Bradders
Member
Well, some of us are bored, so it's time to start tinkering. (Fed up with spreadsheets, so moving on to a practicable).
I currently use the Oase Biomaster 250 canister for my aquarium filtration. Despite some negatives, it is quite a workhorse and does not give me much bother - and the aquarium is healthy with very clear water. The only nag (if you can call it that) is that I have to clean the pre-filter around once a week because the flow starts to slow. Some of this is due to the poor pipe design; some of this is because it collects waste and starts to clog and reduce the flow. So, what if I don't want to clean the pre-filter every week BUT I also want to maintain my water quality? Sounds like a challenge to me.
There is some evidence that if your bio media is mature and you are not overloading your aquarium, then the biofiltration should be able to deal with DoCs and faeces, etc - i.e. you don't need to place so much emphasis on the mechanical stage if you have great biofiltration. And therein lies the driver for the experiment - what if I dropped the pre-filter sponge down to 30PPI or 10PPI or nothing (straight-through)? Would I maintain a healthy aquarium with very clear water and almost never clean (open) the canister? Or at least greatly reduce the need to perform maintenance?
Over the coming weeks/months, I am going to experiment with lessening the usage of mechanical filtration - which currently (in the Oase) is a standard 45PPI foam for the pre-filter:
As this is the start of the experiment, happy to take some early comments (so we can record early predictions) and also any feedback on how we can really improve the data output to prove success or failure.
It's all a bit of a folly, to be honest. But If I can reduce the maintenance without hurting fish and plants, then that would not be such a bad outcome - I might even save a few pennies on equipment and save some time in the process, too.
Thoughts, ideas, (and even outrage) welcome!
Regards,
Brad
I currently use the Oase Biomaster 250 canister for my aquarium filtration. Despite some negatives, it is quite a workhorse and does not give me much bother - and the aquarium is healthy with very clear water. The only nag (if you can call it that) is that I have to clean the pre-filter around once a week because the flow starts to slow. Some of this is due to the poor pipe design; some of this is because it collects waste and starts to clog and reduce the flow. So, what if I don't want to clean the pre-filter every week BUT I also want to maintain my water quality? Sounds like a challenge to me.
There is some evidence that if your bio media is mature and you are not overloading your aquarium, then the biofiltration should be able to deal with DoCs and faeces, etc - i.e. you don't need to place so much emphasis on the mechanical stage if you have great biofiltration. And therein lies the driver for the experiment - what if I dropped the pre-filter sponge down to 30PPI or 10PPI or nothing (straight-through)? Would I maintain a healthy aquarium with very clear water and almost never clean (open) the canister? Or at least greatly reduce the need to perform maintenance?
Over the coming weeks/months, I am going to experiment with lessening the usage of mechanical filtration - which currently (in the Oase) is a standard 45PPI foam for the pre-filter:
- Reducing to 30PPI (33% decrease from standard)
- Reducing to 10PPI (77% decrease from standard)
- Removing all mechanical (100% decrease from standard).
As this is the start of the experiment, happy to take some early comments (so we can record early predictions) and also any feedback on how we can really improve the data output to prove success or failure.
It's all a bit of a folly, to be honest. But If I can reduce the maintenance without hurting fish and plants, then that would not be such a bad outcome - I might even save a few pennies on equipment and save some time in the process, too.
Thoughts, ideas, (and even outrage) welcome!
Regards,
Brad