I think that the trickle filtration serves to not only work as incredibly effect biological filtration but by exposing the contents of the tank to air several times an hour the effect also offers huge gas exchange & adds oxygen more efficiently than any other method?Antipofish said:
-
You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up
R.O Filtration
- Thread starter krazypara3165
- Start date
Well emptying the tank at water change time is a quick form of evaporationkrazypara3165 said:
.... at the end if the day if the water drops so far then it will be topped up.For me the main benefit is the ease of water changes, I syphon out water through air line into a remote drain & the topup replaces the water = very very easy daily water change with no stress or mess but not much use if you are using a RO unit that only produces 2 gallon an hour or less!krazypara3165 said:
krazypara3165
Member
Ahhhhh so I could syphon water through a small tube and the topup can replace it from say a water bucket underneath my cabinet? Would it be enough to do around 50l a day though?
A
Antipofish
Guest
krazypara3165 said:
It doesn't only replace evaporated water. It does not know what evaporated water is. It replaces water. Water leaves the tank and the top up system replaces it, whether its caused by evaporation or by water changes.
Well actually I was thinking about a direct top up from a mains water supply, very easy to install but the small ball valve will be visible unless you have a sump of course & if you have a sump you can then have a trickle filter !!
A
Antipofish
Guest
foxfish said:
I dont think Discus will appreciate water changes from mains water though. That would be a problem surely in winter.
Really auto top up is best when connected to a main feed permanently, otherwise you may as well just use a transfer pump from your holding drums at water change time.
Oh why is that? I thought that most of the top breeders used tap water!Antipofish said:
The method I use by syphoning water to a drain via air line restricts the flow to a liter or so a minute so virtually any water purification unit that removes chlorine & heavy metals will easily coupe with the flow its just the super inefficient method of the RO system that will struggle to keep up unless you have a booster pump & a big unit.
I have never had a heating issue as changing relatively small 10-15% amount daily at a slow rate just wont effect the temp - although it might effect a 30c tank to a small extent.
A
Antipofish
Guest
foxfish said:
Not freezing cold mains water, I imagine they equalise the temperature. And I would not think that "most" of the top breeders use tap water. Some do, as we have heard, but I dont think we can assume that just because some do, it applies to all of them.
Hi all,
If your water is fully oxygenated 99.99% of the time, but de-oxygenated for the remaining 0.001% that is still a huge evolutionary pressure over time for the survival of those fish with behavioural and genetic pre-disposition to air breathing. You can also see this in the catfish super-family the Loricarioidea, where some members of both Loricariidae and Callichthyidae have a gut wall adapted for air breathing (Corydoras, Hypostomus spp.), and show air gulping behaviour, because it occurs across families, this indicates that this is likely to be a trait preserved from their common ancestor. Rheophilic Loricariids like Hypancistrus spp. still show air gulping under conditions of lower oxygen (levels that would be normal for a lot of other fish), even though they have lost the ability to make use of that atmospheric oxygen.
I know I've posted this before, but I wrote an article on oxygenation for Plec keepers, which is presently hosted at "Plecoplanet": "Aeration and dissolved oxygen in the aquarium" - <http://plecoplanet.com/?page_id=829>
If you keep a planted tank, but don't add CO2, this is a win-win situation, as levels of both CO2 and oxygen will be close to their natural maximum saturation. This is also where the "nitrate factory" tag comes in. Trickle filter are nitrate factories, because the filter media is all aerobic, even if we have water with a large BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), the filter has the potential for enough oxygen to diffuse in to keep the biologically mediated oxidation of NH3 > NO2 > NO3. This is another advantage of being fully oxygenated (whatever filtration system you are using) in that it gives you some extra capacity for biological filtration if you have an unnoticed fish death, emergency chloramine in your tap water etc.
cheers Darrel
I like lots of O2 as well, the majority of fish are going to come from water that is pretty fully oxygenated naturally. You can tell this from the fact that relatively few fish have evolved adaptations for atmospheric air breathing (some that have are some catfish, anabantoids etc), it would have evolved in plenty more fish if they experienced periods of hypoxia.
If your water is fully oxygenated 99.99% of the time, but de-oxygenated for the remaining 0.001% that is still a huge evolutionary pressure over time for the survival of those fish with behavioural and genetic pre-disposition to air breathing. You can also see this in the catfish super-family the Loricarioidea, where some members of both Loricariidae and Callichthyidae have a gut wall adapted for air breathing (Corydoras, Hypostomus spp.), and show air gulping behaviour, because it occurs across families, this indicates that this is likely to be a trait preserved from their common ancestor. Rheophilic Loricariids like Hypancistrus spp. still show air gulping under conditions of lower oxygen (levels that would be normal for a lot of other fish), even though they have lost the ability to make use of that atmospheric oxygen.
"Natureboy" is right, they aren't entirely independent of one another, because it is the same haemoglobin molecules that are carrying both CO2 and O2. At the interface between the fishes gill and the tank water, the diffusion gradients of both gases are relevant.
I know I've posted this before, but I wrote an article on oxygenation for Plec keepers, which is presently hosted at "Plecoplanet": "Aeration and dissolved oxygen in the aquarium" - <http://plecoplanet.com/?page_id=829>
These are the advantages of trickle filters, they aren't really separate, they are one and the same thing. The trickle filter has a huge gas exchange surface, this means that gas exchange will occur even with a small diffusion gradient between levels of dissolved and atmospheric gases.
If you keep a planted tank, but don't add CO2, this is a win-win situation, as levels of both CO2 and oxygen will be close to their natural maximum saturation. This is also where the "nitrate factory" tag comes in. Trickle filter are nitrate factories, because the filter media is all aerobic, even if we have water with a large BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), the filter has the potential for enough oxygen to diffuse in to keep the biologically mediated oxidation of NH3 > NO2 > NO3. This is another advantage of being fully oxygenated (whatever filtration system you are using) in that it gives you some extra capacity for biological filtration if you have an unnoticed fish death, emergency chloramine in your tap water etc.
cheers Darrel
