New plants 'melting'?

[seangee]

This is the one I use. https://www.pozzani.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=185
You can use any 10 inch filter canister but that one is nice and easy because you don't have to get extra fittings and I find it easiest just to hook up to a hosepipe. It also doesn't leak. Replacement cartridges are these https://www.pozzani.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=67.

I typically change my cartridges every 2 months but my 2 tanks get 125 litres of water per week between them. For the flex you only need 25 litres per week so they should last much longer. Just test the water coming out of the filter and when that goes above about 20ppm its time to change the cartridge.

 

[IndiaHawker]

Thank you! Yeah I don't usually move the decor when I'm cleaning - not sure if I mentioned that when witnessing the HR dying last night, and the dead fish wafted up that I thought had decomposed, I looked away for a second and it totally disappeared again. Last I saw the dying HR it appeared near death and I haven't been able to find it since - now I'm aware that the bodies aren't just decomposing quickly but are proving hard to find (lots of crevices in the aquascape, great for live fish, clearly not so much for dead bodies), I'm dealing with two that I know of but can't find somewhere in the tank (possibly more). And I imagine the best thing I can do is get these out asap, hence my wanting to move rocks and take fish out.

So in this case with the high nitrates, cleaning the filter weekly as I have been is a good idea?

Another thing - been looking into the pre-filtering threads but am still pretty confused as seems like pretty advanced stuff - however I'm looking more into the storage bin with water and plants and letting it sit for a week method as my mum actually didn't seem too bothered - think I'm reaching the point in the hobby where she's become kind of unfazed hahah. Would this work in a vertical type of container, like a plastic kitchen bin, or does it need to have a large surface area?

Thanks everyone!

 

[IndiaHawker]

Looking at this but unsure if it would have holes in the bottom:

https://www.qdstores.co.uk/products...H4rkzumKisy5gNrE6hQOxMOqgd7ZHwPsaAjhqEALw_wcB

 

[Byron]

So in this case with the high nitrates, cleaning the filter weekly as I have been is a good idea?

Yes. The brown gunk in the filter (and elsewhere) is organics, and as they decompose they produce CO2, ammonia and lead to more nitrates, so when nitrate is an issue, getting the organics out of the system is wise. Hence, cleaning the filter more, and vacuuming the substrate.

I will not respond to the questions on pre-treatment as I have never had to do this (fortunately) and I would not want to mislead you.

 

[IndiaHawker]

This is the one I use. https://www.pozzani.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=185
You can use any 10 inch filter canister but that one is nice and easy because you don't have to get extra fittings and I find it easiest just to hook up to a hosepipe. It also doesn't leak. Replacement cartridges are these https://www.pozzani.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=67.

I typically change my cartridges every 2 months but my 2 tanks get 125 litres of water per week between them. For the flex you only need 25 litres per week so they should last much longer. Just test the water coming out of the filter and when that goes above about 20ppm its time to change the cartridge.

Didn't see this when I replied - looks interesting! How easy is it to use and how exactly do you work it? Like a hose on each nozzle siphoning water through from one bucket to another? I have no concept of these things... if you have chance to post a photo or video of it in action I'd hugely appreciate it!

Yes. The brown gunk in the filter (and elsewhere) is organics, and as they decompose they produce CO2, ammonia and lead to more nitrates, so when nitrate is an issue, getting the organics out of the system is wise. Hence, cleaning the filter more, and vacuuming the substrate.

I will not respond to the questions on pre-treatment as I have never had to do this (fortunately) and I would not want to mislead you.

Yeah, been finding a lot of brown gunk when I've been cleaning it weekly which I guess makes sense. I cleaned it during water change today and after about three days there was already visible brown muck - is this normal or a result of the dying fish recently?

Please and thanks!

 

[seangee]

Didn't see this when I replied - looks interesting! How easy is it to use and how exactly do you work it? Like a hose on each nozzle siphoning water through from one bucket to another? I have no concept of these things... if you have chance to post a photo or video of it in action I'd hugely appreciate it!

Very easy. Attach the hosepipe to the side marked in and turn on the tap. You can either attach a piece of hose to the other end or just let it run straight into a bucket.

The water needs to run through quite slowly - about 2 litres per minute works well for me, so it takes 10-15 minutes to fill a 25l bucket for the flex change.

 

[Byron]

Yeah, been finding a lot of brown gunk when I've been cleaning it weekly which I guess makes sense. I cleaned it during water change today and after about three days there was already visible brown muck - is this normal or a result of the dying fish recently?

Organics occur naturally; the more fish and more they are fed, the more organics. Plant additives can also add to them, and any decaying organic matter such as dead plant leaves and fish but not one fish dying. I have an issue with organics in one tank, and have for several years now. I have done everything to reduce them, and the fish load was way below what the tank (a 90g) could support without any issues. They also came and went. This happens; every tank can be quite different biologically. The main thing is keeping nitrates as low as possible.

In all of my tanks nitrate is in the 0 to 5 ppm range, except the 90g where they run at 10 ppm no matter what. It happens. I went on a program of monthly instead of 3 month cleanings of the canister, and it seemed to help a bit. I also had this problem in the 70g, which also had a canister until I removed it; it was 22 years old and began leaking, so I got an internal Fluval filter with just a sponge insert. Interestingly, the organic issue seems to have improved a lot, now that I am rinsing out this filter every week at the water change. Yet it is only rated for a 40g tank, but with live plants I do not need biological filtration, just mechanical with sufficient surface disturbance, and this has proven to work very well.

 

[IndiaHawker]

Very easy. Attach the hosepipe to the side marked in and turn on the tap. You can either attach a piece of hose to the other end or just let it run straight into a bucket.

The water needs to run through quite slowly - about 2 litres per minute works well for me, so it takes 10-15 minutes to fill a 25l bucket for the flex change.

That's brilliant, glad it's so easy to use as I was getting a bit confused on the threads! I think I will be getting this - annoyingly I'll have to wait till the end of the month as I'm really skint now, and I hate having to wait, but at least this should solve the problem. Reading the reviews (which look great) it mentions that this also lowers the pH by about 1 - which in my case is great as the pH is higher than ideal for the fish the tank came with - but to be careful, how much water should I change at a time to start off with to ease the fish into the lower pH? I know pH changes aren't ideal for fish but in this case I imagine it'll be worth it as it will remain stable once all the water is replaced with the pre-filtered water - and this'll remove the nitrates. One more thing - should I add water conditioner before or after pre-filtering? Please and thanks!

Organics occur naturally; the more fish and more they are fed, the more organics. Plant additives can also add to them, and any decaying organic matter such as dead plant leaves and fish but not one fish dying. I have an issue with organics in one tank, and have for several years now. I have done everything to reduce them, and the fish load was way below what the tank (a 90g) could support without any issues. They also came and went. This happens; every tank can be quite different biologically. The main thing is keeping nitrates as low as possible.

In all of my tanks nitrate is in the 0 to 5 ppm range, except the 90g where they run at 10 ppm no matter what. It happens. I went on a program of monthly instead of 3 month cleanings of the canister, and it seemed to help a bit. I also had this problem in the 70g, which also had a canister until I removed it; it was 22 years old and began leaking, so I got an internal Fluval filter with just a sponge insert. Interestingly, the organic issue seems to have improved a lot, now that I am rinsing out this filter every week at the water change. Yet it is only rated for a 40g tank, but with live plants I do not need biological filtration, just mechanical with sufficient surface disturbance, and this has proven to work very well.

Wow, interesting how tanks can be so different! At least whilst I'm having trouble with nitrates, I'll make sure to keep cleaning out the filter more often. Thanks for your help!

 

[seangee]

That's brilliant, glad it's so easy to use as I was getting a bit confused on the threads! I think I will be getting this - annoyingly I'll have to wait till the end of the month as I'm really skint now, and I hate having to wait, but at least this should solve the problem. Reading the reviews (which look great) it mentions that this also lowers the pH by about 1 - which in my case is great as the pH is higher than ideal for the fish the tank came with - but to be careful, how much water should I change at a time to start off with to ease the fish into the lower pH? I know pH changes aren't ideal for fish but in this case I imagine it'll be worth it as it will remain stable once all the water is replaced with the pre-filtered water - and this'll remove the nitrates. One more thing - should I add water conditioner before or after pre-filtering? Please and thanks!

It had no effect on my pH whatsoever. My KH is 20dh so changing my pH is almost impossible without reducing the KH.
Since you are filtering directly from the hosepipe you would have to add the conditioner after. I used to add the right amount of de-chlorinator into a 25 litre jerry can and then filter into that. I have subsequently got a cheap carbon filter and attached that to the end of my nitrate filter (hosepipe -> nitrate filter -> carbon filter -> jerry can -> tank) so I don't bother with de-chlorinator anymore. Technically I didn't need it before because I always filtered my water a week in advance. (Note that leaving your water to stand for a week only works if your water is not treated with chloramine. Mine isn't but you would need to check with your water supplier)

 

[IndiaHawker]

It had no effect on my pH whatsoever. My KH is 20dh so changing my pH is almost impossible without reducing the KH.
Since you are filtering directly from the hosepipe you would have to add the conditioner after. I used to add the right amount of de-chlorinator into a 25 litre jerry can and then filter into that. I have subsequently got a cheap carbon filter and attached that to the end of my nitrate filter (hosepipe -> nitrate filter -> carbon filter -> jerry can -> tank) so I don't bother with de-chlorinator anymore. Technically I didn't need it before because I always filtered my water a week in advance. (Note that leaving your water to stand for a week only works if your water is not treated with chloramine. Mine isn't but you would need to check with your water supplier)

Hi, back again! Thanks so much for all your help so far. Finally got all the products, the hose I ordered was way too narrow but thankfully my mum has let me chop a bit off the garden hose haha! Made a mistake at first - didn't realise I actually attach the pozzani filter to the garden hose, so I attached a couple of foot of hose to each side of the filter. Now I'm pretty sure that I keep the couple of foot of hose on the 'out' side (although optional) and will remove the couple of foot from the 'in' side and hook it up to the garden hose - is this correct? Just want to make sure, leaving it till tomorrow now as it's 10pm and dark out now, but just want to make sure I'm right before doing anything! Didn't realise I could use hose water in a tank but I assume this is because of the pre-filter cleaning the water?

Please and thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

If you are using a garden hose to fill up the tank, turn the tap on and let water flow through the hose for a minute or more before using it to fill a tank or put through a filter.

Garden hoses have a softening agent in them to keep the hose flexible. The more expensive hoses have more softening agent, whereas the cheaper garden hoses have less and often become hard and brittle and don't flex but kink instead.

You need to run water through the hose to flush out the softening agent otherwise you can poison your fish. The softening agent is poisonous to all animals, fish and other aquatic organisms.

In warmer weather more of the softening agent leaches into the water sitting in the hose and in cool weather less softening agent leaches into the water. Regardless of the time of year, you want to flush the hose out before using it.

You can use black poly pipe (irrigation tube) or clear plastic hose instead of a garden hose. Neither the black poly pipe or clear plastic hose have the softening agent in them. Having said this, it's a good idea to flush out any hose for a few minutes before using it to collect water.

 

[IndiaHawker]

Thank you! I know in the pozzani manual it says to let the water run through it for a few minutes first, before using the water to top up the tank, but I will make sure to also run the hose for a few minutes before attaching it to the filter. Interesting to know about the softening agent, knew nothing about it!

Stupid question: When I do water changes, I usually add warm water to the tank - obviously with this new method I only have the option of adding cold water. Will this be okay, or will it be dangerous for my fish?

Also, I've never actually tested the hose water for nitrates. Since my indoor tap water has nitrates, is it safe to assume that the hose water does too?

Please and thanks again!

 

[Colin_T]

Interesting to know about the softening agent, knew nothing about it!

Nobody knows about it except the companies making garden hoses. I found out about it years ago after I did a water change and lost all my fish. I had bought a new flex/ kink free garden hose and flushed water through it. I then used it to fill the tanks. A few minutes later I had a heap of dead fish. I rang the company and asked if they had anything in the hose that would affect fish and they told me about the softening agent.

The softening agent is also harmful to any animals so even if you use it to fill up a dog's water bowl, you should run the hose for a few minutes first or just fill the bowl directly from the tap.

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When you do a water change the new water might be a different temperature to the aquarium water. A few degrees difference is nothing to worry about but if there is more than 5 degrees Celsius difference you can add some boiling water to the bucket of tap water to warm it up.

In the wild when it rains there can be a sudden influx of cold water from the rain getting into the river. Many fish are stimulated by this cooler rain water and breed because of it. Some species of fish will be stressed by the sudden temperature change but if the temperature only changes a bit, it should be fine.

*NB* Do not put hot water through water purification filters because it can cause problems to the filter media.

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If you have nitrates in the tap water in the kitchen, you should have nitrates in the water everywhere in the house, including outside from the garden tap.

 

[IndiaHawker]

Thanks so much for all your help! So to clarify, with the hose, should I make sure to run it through for a few minutes every time I use it to fill my tank, or does this just apply to a brand new hose? I'll be using the garden hose that's been used in the garden for years attached to the filter, but I don't mind doing whatever I can to make it safe! Sorry about your fish, that must have been awful and totally one of those things that no-one would be aware of

Will test temp of water beforehand and if it's too cold I'll add a little boiling water! How come it's okay to add the boiling water - does boiling remove nitrates from it, or is it because I'd need to add such a comparatively small amount of boiling water that the impact of any nitrates would be negligible?

Thanks again! I learn so much from these forums, it's great

 

[seangee]

I filter my water into a25 litre jerry can. I bring it into the house at least a day before I need it. Room temperature is close enough that I don't bother adding hot water as the temp only drops by a few degrees. If you leave the jerry can outside make sure you cover it or it will grow algae (which isn't actually harmful and won't make your tank green)