New tank journal

[jbradt]

I'm not planning to start up the canister until we get back. I was just going to start to do some of the basic assembly. I think it will be stable before we go, so no worries there. Our daughter will be watching the tank while we're gone. I've been working a lot with her in how much to feed, checking the temperature, etc so I'm not worried about that.

I was just surprised by the change in the filter design. I read in the description that they added a prefilter, but didn't realize that they got rid of a tray to do it.

I was looking at how they intend the new model to be set up and it doesn't make sense to me... They tell you that it's supposed to be course sponge (the prefilter ring) then the biomedia in the bottom of the tray, then the fine filter pad on top of that. But why would you put water through the bio before all of the mechanical is done? Doesn't it make more sense to do all the mechanical before bio?

 

[DefJ123]

Looks like same filter I have.

I have the bio media on bottom, pre-filter then the course sponge on top. I believe it forces water through the top down and then back up and out. Whenever Ive cleaned it Ive found the gunk on the top of tue sponge.

 

[jbradt]

Looks like same filter I have.

I have the bio media on bottom, pre-filter then the course sponge on top. I believe it forces water through the top down and then back up and out. Whenever Ive cleaned it Ive found the gunk on the top of tue sponge.

Yeah, from what I can tell the water flows through the blue coarse sponge ring, then around the basket and up through the basket from the bottom... which is the same way the old one worked but without the blue ring. But I don't understand having the bio media before the fine pad. Wouldn't stuff get caught in the bio media that the fine pad is supposed to remove? If so, it's going to clog up space that should be colonized by BB, thereby reducing the overall amount of BB you can colonize. In my mind, you should have all of your mechanical media first, then pass the -mechanically- clean water over the bio media. This is difficult to do in this one as you would have to remove the bio media to change the fine pad.

I was reading the directions, and they say to replace the biomedia when it gets crusted with muck, but this should not be necessary.

 

[DefJ123]

I think I misread your post at first. I dont think I set mine up that way. I have the bio media on very bottom, fine filter on top of the bio media and the blue sponge is on top in its tray. I do not have to remove bio media to pull the fine filter this way. I may not have followed the instructions when putting it together though lol.

They say replace it because they want you to buy more.

I wouldnt worry about losing that small amount of filtering space if youre going to leave it as is. As I mentioned before most of your BB isnt in your filter, its on your substrate and tank decor / plants. There is definitely a chunk in the filter but that small amount of space wont make a huge difference.

 

[jbradt]

Gotcha. It's probably a much bigger deal in my head than it is in reality. I can tend to get stuck on little things sometimes.

The way you describe it is exactly like they have it in the instructions. The water flows through the blue ring, then around the tray, up through the bio-media, then through the fine pad.

Does your fine pad still get gunked up? do you have to rinse the bio-media often?

I think I'm likely to stick with the old 2 tray system: course and fine pads in the bottom, bio-stuff on top. I've got some time to think on it though since I don't plan to make any more changes to the tank until after the 19th.

 

[dougall]

if you leave the larger pore sponge there, and fill the baskets as you would like, it ends up easier to clean just the larger pore sponge, which is what would need the most frequent cleanings any way

 

[DefJ123]

JBradT, Ive only had it long enough to clean a few times. I have not washed the bio media, only dunked the fine filter and blue sponge in old tank water to get the stuff off them. There is gunk in the bio media but not enough for me to worry about yet.

 

[jbradt]

Aaaaaand, we're back.

Sorry it's been so long since an update. The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy!

So the tank is doing well. While I was gone, the kid did a great job of feeding and keeping an eye on everyone, and I'm happy to say there were no incidents.

So I've added a few more neons, and did a quick trim/rearrange of the plants. to bring us here:



Due to other projects that needed to be tended to I've been able to get the canister put together and tested, but not on the tank yet... that will be this weekend.

Current stock:
7 neons
3 panda cories
1 bristlenose pleco
2 kuhli loaches
1 tiny molly
1 glass catfish

I was talking to my daughter about it, and she wants to go with another small school of different fish rather than a large group of neons, so I was thinking about adding 6 or so harlequin raspboras, or possibly some celestial pearl danios.

I'm also looking at possible centerpiece fish. I'm open to any and all ideas here since gouramis are the only thing I've been able to think of so far and I'm really not a huge fan of them. It would need to be more of a top water swimmer since the panda cories and bn tend to be in the bottom most of the time, and the neons and harleys will take up the middle.

 

[DefJ123]

I love celestial pearl danios. I have 7 and they are amazing little fish, so colorful.

German blue ram would be a nice little center piece fish, so personable!

 

[enrique4jc]

How about a crowntail Betta? Very colorful and readily available. Or if your confident in your water quality, a pair of German Blue Rams.