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Transitioning Phase... (Unknown Weeks) Transitioning into a Journal

I'll remove it tomorrow. I tried getting tightening the parts of the Twinstar but I couldn't get both the brackets to sit flush at the same. This then led to the poor decision of not adding weights to the manzanita whilst flooding the tank. The wood came apart and the plants went flying :(
 
Oh mate I feel your pain it's happened to us all the floating wood
The twin star should just sit on your 600 dont see why it wouldn't there is some give in the legs isnt there
 
Bad luck. The importance of filter capacity is easy to overlook.

Bacteria in the filter are deriving their energy from simple sugars, complex hydrocarbons, saccharides, lipids, org-acids etc. When you trim plants and when they decay these molecules enter the water and have to be fully consumed by the filter. It's a bit like when you cut a plant and bubbles come out for the next few days. Well a cocktail of different compounds including many plant growth hormones are released into the water and become available to algae. And here is the big difference.
Whereas we know that the nitrogen cycle is controlled by smaller filters - this is also a bit like saying transforming the species of nitrogen is enough to stop algae. Algae will use any form of nitrogen and this is why it occurs in tanks without ammonia. Check out what Tom Barr thinks on this subject. His view is that it is all about balance. Perhaps. But the most important thing to bacteria and algae will always be sugar (carbon) availability. They are in direct competition.

The reason people use bigger filter capacity is to remove the more complex hydrocarbon load. You still need to get rid of ammonia - but this is not the point of a bigger filter. You need to knock out plant growth hormones and all that carbon-rich food that algae love, and this will not happen without enough bacteria. In fact there are many highly desirable filter bacteria (other than nitrifying bacteria) that take quite a while to digest certain hydrocarbons.

The reason the industry pushes nitrogen treatment as the primary role of filtration is historic. Modern scientists look at biochemical interactions holistically and not in isolation. In wastewater treatment, the emphasis therefore is on lowering COD and you often find large filter beds because it is not as simple as just removing ammonia. This is the way people should now be thinking. All companies find it cheaper to sell something small. I cannot think of anything more boring than doing my phD on filtration and algae, but eventually somebody else will, and we will see a revolution in thinking as big as when EI first came out. Just think about how much things have changed in the last 20 years.

Filter capacity = essential. Flow control = essential.
 
I'm no scientist and all the above may be true, however i feel it misses an important point.... that being over whelming evidence from planted tanks the world over that filter media capacity isn't particularly defining in a tanks success.

Id hazard a guess that if the above was true it is offset with the large water changes planted tanks undergo...?

If filter capacity was important then surely tanks like the one below i plagerised from AG who's only filter is and eheim skim which is a 2cm piece of sponge should fail ??
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8J0pM9AfBO/?igshid=1axbd7xo1y44f




Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
The main reason for a large filter in a planted tank is flow output, 10 x tank capacity per hour is the standard. Planted tanks don't really require a lot of filtration like a traditional fish only tank, cause the plants do much of it themselves. Plants are key to water quality for other reasons as well...

Macrophytes can change the physicochemical environment of sediments through ROL (Radial Oxygen Loss) and the secretion of organic chemicals which in turn will increase the abundance and diversity of microbial communities and the removal of N.

Whilst sediment microbial communities are important for the removal of N, the interaction between plant communities and microbial assemblages in the form of biofilms on roots, leaves and stems also plays a crucial role in N removal and therefore water quality.
 
Any chance that I can get this to grow? It looks very dry.

It looks more like a type of <Lichen>. :) And that ain't really a moss, but a symbiosis of Fungus, algae and bacteria. There is a sp. we all know as Reindeer Moss. It used to classify as a moss genus in English it is Lichen but in my native language, all of it is still called Crusted Moss. But it isn't moss. :)

Some do grow aquatic, so you never know. It might change in grow form if it does. I once found a very nice looking one in a very wet place and to me, it also looked like an interesting nice looking leave moss, but posting pictures of it for ID at a local bryophyte forum it was identified as a lichen growing in a wet place. But there was no definitive ID given on th sp.
 
I contacted AG with regards to the Twinstar who will send on my images to the manufacturer. Hopefully it's just the wrong set of brackets. After 48 hours, the Tropica Powder soil (I used around 11 to 12 litres) leached 0.5 mg/l of Ammonia. The tank is not connected to my filter which is with the fish in the box.

The lichen is somewhere in the tank, I think it fell off whilst I had to fix the wood from yesterday's disaster. I've held it down with my biological filter bags. The fine tuning will be done in a months time to after the manzanita had sunk. Flooding attempt two to begin shortly.
IMG_20200208_115220.jpg
 
I had one piece of spiderwood within the tank which was used within the previous tank. Found a bit of old bba on it. So I took it out to boil it. Parts of the had also gone quite soft. This is how the tank currently looks with just the gnarled manzanita. Note: There is no filter at the moment hence the cloudy water.
IMG_20200208_163445.jpg
IMG_20200208_163435.jpg
IMG_20200208_163426.jpg
IMG_20200208_163414.jpg
 
Tank occupants are back in. It took an hour a half to catch them all. I will add in some rainbow babaulti and tiger shrimp to join the current population.

I've decided on the Oase Biomaster 600. On this forum, most people use glass/acrylic lily pipes. I've also seen steel pipes with a skimmer. Which works best and why?
IMG_20200208_191224.jpg
 
What equipment does everyone use for general maintenance? I used to use a blade to clean the glass. I've seen a few videos on YouTube of the Dennerle cleanator being used during maintenance. There's also a green pipe which transfers the water back from the bucket to the tank. Does anyone what that is? I currently use the bucket and jug method which isn't efficient.
 
Hi all,
I currently use the bucket and jug method which isn't efficient.
I just syphon the water out through a bit of 12/16 tubing. Years ago I bought one of those syphons, with a bulb you pump to get the water flowing, but they always break and it just so much easier to just have a quick suck on the tubing to get the water flowing. If you have a reasonably long length of tubing you are unlikely to drink much tank water.

cheers Darrel
 
Buy a cheap pond pump
Do as @dw1305 does to a bucket the get a garden hose on the pond pump and pump to sink of garden
Fill put buck in sink tun water with pond pump and hose pump straight back to tank using a sieve to disperse water gently
 
Could I use my current Eheim ecco pro in the same way as the pond pump? The filter will be a spare after I've bought the new filter at the end of the month.

It turns out the Twinstar was a bad batch. I will be getting it replaced with the standard within the week. I'll keep the photoperiod for 4 hours to reduce the algae risk.
 
Hi all,
I'll keep the photoperiod for 4 hours to reduce the algae risk.
I think four hours is too short a photoperiod, I wouldn't go under six hours, and I would prefer at least eight.

One issue with a really short period is that you would have twenty hours when the plants weren't producing any oxygen. In terms of nitrification you can never have too much oxygen, and I would have real worries until the plants are growing more strongly.

Can I ask how long have you had your Bristlenose for? Is he a new acquisition?

cheers Darrel
 
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Alright, I will increase the photoperiod to 5 hours. That's what I initially had when transitioning. I do not have a dimmer for the Twinstar. When the new one is sent over to me, I would have to run it at 100% intensity until the dimmer arrives.

I've had the bristlenose for less than a month. Looks quite thin in the image.
 
Hi all,
How long would I leave the sweet potato in the tank for?
Just cut a slice, put it in the tank in the evening (you can stick a stainless steel teaspoon/fork/skewer/screw etc into it), and hopefully by the next morning your Ancistrus will have found it.

Sweet potato is really good for fattening fish up, but pretty much any vegetable will do.

Have a look at <"PC: Feeding Plecos, part 1.....">.

cheers Darrel
 
I have decided to purchase the Aquael Ultramax due to its quietness. I'm interested in the 1000 and the 1500 litres per hour turnover. I couldn't find what the minimum flow is on the Ultramax 1500 just in case the max is too powerful for my tank. Does anyone have a rough idea of what the range of filtration speed is usually on filters?

I will try the vegetables from this weekend. I'll use a fork to weigh it down.
 
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