Stagnant water

pbrack

pbrack

GO SENS GO!
Oct 8, 2005
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Before anybody freaks out, there's no fish or plants in this aquarium...I'm just setting it up!

I have an eheim 2215 as filtration, but I don't think there's enough surface agitation since there's some kind of a film building up. I put a powerhead for now since I wanted to break it up. I was planning on making this tank a heavy planted one with CO2 added in.

so
1) Should I leave the powerhead in there?
2) How much surface agitation should there be?

Thanks for any advice/replies!
 
whats in the tank now?

if you are going to get into heavily planted tanks with CO2 infusion, and surface agitation questions, you are probably going to want to look at information about Dissolved Organic Compound's. they are often refered to as DOC's.

kind of generic, i know, but topwater films are often DOC's. if your system is so still that you have films forming, its something you want to look into, not necessarily as a problem, but as necessary information.

having a powerhead agitating the surface will greatly disapate (sp) any CO2 you are adding.
 
1. Do you get plenty of water current underneath the surface with your canister? If yes then the powerhead isn't needed.

2. If you are injecting CO2, you don't want any surface agitation. If you are not injecting CO2, it doesn't matter how much suface agitation you have.
 
Yeah, I was hoping of adding some CO2 in that tank. If I do water changes and raise slightly the spray bar from the canister filter, is there a chance the film might go away?

Also, phanmc, in your aquariums in which you inject CO2, there's absolutely no surface agitation and or movement? IF that's the case, does it simply mean I should start doing a few water changes to remove the dissolved organic compounds?

Thanks again for the quick replies guys!
 
My tank has surface movement, but no agitation. I have some of the biofilm but mostly around the deadspots on the surface (around floating plants, at the corners, etc). I usually have to remove alot of the floating plants after a week and that process also removes much of the biofilm. A paper towel layed across the surface is also effective.
 
Since I don't have anything in yet while I build the canopy, I've just added a maxi-jet 400. So now I've got 110 gallons/h from the powerhead and 264 g/h from the canister filter (but it's a lot less than that for sure since it's full with media). Is that too much movement for plants and fish in a 50 gallon aquarium?

P.S. The film is pretty much gone since there is water movement, doesn't seem to have a lot of agitation too!
 
If we assume a flow rate of 350 gal/h total, that's 7x turnover per hour. In my honest opinion, its a little high for a planted tank unless you have fish that like fast moving water. If you remove the powerhead once you fully set up the tank, that will give you 5x turnover per hour, which is about right, imo.

The only way to actually remove the film is to either physically scoop/suck it out (paper towel as already mentioned) or hope that your filter can trap some of it. Personally, I use the paper towel method when I do water changes once a week.

- Marty
 
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