Filter maintenance and cleaning tips-discussion thread

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david mcgregor

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Mar 29, 2010
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when can i put bristlenose in my tank 2 mths old
 

GoldLenny

Senior Member? Do I get a 5% disc.?
I applaud the effort, but most of that sounds like opinion without enough substance. Too much fluff and no evidence to support the negative criticisms...
I applaud the effort, but most of that sounds like opinion without enough substance. Too much fluff and no evidence to support the negative criticisms...

Oh wait... that's what you said... but it's still applicable to what you said too. ;-)
 

jpappy789

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Feb 18, 2007
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I have a couple of issues with this article....

It is important to clean your filters regularly so you do not have excess detritus building up in them. Detritus in your filter media, when it starts breaking down, becomes a nitrate factory which goes into your water column as the tank water is filtered through it. Nitrates and phosphates feed algae blooms. Just like vacuuming your gravel to remove excess detritus before it breaks down, cleaning the filters often will also keep the nitrates much lower. I guess if you do frequent PWC's, that would substitute for keeping the filters cleaner but if you cleaned your filters before they become completely clogged, it would make the water quality even better between PWC's. Further, the bacteria that is consuming and breaking down the detritus use up a lot of O2 and KH and put out a lot of CO2. The higher CO2 further feeds algae growth and lowers your pH. The loss of KH can cause your pH to crash putting your fish into pH shock.
1) More N and P =/= algae all the time. Several in the planted hobby are dosing tons more of both than any decaying is going to put out and yet algae stays at a minimum. Same with CO2, which by the way is a non issue since a well aerated body of water is only going to hold about 2-3 ppm of CO2 anyways...at equilibrium with the atmosphere above it.

2) pH shock is bunk. Swings from CO2 hardly affect TDS which is really what matters to fish when it comes to osmotic balance.
 

RodInCALIFORNIA

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Aug 5, 2008
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i use berlin style wet dry filters on all my freshwater tanks and the weekly water change/gravel clean up and sock cleaning is about all the maintance i need to keep my tanks healthy and crystal clear. im sold on the filter sock berlin filters maintance is a snap.
 

GoldLenny

Senior Member? Do I get a 5% disc.?
The funny thing is that my article existed on AC for about a year before I knew about it due to a former AC member plagiarizing my ENTIRE article from my blog and posted it here on AC under their name... but nobody had anything bad to say about it back then. Oh well...

Unfortunately, I can't make any changes or corrections since the article seems to be locked up here on AC. I've asked in the article thread about making changes but never heard back. That's why I created my own blog so I can fix articles as new information becomes available that might change my opinion(s) about products or procedures.
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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You can always submit a revised article and submit it to a Global Mod for review and posting by Staff.
 
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