Water Changes and 20 Gallon Filter thoughts

Just a quick post to note that I did a 50% water change on both aquariums on Tuesday, 1/11/04.

Also for xmas, I got a new biowheel powerfilter for the 20 gallon tank. Up to this point I have been running two sponge filters using old noisy air pumps. I can't wait to quiet things down with this new filter, but I think I probably need to approach this carefully. The sponge filters have undoubtedly developed a nice colony of beneficial bacteria on them. If I suddenly remove them from the tank, I may get a sudden spike in ammonia.

So, I'm thinking outloud here... maybe the media from one of the sponge filters will actually fit inside the new filter. If so, I could leave it there for a bit and allow the bacteria from that sponge to move into the new filter. I could leave the other one up and running for ... maybe a week... just to be safe. Then maybe remove the sponge from the new filter after another week or two.

Perhaps an over-cautious approach, but I've heard that Tanganikan cichlids are very sensitive to ammonia, so better safe than sorry.