so a couple of months ago i removed all the biomedia from both of my fx6s filtering this
210 gallon over stocked african cichlid tank and replaced them with nothing but pot scrubbers
that's insane right what was i thinking if you want to find out what happened to my tank
make sure to stick around if you're new to the channel my name is kev from caveman aquatics.com
and on this channel i try to make helpful videos on all topics of the aquarium hobby
that gets straight to the point so you can get back to enjoying your beautiful fish so before
i get into it if you haven't watched part one of this experiment where i actually showed you guys
the process of removing and replacing all of my bio media make sure to check that out first and
then come back to this video i'll put a link up here and in the description below for those of
you all caught up let's do a quick recap about two months ago i removed and replaced all the biomedia
i had in one of my fx6s and about a month ago i did the same thing to my second fx6 so technically
this tank itself has been running with nothing but pot scrubbers for only one month but surprisingly
enough during this whole two-month process my water parameters remain solid and stable after the
first fx exchange i tested for ammonia and nitrite every day for about a week and my parameters
didn't budge a single day but keep in mind that i did still have plenty of the other expensive bio
media seated bio media in my other fx6 i waited an entire month without making any other changes
just to ensure that the beneficial bacteria had plenty of time to reproduce and find their new
home in the fx6 filled with pot scrubbers at the two month mark i repeated the process in my second
fx6 because i want to show you guys what the insides look like what was in this fx6 previous
so here we go top tray is gonna have my sponges mechanical here's a blue pad that doesn't look
that bad at all see this blue pad can always be reused just cleaned off i'm gonna definitely
reuse this then i got my white pad that is completely destroyed that's going in the garbage
along with my puritan bag and my chemi pure blue bags those are getting dumped that's my
whole top tray middle tray i've got these fluval ceramic rings and underneath that i got a bag of
bio home ultimate here's a whole bag of buy home ultimate check that out it's a lot
and in the bottom tray i wasn't even aware of this i forgot i got a whole bag of matrix so i got
three different bio medias in this canister i got the fluval ceramic rings i got bio home ultimate
which is super expensive and i got matrix which is supposed to be one of the best getting rid of
all this stuff all this biomedia is getting out of here okay guys so i cleaned out all my trays
everything is nice and clean ready for the new biomedia i cleaned everything with tap water
including the sponges so i must have killed off the majority of all the bacteria which is kind
of what i want i want to start this fx6 right from scratch so here we go with the past scrubbies in
the bottom tray let's do it so just like in the last video i stand them up get more space with it
i was able to get 10 into each tray so that's excuse me not 10 12 in the bottom tray 12 in
your middle trick 10 fit nice and snug standing up and then i add two more right on top we're
going to do the same thing to the middle tray then we go 10 nice and flat standing tall
10 standing tall 2 more on top
that's 12 for the middle tray 12 in the bottom tray nothing but pot scrubbies and in the top
tray we're gonna do mechanical just like before chemical media on the bottom of your top tray
then you're gonna have a fine white pad and then a blue medium pad on top now i'm a lot of chemical
media so what i'm going to do instead is i'm going to go double fine pad fine fine in the
bottom of the top tray and then i'm going to use my blue medium pad right on top it'll work for now
these are the fine pads that i use three bucks or five bucks on amazon really cheap these you
do have to replace every month because as you saw they got really gunked up but this blue pad
comes in a similar box this blue pad i've already reused this twice
you can see you just rinse it out and reuse and that's how you're going to add your pots grubbies
to your fx6 now i'm just going to go ahead and put these core sponges on the sides here
there you go guys all packed in the fx6 i'm gonna go ahead and fill it up with water and then we're
gonna hook it back up to the tank quick side note guys you don't have to fill up this entire
canister and lug this heavy old thing underneath your tank you could go ahead and install it just
like this nice and light nice and empty hook it up to your tank and if your hoses were removed
correctly the siphon should be trapped inside your hoses so when you hook the canister back up
and you open your valves in the correct order the siphon is going to push water into your canister
it's going to fill the whole thing up with your tank water now you know what that means right
the water level in your tank is going to drop so you're going to have to refill your tank now
because i don't want to have to refill my tank i'm gonna go ahead and fill up the canister i'll
be right back okay guys canister is full ready to go back in the tank but before we do that i feel
like i should mention this one more time just in case you didn't catch part one of this video
the only reason why i'm able to remove all of the biomedia in my canister all in one time is because
i have a second fx6 on this tank that is fully seated with beneficial bacteria if you've only
got one filter one hang on back one canister whatever it may be you never want to replace
all of your biomedia all in one shot you're gonna kill off all your benefits bacteria you're gonna
crash your cycle and you could have pretty much a bunch of fish death in my case i can do it like
i said because i've already got another source of beneficial bacteria keeping this tank cycled
as we speak so because of that that's the reason why i can change all the biomedia in one shot
in my entire filter don't try this if you've only got one filter you've been warned what you would
want to do instead is gradually replace the bio media inside your filter 10 at a time 25 percent
of the time wait about a week in between and then do another 10 to 25 percent until you completely
replace all the biomedia in your filter now because this is basically a brand new setup with
no beneficial bacteria in this canister i like to give my bacteria a boost by adding stability
and this time i'm gonna add it in the right place it does not go inside this tube this tube
is the out tube that goes back out to your tank so i'm going to add it on this end which will go
down all the way to the bottom of the canister and then work its way through all of the
surfaces all of the sponges all of the pot scrubbies and then out to the tank
but that's just me you don't really got to do that you could just pour it right in the middle
to each his own how much am i going to add i'm going to add the complete dosage that this entire
two tank takes right here into this canister to give this cancer a little bit of a kick and a head
start to growing the bacteria in the canister so i didn't record any of the tests from the first fx6
but i'm going to start recording the second fx6 this is the first test which was done yesterday
yesterday was the first day after putting the pot scrubbers into the second fx6
as you can see it's nice and yellow for ammonia yesterday i did see a slight little hint of
greenish in there maybe just a little bit so i added some stability to the tank yesterday
today i didn't add any stability and we're going to do the test today compared to yesterday's test
i'm on your bottle too
check out today's test guys still yellow maybe like a 0.25 of
ammonia so it might be starting to creep up let's compare with yesterday's result
here's yesterday's yellow and today's not too far off but just in case there's a precaution
i'm gonna go ahead and add some safe to the tank keep an eye on it and i'll be
back tomorrow with tomorrow's test so we're on day three guys here's day one and day two
you can see they're both pretty much the same i'm gonna go ahead and test for day three
here's day three guys we're gonna give it a few minutes see what happens
so about five minutes have passed i don't know if you guys can see a pattern here
but day one two and three look exactly the same
there is no ammonia at all in this tank since putting the pot scrubbers in and i can pretty much
tell you that it's going to remain this way if there hasn't been an ammonia spike in three days
there isn't gonna be one guys on day two and three the ammonia test was back to zero parts
permitting of ammonia perfectly fine honestly i didn't even bother to test for nitrite this time
around because i knew that these pot scrubbers were doing their job and they were handling their
business so what makes a good biomedia one the ability to provide surface area for beneficial
bacteria to grow on check two keeps your tank cycled and stable due to the growth of said
beneficial bacteria check that's it lift over so guess what pot scrubbers accomplish that with ease
now granted some very expensive biomedia out there does claim to also reduce nitrates heavy emphasis
on claims the jury is still out on that one in my humble opinion these very economical pot scrubbers
work just as well if not better than the other expensive stuff on the market if pot scrubbers
can keep your ammonia at zero and your nitrite has zero essentially keeping your tank cycled then why
bother spending more than you have to on biomedia we all know this hobby is expensive enough as it
is but not only are these pot scrubbers capable of providing plenty of surface area for your
beneficial bacteria to grow on keeping your tank cycled and stable check out the water clarity of
my tank since starting this process with the pot scrubbies i never had a bacterial bloom never had
any cloudiness in my water at all the tank has remained crystal clear now i wouldn't give the
pot scrubbers all the credit for crystal clear water there are many other tactics that i use to
keep the tank this way if you haven't already make sure to check out my free ebook with plenty of
tips to get this kind of clarity link will be up here and in the description below now i know that
many of you watching this video that have already spent big bucks on all the expensive biomedia in
all your tanks will comment about how much you love your matrix or your biomax or your biohome
or whatever good for you continue using what works for you don't change a thing but for those of you
that feel this hobby is expensive enough as it is and wasting money on expensive bio media when a
seven dollar pack of pot scrubbers can give you the same results or even better then i implore
you to give these pot scrubbers a try you will not be disappointed with your results i'll have a link
to the exact ones that i use in the description below and for those of you that can't keep your
eyes off these beautiful fish and wish you could learn more about them well you're in luck because
i have a free webinar training with the top three secrets about keeping african cichlids
make sure to check it out up here or in the description below now what if i told you i
could save you more than half the amount of time you take to do your water changes would you try it
good then watch this video next and i'll see you on the other side peace