Too Much Bio Filtration??
Hello crew, I have a freshwater setup 55 gallons. I have a Fluval 404 but I don't need or use carbon in the system (it is a planted tank). I'm wondering if there is such a thing as too much biological filtration? In other words if I fill the 4 trays with only biological media, will this have an adverse effect on the bacteria colonies. Will they out-compete themselves for ammonia/nitrates and meet their demise? Thanks
<You can never have too much bio filtration. The size of each of your colonies will adjust up and down to your bio load. It's a great thing to have the amount of ammonia/nitrite be the limiting factor in their size. Four small colonies will adjust up very quickly should an ammonia spike happen. Don> 

Cleaning Bio Media/Vacation Feeding
Hi. I have some questions about cleaning the biological filter material. Am I supposed to wash the biomedia every once in a while? When should I replace the old media with new one?  I have two firemouths (1.5 inch) and a gibbiceps (2 inches). I am about to leave for 5 days and I can't get anybody to take care of my fish. I don't know how to get my fish fed during my absence. 
If I use a feeder, much of the food would sink to the bottom, as the firemouths can consume only 1 pellet at a time. Moreover I would not be able to set the feeder up, so that a proper dose is distributed each time. It always happens that the pleco's pellets drop all at the beginning (and polluting the water) or clog the feeder's exit, leaving no food to pass through. In every way feeders have many serious drawbacks, according to my experience. Should I use those food tablets that last for a week and dissolve slowly in the water, or would it pollute the water a lot? Is it too much to leave the fish without any food at all?
<You should never clean or replace the bio media. If this is a sponge that gets clogged, swish it around in some old tank water after a change. Never rinse under the tap. The chlorine will kill the bacteria. To replace or clean it would require you to recycle the tank. For a five day trip I would just feed them well for a day or two before hand and not worry about it. They will be hungry, but alive and healthy, when you get home. Don>

Bouncing Bio Wheel
Here I am resending this email. Oh and by the by, all my ammonia issues have finally resolved themselves!
<Great. Probably the number one killer of fish. Bio filtration is very important>
Greetings, and my deepest thanks for ANYTHING you can help me out with. Ok, so here's my issue, but first, I'm sure you will want to know all about my tanks, and such, (although that isn't terribly pertinent to my question). I have two ten gallons (I'm 16 and I baby-sit, so my income is hilarious, otherwise I'd have 55 gallon tanks or something) one of the tens is filtered with a penguin bio wheel mini, and the other, has two of these absolutely dirt cheap box filter thingy deals. And up until recently the cheapo filters had run for a year, with no fish killing problems. 
One of the tens, houses about 10 or 15 Dalmatian lyre tail molly fry, which are almost a month old. And to be brutally honest, I have no idea why they are still alive, and apparently thriving. Crazy ammonia levels have forced me to perform water changes just about every other day, which I fear is only sending the ammonia/nitrate/nitrite cycle dealy even more out of whack.
<Your work at water changes are why the fry are alive. Water changes will slow, but not stop, the establishment of the bacteria needed to cycle. I would suggest a simple change here. Replace the boxes with sponge filters. Since there is no floss to replace, bacteria will continue to thrive in the filter rather them be thrown away when you service the box. There is no real need for particle (floss) or chemical (charcoal) filtration if you do partial water changes as needed.>
You'd think that would be my problem, but it isn't. Moving along to the OTHER tank, all of ITS issues started, when I started switching the filter's around in the different tanks. I moved the bio-wheel from the now-molly fry tank, to what I christened the Death Tank, so that the babies wouldn't all get sucked up into it. This of course, left the fry tank filter-less, so I put the two box filters in there. 
Well, unfortunately, in the past week or so, I've switched them around again, because the fry are big enough to NOT get sucked up and I want them to have the nicer filter because they are oh-so endearing. Gosh, I'm really sorry to whoever is reading this, I realize it's long and confusing but please bear with me.
So, here's where the question comes in: Because my death tank seems to have un-cycled itself (and by that I mean, the ammonia which had previously been flawless, is high, and who the heck knows what the nitrate and nitrite are even doing?!)...
<You should be testing for nitrite and nitrate, not just ammonia. Very important> 
...fish have been succumbing to these stresses and developing illnesses. A week ago, one of my cherry barbs (which I've had for a year-ish) decided to get dropsy. He looked hilarious, but it ended sadly, when after treating with some Jungle Fungus stuff in conjunction with Jungle Parasite stuff. (I'd read it could be either, although I'm not sure my diagnosis was correct.) He died. Yesterday, I started treating my death tank for Ick.
<Most bloating is caused by an internal bacterial infection. Fungus and parasite meds would be of little use. A medicated anti bacterial flake food may have been a better choice. Even a good wide spectrum antibiotic in the water may have been better. And why are you treating for Ich? First, you make no mention of white spots on the fish. Second, you already treated for parasites. Do not treat unless you need to> 
Here's the part that I simply don't understand: For all of these medicine's I've been using to treat my cursed tank, they say to discontinue carbon filtration, which with my set-up, is all the mechanical filtration I've got. So what I've been doing, is putting the box filters into the fry tank, which has remained untreated, putting the bio-wheel filter into the death tank, which I first take the filter pad out of, because of course, it contains carbon. No wonder my tank is so screwed up! 
Can the bio-wheel alone handle the filtration of 1 female Betta, two adult mollies, and two barbs? I sort of doubt it.
<There are three types of filtration. Particle filtration simply removes any junk floating in the water. Any waste or old food that hits the bottom will usually stay there until removed with a gravel vac during water changes. This is less important than most people think. A good water change schedule removes far more junk than even the best filters. The second type of filtration is chemical. Usually done by adding charcoal. You only need chemical filtration if you are trying to remove a chemical, such as at the end of a med treatment. You can simply cut the black plastic cage on the filter insert and shake out most of the charcoal. The third, and by far the most important, is bio filtration. This is establishing a bacterial colony to convert the ammonia produced by the fish into nitrite, then finally nitrate. Most of the bacteria in your system lives on that bio wheel. It must be considered as if, and treated like, it was alive. In fact it is, with millions of lives working to keep your fish alive. When you start moving bio wheels around you may stress or kill the colony. Also, antibacterial meds will nuke the colony. That's what causes the ammonia to spike. Please read here on establishing FW cycling. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwestcycling.htm> 
Could you possibly tell me how in the world I'm supposed to keep the tank clean, while medicating it?
Any light you can shed on this would be greatly appreciated.
<Stop all treatments and work towards re establishing your bio filtration. If you do treat you must do water changes to correct ammonia or nitrite spikes, replacing the med with each>
Thank you so much again, I'm sorry this is so long.
Liz
<No problem. Don>