HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello all

I've been making some overdue changes to the crabitat since everybody is up and about. I got bigger containers for the pools and I was wondering...

how usefull are filters in un-cycled small fw and sw pools?

If it helps, I can make a sponge filter but if it doesn't save me work then I'll just continue emptying, scrubbing, rincing and refilling the pools every few days.

It would be nice to push this maintenance step back a bit and save some time :roll:

Thanks for any input you can provide

Cheers

Unless you cycle your pool, filters are pretty much useless. You'll still have to do water changes until you allow the filter to build up the beneficial bacteria that transforms ammonia into nitrate and then nitrite which is less harmful but still needs to be removed through 20% water changes weekly.

So what you're saying is, filters are only good for maintaining a cycled tank, other than that they have no use?

But I can't cycle 6 cups of water.... can I?







Edit: You just made me realize that there's not really any reason to filter water that is full of amonia and nitrites... makes sense. I should have figured this one out since I've had fish for practically all my life

Thanks

Well, you could! However IMO it would be pointless having a filter in a pool thats around 6 cups of water. Personally, I think the only time when you should be thinking about filters in when the pool is around 8L x 8W x 6H inch (20 x 20 x 15 cm)or larger. Otherwise the filter would take up half the pool.

Thanks for all your help!

aussieJJDude wrote:Otherwise the filter would take up half the pool.

aussieJJDude, you made me laugh when I read this... cause it's so true lol