Dextreous

@JeffJeffcould i substitute the floss for ceramic rings? Or could i combo all three?

@Tanked Thanks that's actually reassuring, so many videos and forums saying so many things like cutting up my cartridge or never touching it at all and to only replace if really necessary. But from what you said Im gonna put a filter sponge with the old cartridge behind it for a week and take out the cartridge after. Thanks for the replies guys!

For the past 2 months since my aquarium has been up I've been using a TopFin Silentstream hob filter. I've also have a sponge filter inside that's been there for 3 weeks now. For the most part I have been using the same cartridge the filter came with and its been good but recently I've been seeing small fine particles in the water, I've tried adding filter floss into my hob but I don't think it did anything and if anything I've been seeing micro bubbles in the water aswell. Now at this point I want to just completely redo the filter but I don't know how I would do that since I don't want to get rid of the bacteria already in the cartridge. I wanna do sponge pad but I've also seen people use rings but some say those are for canister. I just wanna know what you guys think would be a good route to go on replacing my cartridge. This is just an image I found on Google of the inside of the same filter.

@Chad he actually pulled through! I'm pretty happy right now lol. He had such a rough day yesterday. Thanks for the encouragement! Here's the little guy:

Thanks guys, at least it's nice knowing he has at least a chance. Hopefully by the morning he'll be doing better.

I got 8 ember tetras from my lfs (theyre the first fish for my tank) and while it got every one, the last one got sucked up from the filter and while they did give it to me for free on the way home it started to swim sideways and even rest on the bottom of the bag. After float and drip acclimation it looked to be doing okay but it doesn't really explore or react to food. It only reacts if one of the tetras nudges it and it'll act fine for a bit. As of now he just floats in the middle of the column. Here's him when introduced: Introduced https://imgur.com/a/en7leVr And here's it now: Now https://imgur.com/a/9AAWKSS Let me know if it's beyond saving. Thank you.

Gotcha. What food should I feed my embers? Anything specific? And can it also be feed to the amanos or would it be better to have specific food for them? (Like the Xtreme Shrimpe @AllFishNoBrakes mentioned) since i figure the algae wont be enough for them. I appreciate the advice so far, been a huge help for me.

@AllFishNoBrakes my fish Stock goal is 1Honey Gourami, 8 Ember Tetras, 5 Amano shrimp and 2 Nirite snails. Also if you're saying the shrimps bio load wouldn't be enough for the cycle to keep up would that also mean it's okay to add them along with a fish that would add to the biology? I'll go ahead and start adding ferts as well and scraping the front glass of algae.

Hello, I have just cycled my tank and am eager to start stocking but i have a couple of questions I want to ask you guys. For reference my tank is a planted 10g. My parameters are Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrites 0ppm, Nitrates 20ppm, PH 7.5. KH 40ppm, GH 180ppm No CO2 or fertz, my substrate is a bottom layer of Sera Floredepot and top layer of Activ-Flora. Light for 8hrs a day Do I water change now? and by how much? and will that hurt my nitrates if its at 20ppm? After each water change, do I have to add bacteria every time? I want to add Amano Shrimp as the first introductory inhabitants, can I go ahead and put 5 or do I have to start little like 2 or 3? During Cycling some of my plants either died or is yellowing (mostly my hairgrass) I bought some Seachem root tabs and a bottle of API leaf zone, can I start adding them now or will that start to cause excess nutrients/ raise nitrites or ammonia? and is it okay to scrape off the algae in the glass or is that bad or should I leave it for algae eaters? its been a hell of a month and I appreciate the help I received before and appreciate anyone taking the time to read this and answer my questions. Here is a picture of my tank the first week of Cycling (Feb 4) And picture 2 & 3 are from Yesterday (I know Im not the best at aquascaping)

What a beautiful and lush tank! Your tank is definitely what my end goal is. What size is your tank, and what fish do you have stocked? I think I see Angelfish, and two other fish types. And yeah from these pics it's looking like a 2ppm like you said.

@AllFishNoBrakesYeah Its the only thing i use to test my water, I also retested for you. I can never really tell which number it's supposed to correspond to. Also I appreciate the help which to trim, definitely would help get rid of some algae too.

@AllFishNoBrakesit's still around 2-5ppm, also where is a safe place to remove some of the leaves, would you say like right where the leaf meets the stem? I'll definitely do that tomorrow morning. Thanks!

Hey guys, it's been about a week now since my post but I had a few things happen. 1. Nitrites are still pretty high (Same as before) 2. A big algae bloom has happened (pic below) 3. Today I added some Salvinia Minima So what I'm asking is that if everything is going accordingly? Is this algae too much or is it something I can ignore? I know you guys get these questions a lot and I know it's a big waiting game and I apologize but just wanted to see some advice. Thank you. Cycle recap: 3 weeks cycling, 2 weeks since ammonia dose, 1 week since ammonia hit 0ppm.

@Sun.singh1991 My Ph is around 6.8 to 7 something. My temp rests around 74~80 from my heater. So I'm good in those regards. But how would I raise them if they were low?

Great video! messing with the site and what the video provides, I might go with 1 Honey Gourami, 8 Ember tetras, 2 Mystery snails and 5 Amano Shrimp as my complete tank fish.