Concerned about Ammonia.

[Ebreus]

I'm medicating my guppies. Because of this I've, temporarily, replaced my filter media with a simple cut foam.
I have my old media ready to be put back in once I'm done medicating them.
It's been four days or so since I've removed the old media and in my routine parameter testing I've gotten a reading of 0.25 Ammonia. Previously Ammonia and Nitrate has been zero for as long as the guppies have been in there.

With that and thinking about things more I've got a few concerns:
Does the days out of water mean my old media is going to have to be recolonized by the nitrifying bacteria?
I don't know how to proceed from here... the white stuff on the guppy that I've been trying to treat isn't gone but now I'm getting detectable levels of ammonia.

 

[CichlidJynx]

I'm medicating my guppies. Because of this I've, temporarily, replaced my filter media with a simple cut foam.
I have my old media ready to be put back in once I'm done medicating them.
It's been four days or so since I've removed the old media and in my routine parameter testing I've gotten a reading of 0.25 Ammonia. Previously Ammonia and Nitrate has been zero for as long as the guppies have been in there.

With that and thinking about things more I've got a few concerns:
Does the days out of water mean my old media is going to have to be recolonized by the nitrifying bacteria?
I don't know how to proceed from here... the white stuff on the guppy that I've been trying to treat isn't gone but now I'm getting detectable levels of ammonia.

How have you been storing your media? If your media is laying out to dry you will most definitely have to re cycle

 

[Ebreus]

How have you been storing your media? If your media is laying out to dry you will most definitely have to re cycle

Yeah... it's dried out. I should've looked into how to properly store it before removing.
How should it be stored btw?

 

[Snarbleglarf]

What are you treating with that caused you to take out your bio media? If your media is dried out I would suggest just replacing the bio media all together and add Fritz turbo start which should cycle the new media within a week or two, if you add the media you took out back to your tank it’s just going to cause an ammonia spike due to the bacteria that died decomposing. In the mean time for the ammonia that is present in your tank currently you could add ammo lock which will take the ammonia in your tank and convert it to a less toxic version long enough for the bacteria to eat it and convert it to nitrite then nitrate it won’t remove any ammonia but it should help your fish

 

[CichlidJynx]

Yeah... it's dried out. I should've looked into how to properly store it before removing.
How should it be stored btw?

Usually it’s just added to another system, I personally don’t know of any other way of storing media

 

[Cichlidude]

Yeah... it's dried out. I should've looked into how to properly store it before removing.
How should it be stored btw?

If it was kept wet in tank water and open to the air, would have lasted weeks.

 

[Ebreus]

If it was kept wet in tank water and open to the air, would have lasted weeks.

Thanks, I'll make sure to do that next time I have to do this.

 

[Ebreus]

What are you treating with that caused you to take out your bio media?

Herbal actives Artemiss.
Couldn't find anything else that didn't say it'd likely kill my snails and I don't have a QT tank to just medicate the fish (in spite of wanting one). I had some trouble getting responses on my threads in the disease section and no-one suggested aquarium salt until after I'd begun this treatment.
I removed the filter media because it contains... [omitted expletive] I just reread the instructions and realized I didn't have to remove the filter media. Everything but this said to remove activated carbon and my filter media has activated carbon.

I find it somewhat amusing I've ended up using a herbal remedy when I'm a bit of a chemophile.

Edit: Almost did this as two replies:

I would suggest just replacing the bio media all together and add Fritz turbo start which should cycle the new media within a week or two, if you add the media you took out back to your tank it’s just going to cause an ammonia spike due to the bacteria that died decomposing.

Is there anything I could do to clean the filter media I already have? I'll spend money where I need to but I have a bit of a tight budget so if I can remove the dead bacteria on this less than two month old media I'd like to.

 

[Jonmott]

Herbal actives Artemiss.
Couldn't find anything else that didn't say it'd likely kill my snails and I don't have a QT tank to just medicate the fish (in spite of wanting one). I had some trouble getting responses on my threads in the disease section and no-one suggested aquarium salt until after I'd begun this treatment.
I removed the filter media because it contains... [omitted expletive] I just reread the instructions and realized I didn't have to remove the filter media. Everything but this said to remove activated carbon and my filter media has activated carbon.

I find it somewhat amusing I've ended up using a herbal remedy when I'm a bit of a chemophile.

Edit: Almost did this as two replies:

Is there anything I could do to clean the filter media I already have? I'll spend money where I need to but I have a bit of a tight budget so if I can remove the dead bacteria on this less than two month old media I'd like to.

If it’s ceramic media you can boil it and rinse well after, I’ve done this before with success.

 

[Ebreus]

If it’s ceramic media you can boil it and rinse well after, I’ve done this before with success.

Thanks, I believe it is in part plastic. It's the filter cartridge for an Aqueon Quietflow filter.

 

[Ebreus]

UPDATE:
I just double-checked and my filter media didn't dry out. It is still damp.
It is however cold to the touch and hasn't had new ammonia for four days.
Does this change anything or is it still very likely all my bacteria has died?

 

[Cichlidude]

UPDATE:
I just double-checked and my filter media didn't dry out. It is still damp.
It is however cold to the touch and hasn't had new ammonia for four days.
Does this change anything or is it still very likely all my bacteria has died?

Damp? Might be just fine. Put it in.

 

[Ebreus]

Damp? Might be just fine. Put it in.

Alright thank you, putting it in.
I'll do my best to remember to test and post the results tomorrow morning (have to be up and out the door early).
Hopefully my bacteria is still alive.

 

[Ebreus]

Damp? Might be just fine. Put it in.

Yeah, it worked. Put it in and the bacteria appears to be fine. 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite

 

[Snarbleglarf]

Yeah, it worked. Put it in and the bacteria appears to be fine. 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite

Yay! Happy it worked out for you