Tank has been static, is there anything extra to do???

[niqolas619]

Alright, I finally got my Emperor filters working properly, though they are still a little loud. I might replace the impeller assembly eventually if it begins to annoy me.

My next question is about if I should do anything extra to my tank to start with than an "ordinary" tank. By this, I mean that my tank and all of the equipment for it and in it sat around in my parents garage for the entire summer. As I was unpacking some of the stuff, I noticed there was a little mold on some of the rocks and such. I rinsed and scrubbed this stuff off, but will this be good enough? Can I just put this stuff in my tank and start the cycling process as if this is a completely brand new tank?

I had one other question, too. I've looked through the ebook about the initial setup of the tank and didn't really see this issue addressed. I have two Emperor 400 filters in a 55 gal tank. Should I let the tank cycle and run through the Emperors without the filter medium in? I would think this might help the process along, but that may be me just being dumb again. Thanks in advance.

[jeffs99dime]

Alright, I finally got my Emperor filters working properly, though they are still a little loud. I might replace the impeller assembly eventually if it begins to annoy me.

My next question is about if I should do anything extra to my tank to start with than an "ordinary" tank. By this, I mean that my tank and all of the equipment for it and in it sat around in my parents garage for the entire summer. As I was unpacking some of the stuff, I noticed there was a little mold on some of the rocks and such. I rinsed and scrubbed this stuff off, but will this be good enough? Can I just put this stuff in my tank and start the cycling process as if this is a completely brand new tank?

I had one other question, too. I've looked through the ebook about the initial setup of the tank and didn't really see this issue addressed. I have two Emperor 400 filters in a 55 gal tank. Should I let the tank cycle and run through the Emperors without the filter medium in? I would think this might help the process along, but that may be me just being dumb again. Thanks in advance.

not using mediums in your filter is like not even having filters at all. it would circulate the water column, that's about it. as for the mold issue, i would dilute bleach 20 to 1 with water and scrub the tank inside and out and then again. make sure to rinse extremely well. be careful not to scrub so hard that you break down the tank's epoxy though. glad to hear your filters are working properly. i would also advise not using carbon, it removes too many vital minerals out of the water.

[niqolas619]

So the filters I have right now are teh Emperor Ready-To-Use Filter Cartridges for the Emperor 400. They have carbon inside them, so should I take this out? I read another post on hear somewhere about people cutting open the filters and throwing away the carbon, then putting the filter medium back in there. Should I do this right now? Thanks for your help and patience, Jeff.

[Sasquatch]

Clean with the bleach solution as Jeffs99dime suggested to get rid of any mould or other nasties. Rinse a few times with dechlorinated water before you fill the tank up. Once you have it filled and ready to run, use the Emperor's cartridges with carbon to get rid of the last traces of bleach and other toxins.

You should be able to find replacement cartridges for the Emperor that don't contain any media. They're basically just snap together plastic plates that you can fill with whatever media you want. You should be able to fit two in each side of the Emperor. I'd fill one with polywool or foam and the second with something for bacteria to colonize. I don't know if biomax cylinders will fit inside, but something along those lines should work.

I did a quick looky on the Marineland site and came up with this.

http://www.marineland.com/products/diagram_ecom/n_emp_400.asp

It's a parts list for the Emperor 400. The part you're looking for is "13". You can fill it with whatever you want.

[niqolas619]

Thanks for the advice. I still have the plastic pieces in the filters that I could fill with whatever media is suggested. I haven't been able to find any media that doesn't contain carbon. On that other post that I mentioned, someone said that they have them on Foster and Smith's, but I couldn't find them on there. Anyone else know of a place to find them? I haven't found a LFS in Chicago just yet, so I don't know if that's an option for me either.

[niqolas619]

One other quick question along the same lines - So if I should leave the carbon filters in to remove the leftover bleach, how long should I leave these in before changing over to non-carbon filters so that the cycling process can take place?

Also, should I even worry about treating the water for right now, or should I just let the bleach get filtered out before trying to adjust the PH, Nitrogen Process, etc?

[cocoa_pleco]

change the carbon in 2 weeks

[Sasquatch]

You can cycle with the carbon in place if you want. But if you have a planted tank, it's better to remove it.

You have an Emperor on a 55g, right? At full flow, it'll cycle the water in your aquarium in about 9 minutes. So if it's just to remove the traces of bleach, leave them in for a day or two.

If you want to remove the carbon from the premade filters, no problem there. The blue sponge/foam on them will make ideal mechanical filtration and a good place to establish bacteria. I'd but through the plastic side to leave the foam intact.

[niqolas619]

Ok, I'll use the dilluted bleach mixture on the substrate and leave the filters in for a little bit. My only concern is using this mixture on my rocks. They seem pretty porous and I'm worried about some of the bleach being locked into the rocks. Is this an unfounded concern or should I concern a different cleaning method for the rocks? You guys are a great help.