prozackat

I have an Eclipse System tank I kept in the garage for a while. I finally dragged it upstairs and cleaned and set it up. The system has been dry for almost a year. Does anyone know if i should replace the biowheel? I know normally you don't, but it's been dry for so long and crusty flakes are coming off everywhere.

agabr123

if it's falling apart like that i'd definitely replace it and start fresh

make sure that you clean the tank, if it's been sitting in the garage it's probably pretty grimy, i'd clean it with a one part bleach 19 part water mixture and rinse REALLY well then use lots of dechlorinator when you fill it up.

prozackat

That's exactly what I did (clean it with bleach), and I'm gonna run it for a couple weeks and watch the chlorine. Technically it's not the wheel that's falling apart. When it runs, it builds up a slimy coating, so now that it's all dried out it's flaking off. There's no damage to the wheel itself, but still....
Well, running it for a couple weeks and adding some water from my established tank should probably be enough to start some healthy bacteria. Now I wonder if I should empty the tank again, cuz what if the dried out flakes contaminated it?

agabr123

if you're running the tank you have to add a source of ammonia for any bacteria to establish. you can use either pinches of flake food daily, a piece of raw shrimp, or pure ammonia (shouldn't bubble or fizz when you shake it, just ammonia and water, and no surfactants). unfortunately the used tank water won't help since hardly any of the beneficial bacteria is housed there, you'd really just be adding ntirAtes to your tank.

yeah, i'd probably go ahead and just get a new one, who knows what's built up on there.

prozackat

thanks so much. I had no idea about the ammonia. You've been incredibly helpful!

agabr123

you're welcome glad i could help!

oh, if you go with the pure ammonia, you'll want to add about 2-4ppm daily, which means you add a few drops, wait half an hour, test your water, and see how much ammonia you have. if there's too much it's not really a problem, just add a little less next time, if there's too little then just add more

prozackat

I'm going to do flake food since I have an abundance. How long do I do it? Or do I just keep it up the whole time until I add fish just like if I was feeding them?

agabr123

keep adding until you've gotten through the cycle, so you should be getting consistent readings of 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and 5-20ppm nitrate. you dont want to add fish though, the levels of ammonia and nitrIte will build to toxic levels before enough bacteria can establish to bring it down.

mondicat

I've reused old biowheels before, and simply cleaned all the old crusty stuff off the wheel before using it. I believe the crusty stuff is just old dried up bacterial biofilm. New bacteria biofilms should grow on it with some time in your new setup.