Something *ate* my filter media?!?
Oookay… so I looked in my tank today and saw some whitish stuff on the lip of my in-tank filter. I thought that was strange, so I reached in to clean it up and it was slimy but fibrous. So I pulled out the filter media to check it to see if anything was wrong… and it is partially dissolved! As if bacteria ate the fibers!
Has anyone had this happen to them? The filter was a little under a month old, it came with me on my move (bagged in water) and it did get a tad warm on the way down but nothing major. It was still in the same condition I had bought it in when I re-setup the tank here. The only thing I can think of is that I am on well water which goes through a cavern system before reaching us and thus has cave bacteria living in it.
When I pulled the filter media out it dissolved and made a mess of the tank so I took the betta girls out and put them in their cups for the meantime. I’ve removed most of the bits and pieces, but the water is still icky. Should I just run the new filter media for a while, or should I change out the tank water? I don’t want my filter to be eaten again, but I also don’t want to change the water so drastically!
-Lana
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Category: AquaticLife
