The Puffer Forum

Not sure what to do here. Last week I set up my reserve of brackish water for my F8. I make my own filter with floss, carbon and ammonia remover (not sure why I did it -- I don't think there's ammonia in my tap and have never had a problem -- maybe just being overly cautious.) At any rate, I rinsed the carbon and ammonia remover with bottled water and threw them in the filter. The water first goes through the floss, then the carbon and lastly flows over the ammonia remover pack.

I was in a bit of a hurry and took the reserve, dumped it into the bucket to transfer into the tank, not noticing that my rinsing of the ammonia and carbon filters hadn't been very good and there is now a fine layer of ammonia remover and carbon dust on my plants and rocks in the aquarium. I guess it settled to the bottom of the reserve tank and I just didn't notice.

Is this potentially harmful to Mr. F8? I assume with gravel vacs and removing the plants and washing them, I'll eventually get most of it -- but, do I need to make this an emergency and fix it now or will it be OK if it just sits there a while and eventually gets vacuumed/filtered out?

I'm going to monitor the ammonia levels. I hope that powder doesn't kill my cycle. My lfs has bio-spira in stock if it does. Am I over or under-reacting? Help . . . . .

Ammonia remover is not a good thing, IMO. Ammonia is necessary for the biofilter and should never be used. An ammonia detoxifier such as Prime is good, but not an actual remover.

If the water involved is brackish, the "ammonia remover" will serve as an ammonia dumper if has had any ammonia exposure, as most such materials (natural zeolytes and synthetic resins with the same functionality) are salt-exchange materials.

Thanks! I just did a "light" vacuum -- like one gallon of water or so and got 90% out. I noticed the stuff on the plants closest to the intake was all sucked away anyway. I'll be monitoring the ammonia a little more closely and throwing away the ammonia filter. lol

Tank looks crystal clear and very nice now that there's been 2 water changes, 2 vacuums and I re-arranged the decor. I'll find the plus in this somewhere.

Oh, and I managed to dump that gallon or so on the floor. What can I say -- I'm a bit of a klutz. It's in my office, thank God for the concrete floors and no carpet. There weren't enough paper towels so imagine me in a darkend office running around with a broom trying to swish the water into a thin layer so it would be gone before anyone got here the next morning. A gallon or two of water can really spread out on smooth concrete. If I'd dumped 10 gallons I can't imagine it being much worse. It kept growing. . . . . seems a little humid in here today.

RTR wrote:If the water involved is brackish, the "ammonia remover" will serve as an ammonia dumper if has had any ammonia exposure, as most such materials (natural zeolytes and synthetic resins with the same functionality) are salt-exchange materials.

In other words they don't work in brackish or salt water so you may as well replace it with another sponge or the bio media Hagen has available now.