Filter Maintenance Advice

[longridehome]

Hello all and best wishes to all forum members and families for 2011.

This is my first real post on the ukaps site as I am new to the planted tropical tank hobby but have kept fancy goldfish with a few plants in the past.

I am having a BGA battle with my 6ft x2ft x 18 inch deep set up that has been running for about 9 months.
Obviously trawling through the vast amount of information on this site this could be due to a number of reasons and without listing more details of my set up I am not expecting any specific advise that will result in a cure for my BGA problems.

However I have notice that filter cleanliness is one area that can help with BGA problems.
The filtration on this tank is via an Eheim 2128 thermofilter with a large Eheim bare filter cannister as a pre filter.
By bare I mean that it has mechanical foams/wool and biological media but no pump head. The water syphoning through this before entering the 2128.
The thinking behind this is that I have plumbed it in such a way that it can be removed whilst leaving the 2128 running.Then the prefilter can be removed and serviced and the 2128 protected and very infrequently serviced.

This has been the case for the last 9months the 2128 set up with the the media it arrived with and untouched for 9months, the bare cannister has the biological (Aqua One advanced pro) media from my last, cold water fancy tank, which was running for about a year plus foam and wool as a mechanical pre filter.
As you can get some idea of the condition of the pre filter by shining a torch at it and through it this gives some idea when it is getting gungy.All attempts at getting a glimpse of the 2128 internals have eluded me, the flow indicator remains green.When the prefilter looks like it needs attention it is stripped, all the mechinical stuff renewed and the biological stuff which is in a net bag swilled out in a bucket or two of aquarium water.
The questions are is this enough maintenance? Should the biological media be progressively replaced? Always seems a shame to me to throw well seeded media away?Perhaps I should be looking at the condition of the 2128 with a strip down? Good enough for the fish but maybe this level of maintenance is also good for the BGA?
All thoughts on this and filter maintenance gratefully received.

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
BGA is caused by any combination of;
Too much light, low nitrates in the water column, poor flow, or poor filter maintenance which allows organic waste to break down and be untreated within the filter.

Regular cleaning of filters is necessary and simultaneously accomplishes the removal of organic waste and improving flow. These are in fact specific factors that you need to look into. It is entirely possible that you have all of these factors operating in the tank.

I have not seen any correlation between replacement of certain types biomedia and increased performance. Sintered glass media, for example does not appear to require replacement as often as is suggested by the manufacturers, however, fabric type media do become clogged and deformed, so they probably should be replaced. If you can wash the fabrics well enough to dislodge the debris then this prolongs the useful life of that media.

I would say that in general, 9 months is much too long a cleaning interval (assuming normal bioload.) As I mentioned, organic waste buildup in a planted tank contributes significantly to algal blooms, so keeping both the tank and filters clean should be at the top of the priority list.

Cheers,

 

[longridehome]

Thanks for the reply ceg4048
I have just had the pre filter apart for a thorough clean. After a few days for that disturbance to calm down I will clean the main filter.Somehow I think it will need it.
In reply to your other very valid points as regards to the cause of my BGA.
I now think the problems all along have been the balance between light,nutrients and lack of flow.
Light: Well in my case I have had lack of light rather than too much.Got sucked in to the led trap, low running costs, full spectrum, long life etc. Big expensive mistake.Now I have 4x35w t5 Arcadia plant grows with reflectors and the difference is like moonlight and day.My opinion is that led is an abbreviation for Lets Everyone Down.
Low nitrates: Well I had high nitrates and phosphates, and the first bit of research uncovered the much debated Sears/Conlin(?) article on algae.Time and money wasted again on bringing both down very low.
Flow:Simultaneously to the flow return from the phosphate remover being added a reduction in BGA in that spot gradually occurred, of course due to the increase in flow and not the phosphate reduction.
Yes lots of mistakes but please stick with me!
Nitrates: Brought down again way too low 10 to 15 ppm on my API test kit, I know, all you expert plant growers have a dislike of test kits.This one I have not yet worked out,my tap water has about the 10/15ppm level. Is this the same nitrate as the powdered or Seachem Nitrogen widely used to dose with or are tap water nitrated in any way different?
The easiest way for me to up the nitrates is to get some Seachem nitrogen, But I am totally at a loss as to how much to add and how often? The tank has co2 injection via a pressurised system into a diffuser in the filter return pipe.
The Seachem range I have already are, phosphorus, iron, potassium,flourish and trace.What suggestions could you make regarding dosing these or other ferts?
I think I am beginning to grasp but not master the basics, adding ferts is still one that I have not.
Once again any advise would be very welcome.

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
Yes, we are all indebted to Paul Sears and Kevin Conlin, whose research revealed that the Dupla Drops, being sold at the time (for the equivalent of about £600 per liter) was nothing more than Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) and a few other salts. KNO3 then became the foundation for the dosing program they developed, later dubbed PMDD, AKA Poor Man's Dupla Drops. Unfortunately, they then mis-correlated the appearance of certain algal forms with the concentration levels of Phosphate in the water column. Subsequently, Tom Barr proved that there was no correlation between high levels of any nutrient and the rise of algae in a planted tank system through his Estimative Index experiments.

We now know that in CO2 enriched, high light tanks, the plants benefit from the addition of moderate to high levels of the three most important nutrients Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K). Because of their importance, you will see them refereed to as the macronutrients or NPK.

If you want to learn a bit more about the nutrient dosing strategy referred to as EI, please study the thread EI DOSING USING DRY SALTS in the Tutorial section of the forum.

The Seachem products you list each have the same nutrient salts discussed in the thread, however they are at a much weaker concentration level, so it's a significant economic advantage to use the dry salts. If you choose to use the Seachem range you will simply have to add stronger doses.

Potassium Nitrate is a salt produce in a very similar way to table salt. Any salt can be fabricated simply by adding a base to an acid. The result is a salt plus water. The water is simply dried leaving the crystalline salt. The salt that you eat comes from two extremely toxic substances Sodium (Na) and Chlorine (Cl), and can be fabricated by combining two lethal products; Sodium Hydroxide (lye) NaOH with Hydrochloric (Muriatic) Acid (HCl).

Similarly, from two toxic substances, the highly caustic base Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) can be mixed with Nitric Acid (HNO3) to form KNO3. Can you see from the chemical symbols how each of the two substances are composed of two groups which then recombine as if changing dance partners? The K from the KOH trades places with the H in the HNO3. The H and the OH combine and of course this is simply H20, which is water.

While dissolved in the water the H and the NO3 are suspended in their dance. There is only one nitrate. NO3 is nitrate by definition. In your water supply it could have gotten their by a "divorce" from nitric acid or from any other substance that contains NO3. Most often, high levels come simply from runoff of agricultural lands where farmers use fertilizers which contain Nitrogen from Nitrate salts. Bacteria also convert ammonia/ammonium (NH3/NH4) to NO3 via biochemical activity.

If I were you I would completely forget about test kits. These pieces of...rubbish don't really help you to grow plants any better than you can without them. I suggest that you adhere to strict nutrient dosing principles which obviate the need to measure concentration levels in the tank. Then, observe your plants. It's a very simple formula that eliminates guesswork and self deception.

Cheers,

 

[Coiln3107]

I run a pair of Eheim 2078's and on a 3 weekly rotation replace the white pre-filter pad and 3 weeks on do a strip and clean of everything. So far with a high plant and stock load this has proved to be critical in sorting out a problem I had a while ago with anubius melt. It may look like a lot of work but I have a really stable tank in terms of algea and my plant growth is amazing. I now spend time during weekly 50% waterchanges pruning rather than clearing out anything that died As Clive said in his reply tank and filter cleaning should be at the top of the list. For me having been on here for a while and read and learned from a lot of the posts the cleaning has made a massive difference. I have gone from buying plants to selling plants By using the white fine pads I change every 3 weeks I have noticed the sintered glass media is not nearly as dirty as a lot of the junk is getting caught before it has to deal with it therefor prolonging its life. As Clive said the media manufacturers are a bit in the heavy side with how long it lasts but by the very nature of it being sintered where does the mulm and junk go? In to the spaces in side the media so it must eventually get choked, surelly that is the intended nature of its design! I have changed mine when it gets discoloured as this indicates the holes inside are becoming choked. This was at about 6 months. I cannot see how running some tank water over the outside of the media can disturb saturated mulm trapped inside the complex inner srtucture of a piece of sintered glass :? For me all you are doing is washing the outside and that is not where the problem lies, because if this is really dirty you filter is minging!