finishing cycling, time to reset knowledge!

[MetalMike415]

Take water out of tank at whatever percent that is needed 40% 50% 60% or whatever is needed depending on how high your Nitrates are then before you add water put the water conditioner in then fill it with water that is close to the temp of the water that you have taken out or you could shock the fish which could lead to a sickness and or death. Hope that helps

[Lady Hobbs]

If you changed the filter cartridge, you have lost the bacteria you had grown. If the tank never had fish in the tank, then nothing was wrong with those cartridges.

Once you stock fish, you can not do water changes with that cold water like that.

[Nephalem]

maybe i read wrong but they said the only filter cartridges they removed were the carbon ones yes? They also said they had added some Biomax bags in the early cycle. So they shouldn't have completely annihilated the bacteria, only the part of it that was on those carbon filter carts. Yeah you prob set yourself back into a mini-cycle, but depending on how much of your bacterial population is in the biomax bags that you still have you might be alright. Did you check your levels today to see how fast your filter can go through a small amount of ammonia? Your readings will tell you if you still have enough bacteria to sustain any fish, or how far away you are set back from that point.

EDIT:

Ope, never mind. Strike that. I thought biomax was something else. Thought it was more filter media, but i see now that its just a cycle product.

So in that case yes you got rid of all your bacteria by changing the cartridges. That is where it lives, not in the water or substrate. You can only change out those carbon carts if you have some other kind of media in your filter to hold the cycle while the new cart grows bacteria. On the recommendation of the members here i completely removed mine and put in new kinds of biomedia to increase my bacterial population. You only really need carbon for certain things like cleaning out old meds after they have done their job. So refill your filter with some kind of good media, and start from square 1.

EDIT... AGAIN:

Is this what you added?:
http://www.wayfair.com/Hagen-AquaCle...0-HGE1223&PiID[]=6268671&gclid=CNOj7Zvd47ECFYIbQgodtAsACQ

If it is and you still have that in there, then you may be ok. If its not then sorry, there are a couple different products online with the same name, so I'm not sure exactly which you added to your filter.

[Delphe]

Hello
Yes, I can confirm it was just the carbon cartridge as it is an aqueon filter, I didn't realize how much bacteria would grow on it (which I now think, this is a serious flaw in the design, allowing growth on a cartridge doomed to be replaced, knowing how important those bacteria are). That and the temp chock set me back a little but I was saved by my 2 bags of biomax 30 that i did not remove and originally place them to take care of some already present ammonia in my well water.
Yesterday evening around 9pm
ammonia 0.25 ppm
Nitrites 0.5ppm
Nitrates 5ppm
I added 1ppm of ammonia then as I could see progress
This morning 7am
ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrites 0 ppm
Nitrates 5-10 ppm (not sure seemed to be in between)

So, I think my cycle is still there and I will not ever do the water change like this again, I learned my lesson.
I will definitely be looking to an aquaclear pretty soon but first I should let the biomax bags bacterias mature a little shouldn't I?
What do you think, am I finally ready for fish?

Delphe