# AquaClear ammonia remover made tank cloudy (would like answer fast!)



## Danja (Jun 8, 2010)

Hi guys,

I bought and AquaClear ammonia remover bag, rinsed it for 30 seconds in the sink, and tried to wrestle it into my filter. It wouldn't go and when I finished I noticed the water was really dark and murky. Should I get my frogs and fish out of there or wait for the filter to take care of it?


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

is it like ammonia crystals? if its ammonia crystals it shouldn't make ur tank cloud i dont think but i dont know much about the product your using. is there any warnings on the box that say it will cloud ur water?


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## Danja (Jun 8, 2010)

No warnings on the product about water clouding. I think it might be grime/activated carbon that I shook loose from my filter cartridge. One of my four ADFs is poking its head out of the water and chirping but the other three seem OK. Also, the water seems clearing up. The only warning on the product was to rinse thoroughly before use. I think I could have been more thorough.

I'm also wondering, could I just leave the bag on the floor of the aquarium near where the water falls into the aquarium from the pump and let it absorb some ammonia that way? Here's the product:

Edit: It won't let me direct link to the product but if you google AquaClear Ammonia it's the first page that comes up.


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

yeah thats probably what happened. whens the last time u rinsed your filter bags? i would leave it in the filter because just resting in the tank isn't going to force enough water through it to remove the ammonia.


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## Danja (Jun 8, 2010)

My filter isn't big enough for the bag to go in, which is why I was playing with it to begin with . Do you think sinking the filter bag would have any effect at all? 

I never rinse my filter cartridges for fear of getting rid of the bacteria. Should I? If so, how often?

Also, this is kind of a random question but is it safe to put a little bit of hominy in my aquarium? I bought it at wal mart thinking it was sweet corn and didn't realize that the stuff is an affront to the taste buds and humanity in general. The ingredients say "Prepared yellow corn, salt, sodium bisulfite". Would a pleco, an upside down catfish, or 4 ADFs be able to eat the stuff? I'd hate to see it go to waste but its so terrible...


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

i have no idea if they will eat it but yes you def need to be rinsing your filters in order to get rid of all the gunk and decaying matter. do it every month or two dont rinse it in tap water. when u do a water change rinse it in the water that u take from the tank. so if u do water changes with buckets. when u get a bucket full just pull the filter bag out and just give it a decent rinse. i always keep multiple filters and bags so i can just do one at a time to avoid risk. i also every once in a while pull my entire filter off and give the whole thing a good wash with water from the sink(not the bags). i replace the bags every 6 months but i do it 1 at a time on my 55s i have 2 filters on each that each have 2 filter bags and 2 filter media containers that u can fill with your own biological media.


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

Danja said:


> My filter isn't big enough for the bag to go in, which is why I was playing with it to begin with . Do you think sinking the filter bag would have any effect at all?


Anyway you can put the bad in the water flow out of the filter? As long as it's in the water flow it'll work fine.


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## Danja (Jun 8, 2010)

How does this setup look? I used it overnight and didn't notice any changes in tank behavior other than my upside down catfish, which spent the entire morning swimming loops around my ship ornament. I think I didn't feed it enough last night.

I'm going to wait a few days and then check ammonia to see if it went down. I've had the tank since about June and I can never seem to entirely eliminate ammonia; it always seems to hover around 10-15 ppm with occasional spikes to 25. Hopefully this will solve it.

If I continue to use this setup will I need to buy a bubbler now that the filter is no longer dumping water into the tank and bubbling it?


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## Cam (Nov 9, 2009)

The reason the AC ammonia remover isn't working is because it is meant to be replaced with the bio-bag on an AquaClear filter when a new tank is being established, but it looks like that is working so far. Best of luck


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