Sponge Filter Help!!

[Kennedy]

Hi all,

I recently purchased the Aquarium Co-op Coarse Sponge Filter for my 10 gallon single Betta aquarium. I also got the USB nano air pump, check valve, airline tubing, airline holders, and the air stone from here as well. I installed the new filter system into my well cycled aquarium on Sep 17 with the old filter still in there for a few days. After a few days I took my old filter out, and over the past three weeks, I've been having terrible algae problems. I've had to water change every few days to keep a carpet of algae from forming. My fish is suffering from fin rot, so I had taken out any plants because the aquarium salt could potentially hurt them, so the algae isn't coming from any plants. A carpet of algae is growing all over the sponge stopping it from filtering at all. Does anyone have any suggestions? I really really wanted to like this sponge filter, and am hoping it's user error. I use Fluval Stratum for my substrate as I was hoping to get plants in there again soon. This may have something to do with it...

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Hi, sorry for the trouble, any time you change something in a tank this can happen, it takes time for tanks to adjust. I think just per the pictures you have you might actually have blue-green algae which is actually bacteria and not algae. It's not hard to get rid of. Here is an article: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/blue-green-algae

And welcome to the forum. 

[Odd Duck]

A few days isn’t nearly long enough for the sponge filter to become fully populated with beneficial bacteria.  I leave old filters in for a few weeks and make certain some of the mulm gets into the new filter.  Your biofiltration is gone and you are starting over with a fish-in cycle.

You’ll want add some bottled bacteria as soon as possible.  If you have another tank, squeezing some debris out of a seasoned filter into this tank is even better.  It will “dirty” things up for a bit but will help re-establish your beneficial bacteria.  In the mean time, do frequent water changes and use Prime or other water conditioners every other day until your biofiltration can develop.

Depending on the salt dose you’re using, the plants might have been able to stay in.  Most plants will tolerate 1 tablespoon salt per 10 gallons and some will even tolerate 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons.  Taking the plants out also reduced your biofiltration.  The plants were absorbing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and with them out, these compounds are feeding the algae/Cyanobacteria.

If it’s only one fish with fin rot, I would recommend you move that fish to another tank or a tote for treatment.  Do as close to a 100% water change as you can.  Add bottled bacteria - there are a variety that will work and sometimes combining different types and brands works even better.  Do “emergency” dosing with Prime (or other dechlorinators) for the fish in the tote/hospital tank and in the main tank.

Frequent water changes will help control your parameters, getting mulm from a well-seasoned tank into your new filter or using some bottled bacteria, and dosing with Prime or other dechlorinator will all help.  Definitely do not do a thorough clean of the substrate yet but you can try to vacuum the Cyanobacteria off the substrate and other surfaces in the tank.  But don’t try to get debris out of the substrate yet.  That debris is mulm which holds significant amounts of beneficial bacteria that your tank needs to get back in balance.

Good luck and don’t give up because it will get better with time.

[Kennedy]

On 10/7/2023 at 8:23 PM, Odd Duck said:

A few days isn’t nearly long enough for the sponge filter to become fully populated with beneficial bacteria.  I leave old filters in for a few weeks and make certain some of the mulm gets into the new filter.  Your biofiltration is gone and you are starting over with a fish-in cycle.

You’ll want add some bottled bacteria as soon as possible.  If you have another tank, squeezing some debris out of a seasoned filter into this tank is even better.  It will “dirty” things up for a bit but will help re-establish your beneficial bacteria.  In the mean time, do frequent water changes and use Prime or other water conditioners every other day until your biofiltration can develop.

Depending on the salt dose you’re using, the plants might have been able to stay in.  Most plants will tolerate 1 tablespoon salt per 10 gallons and some will even tolerate 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons.  Taking the plants out also reduced your biofiltration.  The plants were absorbing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and with them out, these compounds are feeding the algae/Cyanobacteria.

If it’s only one fish with fin rot, I would recommend you move that fish to another tank or a tote for treatment.  Do as close to a 100% water change as you can.  Add bottled bacteria - there are a variety that will work and sometimes combining different types and brands works even better.  Do “emergency” dosing with Prime (or other dechlorinators) for the fish in the tote/hospital tank and in the main tank.

Frequent water changes will help control your parameters, getting mulm from a well-seasoned tank into your new filter or using some bottled bacteria, and dosing with Prime or other dechlorinator will all help.  Definitely do not do a thorough clean of the substrate yet but you can try to vacuum the Cyanobacteria off the substrate and other surfaces in the tank.  But don’t try to get debris out of the substrate yet.  That debris is mulm which holds significant amounts of beneficial bacteria that your tank needs to get back in balance.

Good luck and don’t give up because it will get better with time.

Thank you so so much for your thorough response and help!!! I am definitely going to try all of this. I greatly appreciate you!!!

[nabokovfan87]

Best of luck and welcome! Definitely looks like BGA/Cyanobacteria to me.

Hopefully things turn around quickly for you.

Given that you have active substrate, it might just be a matter of a major excess of nutrients causing a lot of issues for you and one thing leads to another.

For soil substrates, water changes are your friend to remove excess organics when things are first setup. Sometimes you can remove the GBA in sheets/chunks or use a soft brush and gently dislodge it into the end of a siphon.

As mentioned above clean water will also help. Daily or multiple per week changes of 30-50% will really be helpful to get things back on track.

[MattyM]

Additionally, if you yanked your plants from an active substrate to remove them - you are removing what you want to consume the nutrients, while also kicking a bunch of nutrients up into the water column. So instead of your plants getting it, the algae did - your tank is trying to balance itself w/o those plants and thus algae. What does a water test show? 

[Kennedy]

On 10/13/2023 at 2:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Best of luck and welcome! Definitely looks like BGA/Cyanobacteria to me.

Hopefully things turn around quickly for you.

Given that you have active substrate, it might just be a matter of a major excess of nutrients causing a lot of issues for you and one thing leads to another.

For soil substrates, water changes are your friend to remove excess organics when things are first setup. Sometimes you can remove the GBA in sheets/chunks or use a soft brush and gently dislodge it into the end of a siphon.

As mentioned above clean water will also help. Daily or multiple per week changes of 30-50% will really be helpful to get things back on track.

Thank you so much for your comment!! I really appreciate all of you taking time to help me!!!

[Kennedy]

On 10/13/2023 at 3:00 PM, MattyM said:

Additionally, if you yanked your plants from an active substrate to remove them - you are removing what you want to consume the nutrients, while also kicking a bunch of nutrients up into the water column. So instead of your plants getting it, the algae did - your tank is trying to balance itself w/o those plants and thus algae. What does a water test show? 

Thank you for your comment!! PH test shows 8 (which is high but I've been trying API PH down), Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrites 0ppm, Nitrates 5ppm, KH is 4dKH, and GH is 3dKH. I think those (besides PH, little high) are all in good range for a betta, but maybe not for treating the issue I have. 

On 10/7/2023 at 2:47 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Hi, sorry for the trouble, any time you change something in a tank this can happen, it takes time for tanks to adjust. I think just per the pictures you have you might actually have blue-green algae which is actually bacteria and not algae. It's not hard to get rid of. Here is an article: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/blue-green-algae

And welcome to the forum. 

Thank you so much for your response!!!! 

[Kennedy]

On 10/7/2023 at 8:23 PM, Odd Duck said:

A few days isn’t nearly long enough for the sponge filter to become fully populated with beneficial bacteria.  I leave old filters in for a few weeks and make certain some of the mulm gets into the new filter.  Your biofiltration is gone and you are starting over with a fish-in cycle.

You’ll want add some bottled bacteria as soon as possible.  If you have another tank, squeezing some debris out of a seasoned filter into this tank is even better.  It will “dirty” things up for a bit but will help re-establish your beneficial bacteria.  In the mean time, do frequent water changes and use Prime or other water conditioners every other day until your biofiltration can develop.

Depending on the salt dose you’re using, the plants might have been able to stay in.  Most plants will tolerate 1 tablespoon salt per 10 gallons and some will even tolerate 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons.  Taking the plants out also reduced your biofiltration.  The plants were absorbing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and with them out, these compounds are feeding the algae/Cyanobacteria.

If it’s only one fish with fin rot, I would recommend you move that fish to another tank or a tote for treatment.  Do as close to a 100% water change as you can.  Add bottled bacteria - there are a variety that will work and sometimes combining different types and brands works even better.  Do “emergency” dosing with Prime (or other dechlorinators) for the fish in the tote/hospital tank and in the main tank.

Frequent water changes will help control your parameters, getting mulm from a well-seasoned tank into your new filter or using some bottled bacteria, and dosing with Prime or other dechlorinator will all help.  Definitely do not do a thorough clean of the substrate yet but you can try to vacuum the Cyanobacteria off the substrate and other surfaces in the tank.  But don’t try to get debris out of the substrate yet.  That debris is mulm which holds significant amounts of beneficial bacteria that your tank needs to get back in balance.

Good luck and don’t give up because it will get better with time.

I had to wait to receive my beneficial bacteria in the mail, and I just got it yesterday. I don't currently have an established hospital tank but I do have an unused 5 gallon with a heater and filter that I could set up. But I only have one filter in my 10 gallon currently, so I don't have an established filter to add to the hospital tank. I say this because I was watching some videos on hospital tanks and they suggested adding a filter from an already established tank. Would it be possible to add beneficial bacteria to new hospital tank water (and dechlorinator, etc) or would that be considered a complete water change? I'm sorry if this doesn't make the best sense. I'm just really don't want to stress my fish out to the point of death!! Also, I added some plants back in and did more frequent water changes and it seems like the algae is already getting better. I appreciate your help so so much. Thank you.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Kennedy

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/19/2023 at 6:39 PM, Kennedy said:

Thank you for your comment!! PH test shows 8 (which is high but I've been trying API PH down), Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrites 0ppm, Nitrates 5ppm, KH is 4dKH, and GH is 3dKH. I think those (besides PH, little high) are all in good range for a betta, but maybe not for treating the issue I have. 

You would keep KH right where it's at, then try to get GH to the 6-8 range using something like equilibrium.  Try to keep the GH>KH and you'll see things start to improve.

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/19/2023 at 7:00 PM, Kennedy said:

I say this because I was watching some videos on hospital tanks and they suggested adding a filter from an already established tank. Would it be possible to add beneficial bacteria to new hospital tank water (and dechlorinator, etc) or would that be considered a complete water change?

There are plenty of hobbyists that do this. Yes.  Try this out.

1.  Setup the QT tank as normal.
2.  Get all the equipment running, air, heaters, and all of the things you need running and functioning.
3.  Take a filter from an existing tank, grab your ceramic media and "rinse it" off in the QT tank.  This will be like active very strong bacteria to that tank as well as some detritus to feed it.  You can also wring off a sponge as well if you have some.
4.  Add in your beneficial bacteria and wait as long as possible to do any sort of a water change, min 12 hours or so.
5.  Add the fish, monitor things daily (test AM and PM) and do a 50% water change if you see ammonia or nitrite.  Following the water change add in your dechlorinator as you normally would as well as your bacteria dose. 

Day 1: double dose
Day 2-7: normal dose.

[Kennedy]

On 10/19/2023 at 10:30 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

There are plenty of hobbyists that do this. Yes.  Try this out.

1.  Setup the QT tank as normal.
2.  Get all the equipment running, air, heaters, and all of the things you need running and functioning.
3.  Take a filter from an existing tank, grab your ceramic media and "rinse it" off in the QT tank.  This will be like active very strong bacteria to that tank as well as some detritus to feed it.  You can also wring off a sponge as well if you have some.
4.  Add in your beneficial bacteria and wait as long as possible to do any sort of a water change, min 12 hours or so.
5.  Add the fish, monitor things daily (test AM and PM) and do a 50% water change if you see ammonia or nitrite.  Following the water change add in your dechlorinator as you normally would as well as your bacteria dose. 

Day 1: double dose
Day 2-7: normal dose.

I only have one betta in the 10 gallon tank, no other fish. Is a hospital tank still necessary? 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/27/2023 at 1:47 PM, Kennedy said:

I only have one betta in the 10 gallon tank, no other fish. Is a hospital tank still necessary? 

It would be beneficial to reduce stress and remove the fish from the tank while you're performing a lot of water changes and treating for the underlying issues as well as the cyanobacteria itself.  It's your call.  you can always move the betta to a container for a small amount of time, clean the tank, perform your removal the cyano, siphon, water change, and then go ahead and fill it back up.  Add the dechlorinator, bacteria, and then give it a few minutes prior to adding the fish back in.  That also is a method I've used with bettas to reduce stress.