My Minimalist Tank Setup

[ksuyen]

Hi Kyla, thank you! Here is the latest photo from last night:

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Today, I decided to clean the filter. I am using Eheim 350 3e. There is somethin little and white fell out, which I couldn't find where it came from. Being the first time cleaning the gut of the filter, I had been extra cautious. I took out the basket layer by layer, rinsing them using the tank water, rinsed the dirty dark brown sponge on the top (I was actually contemplating to replace that but changed my mind at the end) and put them all back in. When I turned on my filter, there is water gurgle sound inside which I haven't noticed before, and the water that came out from the outlet is very dirty. I am not sure what's going on , did I put the sponge upside down or something else not right. Luckily the dirty water was just in the beginning, the water cleared out although the gurgle noise persists.

[ksuyen]

Okay, I found out that the gurgle noise came if there was air trapped inside. The solution was to open and close the valve lid and then let the system auto exhaust any air trapped inside. After I did that the noise disappear, yay!

[Phillydubs]

Pretty common to get a burst of crap, especially from a canister... You are mixing that all up and some just gets trapped and will fire out on the start up, nothing to worry about, just a drop in the bucket with your water volume... Don't change the sponge! Especially not this early, or ever if thats your only sponge. All your goof bacteria is in there, you toss that without a back-up and you are in for a re-cycle and trouble!

thank goodness you didn't!

[ksuyen]

Phew luckily I didn't throw away that sponge. It's dirty, smelly and begging to be replaced, but nope, gotta keep it because of all the bacteria living there lol.

Talking about Nitrate, I just discovered how fast it increased with the Discus - even with feeding only twice a day. See,
Day before Discus: NO3 - <3mg/l
Day after Discus (with feeding): NO3 - 10mg/l
After water change 60%: NO3 - <1mg/l
Day after water change (with feeding): NO3 - 10mg/l
Second Day after water change (with feeding): NO3 - <20mg/l
After water change 60%: NO3 - 3mg/l

Are these correct? How fast the Nitrate reading increase! No wonder some people do daily water changes 50-100%