (Post traumatic stress disorder) type symptoms from the loss of a close tank mate or partner, especially if there are few fish in the tank. I recently lost my gorgeous male black angelfish and his mate was so lost without him, she hid around the plants, hung at the bottom and only now after a couple weeks has come out and started being friendly again. She was eating, but much less than normal. She was perfectly healthy until he passed. My 2 female bettas Fiesta and Teala are housed side by side normally. I recently did an attempt at pairing Teala with my copper male Irri. Teala, has gotten beaten up pretty well by Irri and now sits a little sideways and is less active but healing Now Fiesta sits by the same side of her tank as Teala and goes up and down, up and down by Teala as if talking to Teala about how she feels or trying to get her to move around. Fiesta was very lackluster while Teala was in with Irri and kind of just sat in her tank. She only moved around a little when I fed her. Once Teala was back, she returned to her normal swimming around and friendliness except she does that up and down up and down in front of Teala now. it's just an observation, but who is to say they don't know or don't have emotions just because their brain is differently made. Perhaps their brain's emotions are housed quite differently than humans.
Either way, it's something to observe such behavior.
I hope all goes well with your tank. You could try in a few days if you used the Fritzyme or w hatever is recommended on the label.
Equid
