Lakes and rivers also have a lot more water volume per fish. Not arguing, just food for thought.
NO substrate vacuming!!!!
- Thread starter iamvictor2k
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Lakes and rivers also have a lot more water volume per fish. Not arguing, just food for thought.
still havent vacumed a bit in my tank. its been aobut 4 months and my readings are awsome. my fish are doing great and my plants are growing like crazy. i have problems with alge but i never took any precautions agenst it at all so its a granted to have it. still doing 50% water changes every week. any questions are welcome and coments also.
still not vacing waters great peramiters are great plants and fish are great doing 50% water change every week. i have alge but i never took any precations agenst it so its a given to have it. any questions or comments are welcomed or input.
Do you have any Malaysian trumpet snails to keep your substrate aerated?
I have sand in all but one of my tanks, and in the one tank I have gravel, it's got an undergravel filter. Say what you will about UGFs, they are great for tanks with fry. No intakes to suck up baby fish, extremely cost effective, and yes, great fertilizer for plants. The dark "dead zones" in the gravel are where plants positively thrive. Think of swamp mud and how nasty it smells - definitely some anaerobic bacteria there.
Here's the big danger. When you decide to reacquascape and you stir up the tank - or if you ever decide to move and you have to break it down, or you have to break it down for any other reason - you're not just going to be throwing up some particles that your filter can suck right up. It's not about the visible particles making a mess. It's the chemicals, such as sulfur and ammonia, that you will have to deal with. So you have to be careful. If you go to break your tank down, of course, move the fish out first. If you reacquascape, have a siphon hose handy to suck up the crud right at the source. And of course, do water changes afterward - 50% is a bit too much for most people but your fish load is high I think, so probably it's right on.
Detritus in the gravel will also cause high nitrates, but your big water changes take care of that. If you kept any fish with barbels, such as corydoras, or fish that root around or burrow, it really benefits them to keep the substrate clean. Think of how if you cut yourself, then you dip your hand into mucky swamp water, you have a good chance of getting that cut infected. Same with them!
As far as grinding up the clippings, I'm not sure. I believe the best thing is to have fast growing plants suck up the nitrates and phosphates and then discard those things, not add them back into the tank. You probably have plenty of nutrients in your tank as it is. If you want to "fertilize" your tank you probably should look into some way of supplementing chelated iron.
I have sand in all but one of my tanks, and in the one tank I have gravel, it's got an undergravel filter. Say what you will about UGFs, they are great for tanks with fry. No intakes to suck up baby fish, extremely cost effective, and yes, great fertilizer for plants. The dark "dead zones" in the gravel are where plants positively thrive. Think of swamp mud and how nasty it smells - definitely some anaerobic bacteria there.
Here's the big danger. When you decide to reacquascape and you stir up the tank - or if you ever decide to move and you have to break it down, or you have to break it down for any other reason - you're not just going to be throwing up some particles that your filter can suck right up. It's not about the visible particles making a mess. It's the chemicals, such as sulfur and ammonia, that you will have to deal with. So you have to be careful. If you go to break your tank down, of course, move the fish out first. If you reacquascape, have a siphon hose handy to suck up the crud right at the source. And of course, do water changes afterward - 50% is a bit too much for most people but your fish load is high I think, so probably it's right on.
Detritus in the gravel will also cause high nitrates, but your big water changes take care of that. If you kept any fish with barbels, such as corydoras, or fish that root around or burrow, it really benefits them to keep the substrate clean. Think of how if you cut yourself, then you dip your hand into mucky swamp water, you have a good chance of getting that cut infected. Same with them!
As far as grinding up the clippings, I'm not sure. I believe the best thing is to have fast growing plants suck up the nitrates and phosphates and then discard those things, not add them back into the tank. You probably have plenty of nutrients in your tank as it is. If you want to "fertilize" your tank you probably should look into some way of supplementing chelated iron.
It sounds like your not vacuming is working for the time being. While lakes and ponds do sustain life and plants in this way, they have a LOT of algae. If the algae doesn't bother you, fine, do what works. I like to keep my tank more "crisp" as it is my version of an indoor garden.
I also would add that in addition to plants and fish life in a lake/pond, there are many other animals that eat/drink/live near water that may add additional nutrients, or take away nutrients. Your aquarium doesn't have that (may not make a huge difference, but still).
I'm interested to see how the tank is doing in another 4-6 months, when much more goop has built up. BTW, do you have a full tank pic?
I also would add that in addition to plants and fish life in a lake/pond, there are many other animals that eat/drink/live near water that may add additional nutrients, or take away nutrients. Your aquarium doesn't have that (may not make a huge difference, but still).
I'm interested to see how the tank is doing in another 4-6 months, when much more goop has built up. BTW, do you have a full tank pic?
Spikes in ammonia, (then nitrite, then nitrate.) In the substrate it is decomposing and can make nutrients available to plant roots. In the water column, it keeps breaking down (continuing the process) but now those excess nutrients are releasing their byproduct, ammonia....etc into the water where they can affect fish.
The stuff you see on the bottom in lakes is 'mulm' btw, and is different than what is buried in the bottom. And there are many things about natural bodies of water that are different from our contained aquarium environments.
Ah yes, I remember this now too. I've seen gas bubbles released, in planted tanks where I decided to really vacuum in deep in heavily planted areas. Never had a bad effect in my tanks but I've read that it has the potential to.
No Jpappy, I to love my tanks to stay very clean. Some say it's a bad thing, some say it's a good thing. No sure either way. All I know is that my fish are all very healthy and I have had not lost any fish for sometime now. I lightly vacuum my substrate with every water change, Exspecaily my cichlid tank. They are very messy fish. I do weekly water changes, clean plants & filters once a month. That's my routine. It's working for me. But, I don't have live plants yet.
