Too much bio media, is it possible?

[Downhillmonkey]

Hi all, maybe a stupid question, but can you have too much bio media in a planted tank?

I have foams and floss in one tray and two trays full of sintered glass. I'm worried that the glass media is stripping the nitrates from the water before the plants get chance to take full advantage of it. I plan to test this over the next week (work permitting).

Obviously flow is decreased as a result of the media and given the most recent advice, flow and co2 are king, so improving the flow in the tank would be beneficial.

It is a lightly stocked tank.

Your views.

Cheers

 

[parotet]

Obviously flow is decreased as a result of the media and given the most recent advice, flow and co2 are king, so improving the flow in the tank would be beneficial.

This is the answer to your question... too much media (bio, mechanical or whatever) will be in conflict with your flow. Additionally in a planted tank you really don't need all this stuff (compared to "only fish tanks") as your plants will do the job. Plants love nutrients, including the chemical forms of nutrients that filter media and bacteria break down, and they are very efficient... In other words, make sure you fill the tank with a lot of plants, make sure they grow well, leave only 1/3 of the filter media on your filter and concentrate on flow, tank husbandry and nutrient management.

I'm worried that the glass media is stripping the nitrates from the water before the plants get chance to take full advantage of it.

... glass media reduce the flow significantly. This should be your concern. If you think that your filter media is uptaking your nitrogen (which I think is not true, others may confirm) just add more, if you have good plant grow an excess of nutrients won't do any harm.

I plan to test this over the next week (work permitting).

You can do it of course but... just two things: the first one is that hobby grade test kits are not accurate as the measurements easily interfere with other chemical substances in the water column. They can give you just a very rough idea of what you have (let's say you don't have nitrates or you have plenty of them, but anything in between would not be reliable)... The second one is that this rough idea of nutrients level can be easily checked with your eyes or other simple methods (and the best thing, you don't have to pay 12€ for each test kit). If you are in the low tech approach I really recommend the Duckweed Index proposed by one of UKAPS moderators (Darrel aka dw1305) in which the color of floating plants is used as an indicator of the nutrient levels (worth to read it). If you are in a high tech approach, just use any fertilization technique that can provide a reasonable excess of nutrients to your plants (Estimative Index, PPS-Pro, etc.). If you are using an enriched substrate (such as ADA AquaSoil) a lean fert method should be enough, but using the mentioned ones will also work.

Jordi

 

[Downhillmonkey]

Many thanks. Looks like I'll be messing with tanks again. The missus will be impressed