New filter

[Rocksor]

I ran a 10g without a filter before, just a small circulation pump. Lots of plants. Never had any nitrogenous products show up on my tests even in such a small environment.

There is a culture on this website that advocates stuffing tons and tons of bio media into filters based on the assumption that it makes the tank better. This is false, to a certain degree. Those familiar with the way beneficial bacteria (BB) grows understand that a colony of BB will only grow enough to handle the amount of nitrogen compounds that are present in the tank. If you only have five small fish in the tank, there will only be enough bacteria to process the waste from those five fish. You can stuff as much ceramic media into the tank as you want, and no more bacteria will grow. You could change out all the sponges and floss in your filter and replace it with $20 of ceramics, and you're still only going to have 5 fish-worth of BB growing in your tank. A waste of materials, is what it boils down to.

Now, if your tank is grossly overstocked to the point in which the current filter can't keep up with the insane amount of ammonia and nitrites being produced by the animals, or the owner is overfeeding or there are dead animals rotting somewhere in the tank, then yes, adding extra ceramics becomes necessary/beneficial.

BB grows everywhere. Regardless of what you put in your filter, you're going to have it growing on all surfaces in the tank. The decor, the plants, the substrate, the glass... You don't need to stuff every filter you have with ceramics. Most of the time the tank and filter pads themselves house enough BB to handle whatever you throw at them. Just increase your stocking slowly and you won't even notice mini cycles.

It is better to have more media than just enough media, BB also includes heterotrophic bacteria that consume organics. These are the bacteria that produce the white cloudiness. I've seen tanks that get the white bacterial cloud because they just have enough media and surface area until they change out the fine filter pads, losing the heterotrphic bacteria colony. They grow quickly, much quicker than either ammonia or nitrite eating bacteria

[Hockey nut]

It is better to have more media than just enough media, BB also includes heterotrophic bacteria that consume organics. These are the bacteria that produce the white cloudiness. I've seen tanks that get the white bacterial cloud because they just have enough media and surface area until they change out the fine filter pads, losing the heterotrphic bacteria colony. They grow quickly, much quicker than either ammonia or nitrite eating bacteria

This makes perfect sense to me. Today I did a 2/3 water changed rinsed my bio in tank water and replaced the pads. I am doing botanicals with the tint, so my water is not clear. There is a whiteness to the water. Not huge but I see it.

[Hockey nut]

Glad I add some bio to one of the filters, on a whime.

[Bellasmith]

Any suggestion of filter for 30-gallon tank?

[Boundava]

This post is 3 years old, if you have a question about a filter for your 30 gallon you should really start a new thread you'll get more responses that way.

[Slaphppy7]

Old thread, now closed.