today the 210 gallon overstocked african cichlid tank is getting a major major change and i'm
bringing you guys along with me if you're new to the channel first of all welcome i've been
running this tank for about a year now with nothing but sponges and pot scrubbers for
biomedia that's right 10 bucks find them at your 99-cent store pot scrubbers throughout this year
not only has the tank remain cycled meaning zero ammonia zero nitrite and a regular amount
of nitrates for a tank like this but it's also remained crystal clear which is something that
we all want in our tanks i feel that this year was more than enough time to prove to you guys
that pop scrubbers alone for biomedia absolutely works if you're interested in finding out more
about how it works and the process i got a link to the entire series in the description below
now while possible alone do work there's one thing that they cannot do which is support the growth of
anaerobic bacteria you see most biomedia out there do great with helping you grow aerobic bacteria
which we all know as our beneficial bacteria but anaerobic bacteria is a whole other animal
literally anaerobic bacteria need a very low flow and low oxygen environment in order to grow
which is why it's so difficult to grow them in our heavy flow heavy oxygenated tanks and filters
the only other method we have for reducing nitrates is with the help of live plants or
water changes now while there are a few products out there that claim to be able to grow these
nitrate reducing bacteria i've even tested one out and failed with a burning hole left in my pocket
check that out right there i've yet to come across one that's actually successful at it
until now maybe ck matrix has been one of the top dogs in the industry when it
comes to quality biomedia as far as keeping your tank cycled and keeping your water crystal clear
but i've recently become aware that c-chem also claims that matrix can help in growing
these anaerobic bacteria to help in reducing your nitrate even a few of you faithful fans of the
channel have claimed the same the mad scientist jeff thompson from the caveman fan facebook group
wow say that three times fast k man fang k man pam k man fam he's been using it for years and
claims he's been reducing his nitrates for years as well my guys jen and laz over from
jlro aquatics also claimed the same they even sent me a photo of their last nitrate test and
those nitrate levels do look good so because of all these claims i'm hearing from c-cam from jeff
jenning lass and a few others i've decided to make the switch and find out for myself if ck matrix
can support the growth of anaerobic bacteria in order to help in reducing your nitrates
throughout the next few months i'll be testing and keeping you guys updated on my findings
that way you'll have absolutely no doubt about it buckle up you ready let's go
so i got the fx6 out ready to do the swap before we start i want to show you what i'm going to use
prime instability don't worry we'll go over it in a minute
and i got the brand new matrix right here before i open this up and show you the pot
scrubbers that were in here before the first thing i want to do is do a quick nitrate test
so that we can see the levels that i'm working with before doing any changes
in case you don't know about this nitrate test with the api master test kit you do need to shake
these bottles very vigorously for the amount of time that it says to shake these bottles
both bottles 10 drops of each bottle gotta give it the test tube a good shake for about a minute i
think it says and then you gotta let it sit for about five minutes to get your actual reading
in less than 30 seconds we can start to see the colors already getting pretty dark
check that color out in about five minutes i'm sure it's gonna get much darker than that
we'll be back so before i show you the results up close today is saturday
it is one day before my scheduled water changes and check out these nitrate levels
this red is somewhere in between the 40 to 80 parts per million
right before water change date so my nitrate levels run pretty high in this tank
i'm gonna leave that test tube right up here just in case you guys can see it get any darker
you guys ready to check out what's been inside my fx6 for about a year let's do it real time
so in my top tray of the fx6 always goes my fine mechanical media pads i always start with
the blue pad on top which is looking kind of nasty and dirty right here check it out
i'm gonna go ahead and give that a toss i'm putting everything brand new inside this fx6
i also put my chemical media which i'm going with pure gin is what i always use in here now
in the top tray as well that's getting toast and finally the fine white mechanical media pad
pretty dirty and tore up perfect time to do a cleaning on this thing
okay i'm gonna try to get this top tray out to get to the middle tray to show you guys
the password without pulling all the baskets out top trays out all right here we go ready
check out the pot scrubbers they look totally intact not too dirty they do got a little bit
of dirt on them so some of the dirt was getting through my fine pads that just means that i've got
to clean those fine pads and replace them a little bit sooner than i did the last time on this fx6
they're not deteriorating they're still in one piece and looking overall pretty good these guys
have been in here for over a year for about a year and the last trail pass covers they all floated
up to the top because i took the top two trays out but they're all in here floating on the top
and they all look pretty much the same all intact all in good shape pop scrubbers are
the truth but like i said guys the one things that they're not going to do is support the growth of
anaerobic bacteria it's not going to happen with possible so that's why we're changing over to
ck matrix now i'm gonna go ahead and dump this filter out i'm not gonna bother cleaning this
with tank water because i'm planning to just see this filter brand new like it's a brand new
filter with brand new media so i got the fx6 nice and clean ready for some brand new media
but during that time if you've been keeping an eye on my test tube over here
this thing has gotten plenty darker let me show you which really makes a lot more sense because
i know that normally my tank does run pretty high on nitrates check that out that red has changed to
a deep dark red getting pretty close to this 160 level right here which is pretty normal for my
tank but this 160 parts per million of nitrates is a great starting point to really be able to tell
whether the matrix is going to help in reducing this on a weekly basis now before we get started
with the setup of the fx6 using the matrix i want to make something absolutely clear to you guys the
reason why i'm able to completely remove all of my vital media from the entire fx6 and swap it with
brand new media that has no bacteria on it at all is because i have a second fx6 on this 210 gallon
tank so essentially i'm only replacing 50 of my bio media at once if you only got one filter in
your tank and your tank is fairly new fairly young i would say anywhere around three months or less
then i would remove 25 of your bio media at a time this is if you wanted to change out your bio media
25 of the time is fine if you've got a mature tank let's say about a year or more older then
it's safe to remove about 50 percent of your bio media at a time just like i'm doing on this 210
now the way i set up my fx6 is probably going to be a little bit different than the way you're
normally used to but don't worry i'm going to explain as i go through it so top tray we're
gonna leave that for last bottom and middle trays is going to be all matrix the reason why you don't
see those red trays in here anymore i've long since tossed them away because when you're going
to use the same bio media throughout your whole filter you really don't need those red trays
they're more for in case you wanted to use two or three different types of bio media you could
separate them that well but since we're going full matrix here no reason to use the red trays it just
gives you more space for more media now a good idea when you're using media like matrix or other
small little forms of media is not to just toss them into your basket all free and willy-nilly
you're gonna use a media basket a media basket helps for multiple reasons one when it's time
to clean your filter out it's very easy to just grab the entire basket full of your biomedia
take it out of your trays and toss it into your tank while you perform your maintenance
that way you preserve all the bacteria that's on the media and another good reason for it
is that if you ever need to set up a brand new tank or a quarantine tank or a hospital tank you
could easily pop open your filter grab this bag of seeded biomedia take it out of your filter and use
this in another filter on that other tank and that tank will be cycled immediately that's why it's a
good idea to have accessible media bags full of seated bio media okay i filled my bag up pretty
much the amount that's gonna go in this basket now i'm gonna head over to the sink and give this
a quick rinse just to get all that dusty residue off of it before putting it into our filters now
we're ready to go dripping soaking wet so that's a nice whole basket with a full media bag of matrix
our middle tray guys is going to be exactly the same thing as the bottom load this sucker up
with as much matrix as possible i only have one of those bigger media bags so i gotta use this little
smaller one but that's okay i'm gonna fill it up as much as possible and whatever leftover space
i have i'm just gonna put matrix right over it after a quick rinse ready to go right in the tray
now the top tray guys this is where the fun part starts because of the way water flows in an fx6
specifically is why this top tray is going to be a little bit different so we all know water flows
up the sides and then goes right down through the center so this top piece is going to have a fine
mechanical pad to grab those tiny little particles that made it through these big core sponges
whatever makes it through here will get caught with the fine pads right on top of this top tray
so i normally use a blue and a white pad in the top tray but i'm all out of blue pad so
two white pads is gonna be just as great now what i do differently here is that i like to sandwich
my chemical media in between these two pads what chemical media seachem purigen you guys saw it
when i took it out now the reason why you want to sandwich it is because you're forcing water
through the bag of puritan by sandwiching it in between your two fine pads water is always going
to go through the path of least resistance so if the pads have more resistance than the purigen is
going to force the water through the purging which is exactly what you want now the reason why your
chemical media is going in the top tray i know you guys have that question as well in general
we all know that chemical media usually goes last in order of media right it goes mechanical then
biological and then chemical filtration at the end well the way that the fx6 is designed the end
would actually be in the bottom tray so since you need to take out and replace your chemical media
and your fine pads about every month or so you would have to dig into your fx6 pull out all of
your trays and get to the bottom tray just to get that bag of purigen out of there and put a new one
in the efficient way by keeping your chemical in the top tray every month or so all you got to do
is pop the top off your fx6 without removing any of your baskets from the main fx6 basket
reach into the top tray remove your chemical and find pads toss it replace it with brand new stuff
pop the top back on and you're done this way you prevent having to take all the trays out
and disturbing a bunch of bacteria in your fx6 when it's not necessary and trust me when i
tell you that i've been doing this long enough that the chemical media in the top tray before
your bio media is not going to affect your cycle it's not going to affect any of your bacterial
growth now i'm going to go ahead and get these baskets inside the main basket but there's still
one more very important element that i got to tell you guys about any time that you do
a full canister filter cleaning or in this case setting up a brand new filter with brand new media
you are going to want to dose stability every time why stability is bacteria in a bottle and by using
this in a brand new filter it's going to boost the production of bacteria in your filter especially
when you just added some brand new bio media that's got absolutely nothing on it i like to dose
the full amount required for your tank's total volume of water directly into the filter now you
see this tube right here don't get fooled this tube is not the tube that goes into the filter
this is actually water going back out to your tank the inside is over here so i like to dose
my stability right down the intube just because it makes this ability get to the bottom of the
filter and mix up with everything on its way up not a necessary thing just something i like to do
now if you were setting up your filter for the first time and you were using brand new tap water
in here you would also want to dose prime right into your filter in order to dechlorinate that tap
water before sending it into your tank in my case though i'm going to hook this filter back up with
no water at all i'm going to use the tank water to fill it up yes that is going to reduce my water
level in my tank but like i said earlier guys tomorrow's water change day so i'm okay with that
now let's fast forward a few months and see how this matrix has been doing check that video right
there if you're watching this in real time and you can't go in the future check this playlist out
right here with more information on fx6's i think you're going to enjoy it see you on the next one
you