Filtration Update!

[Nicko19]

Hey fish keepers,

I am finally coming up to the end of week 6 in the cycle of my new 4ft (300L) discus display aquarium.

My stock currently consists of;
30 tetras
2 plecos
2 bristlenose
2 corydoras

My parameters seem to be very stable 6 weeks into the cycle with no traces of ammonia and nitrite, with only 0-5ppm nitrates. Feeding is 2-3 times a day with no water changes as of yet.

As it seems my aerobic forms of bacteria have colonized my media nicely an rapidly. I will be expecting my nitrates to continue to rise in the coming weeks and I will monitor this by week 8 when I’m going to proceed with my first water change of 25%. From there forward I will be monitoring my nitrate levels weekly and continue onward for a 4 week interval for water changes while I wait for the anaerobic bacteria to colonize my biological media witch I can expect to show signs in nitrate reduction around the 4-6 month mark. All is well and the fish and plants are happy and eating an growing well. Feeding is 2-3 times a day mix of flakes an pellets.

Now to the more important part my filtration system;

I am running 2x Aquaone nautilus 1100s both filled with 4kg I’d dry weighed biohome ultimate, so a total of 8kg of biohome ultimate for my 300L aquarium.

This was achieved by moving my mechanical filtration from the 1100 canister giving me more space for biological media inside the canisters and it was from the help of pre booster filters witch consist of course medium fine sponges with a polishing pad.

My mechanical filtration is seperate from my biological media making a cleaner environment for my biological media and much easier for maintenance to be conducted.

I could be seen cleaning out my mechanical filtration booster filters every 1-2 months and possibly never touching my biological zone witch is great for not disturbing my aerobic and anaerobic bacteria’s.

I also am running 2x Eheim 150w heaters that maintain 28.5C-29C

So far so good everything is thriving inside the aquarium all very happy an healthy and I believe it will be a few more months yet before I’m happy to House some beautiful blue Diamond discus to the aquarium to finish this piece off.

Here is a photo of my filtration setup and also a few pics taken 2 weeks apart from 4weeks into the cycle to now.

 

[Colin_T]

Where do you expect the denitrating (anaerobic) bacteria to grow?
They won't grow in a normal power filter because there is too much water flow and this causes aerobic conditions.

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Filters should be cleaned at least once a month and every 2 weeks is better. However, do not clean a new filter that is less than 6 weeks old. Clean filter media in a bucket of tank water.

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If you plan on keeping discus, you should do big regular water changes (75% each week).

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Imagine living in your house with no windows, doors, toilet, bathroom or anything. You eat and poop in the environment and have no clean air. Eventually you end up living in your own filth, which would probably be made worse by you throwing up due to the smell. You would get sick very quickly and probably die unless someone came to clean up regularly and open the place up to let in fresh air.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

 

[Nicko19]

Totally agree with you after changes are needed even if all the bacteria is present to clean the water from toxins.

The anaerobic bacteria grows in the core of the biohome media where oxygen is at a bare minimum (anoxic conditions) and the aerobic thrives on the outside where conditions are very highly oxygenated. This is where mechanical filtration is very important in not letting the pores of the media clog up! You want your water to be pristine and free of particular matter as it enters the biological zone.

This is why the buihome ultimate media is best biological media on the market being a man made product that doesn’t vary is size or density it’s values are very consistent and perfectly structured for both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to colonize within the highflow canister filter.

Don’t get me wrong now this does not mean we can’t be changing water to remove certain organisms etc although having both the bacteria’s alive in your system means you don’t have to be a slave to your fish anymore.

People change water regularly because of nitrate levels not because of other organisms...
Having both bacteria’s thriving in your tank provides a much more stable environment as a result to not having to disturb the water column every day or week.

With this setup I should be looking at a monthly water change.

Now on the topic of other organisms and things at a microscopic size, is this where a UV sterilizer comes to play? I’m interested to see there capabilities and benefits within a discus aquarium!

Thanks for your response I like how you explained yourself it makes a lot of sense!

 

[Colin_T]

Now on the topic of other organisms and things at a microscopic size, is this where a UV sterilizer comes to play? I’m interested to see there capabilities and benefits within a discus aquarium!

Some people use a ultra violet (UV) steriliser on tanks but they need to be set up properly and you need a big UV unit with a slow flow rate of water.

The UV units have a cylinder with an ultra violet light that shines on the water flowing through a clear tube. Anything passing through the UV light gets exposed to it and tends to die. If the water flows through the unit too quickly, the light doesn't do enough damage to the organisms and they don't get killed off.

If there is lots of gunk (debris, algae, dirt) in the water as it passes through the UV unit, the harmful microscopic organisms don't always get exposed to the light and aren't killed.

Water flowing through the UV units needs to be filtered first so it is visibly clean, and you want it to flow through slow enough so all the harmful things get exposed to the UV light for long enough.

If you get a UV steriliser, go for a bigger unit than is necessary so it can do it's job properly. And make sure you can get replacement globes for them because they need to be replaced about once a year.

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The drawback to UV sterilisers is they never filter all the water so there will always be harmful microscopic organisms in the water. The only way you can get them to filter the entire tank is to put all the tank water through a UV unit and store it in a separate tank, and when the tank is empty, use the filtered water to fill the tank back up. And that's not practical. Even then there are still things in the substrate that get back into the water and contaminate the fish.

Personally, I wouldn't bother using a UV steriliser unless I was running a number of tanks on a recirculating system and had lots of new fish coming in all the time, like in a shop. For a home tank situation, quarantine all new fish for 4 weeks before putting them in the main display tank. Treat the fish for worms and gill flukes (and any other diseases that appear) while they are in quarantine. Then you should have healthy fish for the display and the number of harmful microscopic organisms in the tank water will be minimal.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Do you use Co2?

 

[Nicko19]

Some people use a ultra violet (UV) steriliser on tanks but they need to be set up properly and you need a big UV unit with a slow flow rate of water.

The UV units have a cylinder with an ultra violet light that shines on the water flowing through a clear tube. Anything passing through the UV light gets exposed to it and tends to die. If the water flows through the unit too quickly, the light doesn't do enough damage to the organisms and they don't get killed off.

If there is lots of gunk (debris, algae, dirt) in the water as it passes through the UV unit, the harmful microscopic organisms don't always get exposed to the light and aren't killed.

Water flowing through the UV units needs to be filtered first so it is visibly clean, and you want it to flow through slow enough so all the harmful things get exposed to the UV light for long enough.

If you get a UV steriliser, go for a bigger unit than is necessary so it can do it's job properly. And make sure you can get replacement globes for them because they need to be replaced about once a year.

------------------
The drawback to UV sterilisers is they never filter all the water so there will always be harmful microscopic organisms in the water. The only way you can get them to filter the entire tank is to put all the tank water through a UV unit and store it in a separate tank, and when the tank is empty, use the filtered water to fill the tank back up. And that's not practical. Even then there are still things in the substrate that get back into the water and contaminate the fish.

Personally, I wouldn't bother using a UV steriliser unless I was running a number of tanks on a recirculating system and had lots of new fish coming in all the time, like in a shop. For a home tank situation, quarantine all new fish for 4 weeks before putting them in the main display tank. Treat the fish for worms and gill flukes (and any other diseases that appear) while they are in quarantine. Then you should have healthy fish for the display and the number of harmful microscopic organisms in the tank water will be minimal.

Thanks for the advice Colin,

So you don’t think there is any benefit using UV sterilization on my 300L discus display?

 

[Nicko19]

Do you use Co2?

No I don’t have Co2 I just dose occasionally with seachem flourish excel, this product does wonders for plants an bacteria growth as it’s got iron Fe+2 witch I have been told is excellent for creating a healthy environment

And from my understanding if your plants are not growing then there simply not doing there job properly by removing unwanted nutrients from the water column... this goes as well with having an over stocked tank with plants. A moderately stocked tank with plants is going to be healthier than a over stocked tank with plants due to demand of nutrition to my understanding

 

[Colin_T]

So you don’t think there is any benefit using UV sterilization on my 300L discus display?

If you quarantine new fish before putting them in the main display tank, there shouldn't be any need for a UV steriliser. However, if you don't quarantine new fish, then a UV steriliser might help to reduce some disease organisms. But you will probably still have disease outbreaks if the fish are stressed or a sick fish gets introduced into the aquarium, and that will need to be treated.

I would save your money and just quarantine all new fish for a month before adding them to a display tank.

 

[Nicko19]

Ok great well all the fish stated above are all in the display now and have not shown any case of disease all that’s left is my discus an they will be quarantined from my supplier before purchasing

 

[Colin_T]

I would still quarantine them after you get them from a supplier.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Hi! You said you had 2 plecos and 2 bristlenose. Bristlenose are plecos so was that a typo or do you have 4 plecos in the tank? None are common plecos are they? Nice tank!

 

[Nicko19]

Hi! You said you had 2 plecos and 2 bristlenose. Bristlenose are plecos so was that a typo or do you have 4 plecos in the tank? None are common plecos are they? Nice tank!

Hey thanks! Sorry about that;
To be more specific I have 2 peppermint bristlenose plecs and 2 wild butterflies L168

Both are 3inches long and absolutely thriving in the display

 

[lee_k]

Really nice tank - would love a Discus tank but dont have near the knowledge you appear to have...yet at least!

 

[Nicko19]

Th

Really nice tank - would love a Discus tank but dont have near the knowledge you appear to have...yet at least!

Thank you kindly!

I’m stilla few months off before introducing the discus to there new Home.

I believe the biggest part of fish keeping is patience weather is fresh water or marine you need to not let your patience get the better of you an take each step at a time to reach your final goal, taking your time to research everything you plan on doing is also vital!

Apart from patience and research the next best part to learn is filtration and beneficial bacteria and how it works and how to grow it.

Learning how to create exceptional water quality through parameters and bacteria is the foundation of a healthy and successful fish aquarium environment.

Anyone can keep fish in my opinion!

Take your time and research every step you take and if your not sure about anything then just ask the question before taking the deep dive and expect the unexpected!

Happy days!

 

[AbbeysDad]

You've clearly thought this through, and I like the pre-filters for the canister filters, dedicating the canisters to bio-filtration. But I fear there may be a couple of flaws...
We tend to use nitrates as our measure of pollution. In fact, there are other pollutants that we just can't measure. A TDS (total dissolved solids) meter helps, but still there are others. Fast growing (especially floating plants) help, but typically with an average bio-load, water quality degrades. Necessary minerals are used (up) by plants and fish. A modest water change once a month is likely just not enough. Look at nature - fresh water is constantly renewed by rain and snow melt...in huge volumes. Stand at Niagara Falls and marvel at where all that water comes from - day in and day out!
I believe weekly water changes of the appropriate volume are much better, regardless of nitrate generation. The exact amount is in question, but up to a point of diminishing return, more is better than less.
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Biohome 'may' be a good bio-media. (I find it curious that their latest entry looks exactly like MarinePure's Cermedia). But @Colin_T has a point. Fast moving water through a porous media presents a challenge for anoxic/anaerobic bacteria to colonize. I don't know if you can bypass or otherwise slow the flow through the canister filters.
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footnote: I won't profess to being an expert, but I have been in the hobby for over 5 decades. I have high nitrates in my well water so I'm forced to pre-filter water for water changes. So in order to keep weekly water change volumes lower, I have worked several angles to keep tank nitrates as low as possible.
I tried Seachem Matrix/De*Nitrate (a pumice stone with 'micro-pores') in a slow moving filter for a very long time...BUT sadly I was never able to reduce tank nitrates with an average bio-load. I'm now experimenting with anoxic filtration as outlined by Dr. Kevin Novak. Time will tell.
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I wish you the best of luck, but suggest you consider weekly partial water changes regardless of the outcome of your denitrification efforts. You might also inspect your pre-filters more often - remember the detritus trapped there just breaks down and pollutes the water.