Guidance Needed For A Newbie!

[waterdrop]

I concur - 4 drops was always the hinge point for me too. It can take up to 2 weeks for CC to show a lot of effect, so just keep an eye on the stats.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bobtastic]

Are either of you guys familiar with Juwel's internal filter system? If you do, do you have any idea how I could introduce the CC into the filter?

 

[waterdrop]

Sorry Bob, Juwel is a UK company as far as I know and oldman and I are both USA...

Of course, CC is really not very different from carbon, so anywhere that they had carbon placed, it could replace it of course. Its ideal to have it in a mesh bag so its easy to reverse your decision if you decided to.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Anna Robinson]

I'm familiar with Juwel (they're German actually, I believe).

I think the only place you could put the calcium carbonate now is in place of the carbon, as Waterdrop says. It would have to be quite a small bag of course.

And yes, they do call the filters Bioflow now - I still think of them as 'Compact', 'Standard', etc, like they were until recently. D'oh!

 

[Bobtastic]

Ok, I decided to try and add a small bag of CC into my filter. I basically placed it inbetween the green and black filter sponges (not really sure if that was the "right" place for it tho). The water in the tank has gone a slightly cloudy, but I've put that down to particals coming off the CC. It seems to have had a small effect on the pH again.

 

[waterdrop]

In the last year I can remember one member reporting that it took up to two weeks to see much effect from CC. A different member reported seeing a change much more quickly than that. I'd assume there are a lot of variables, like, actual weight/volume of CC you put in, your water volume, your water flow, the rate at which autotrophic bacteria attach to your CC and stop it from dissolving. Also, I'd assume since its a mix of different types of shells and corals that the materials might have different rates of dissolving into the water.

I'll be interested to hear your experiences as another case.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bobtastic]

In the last year I can remember one member reporting that it took up to two weeks to see much effect from CC. A different member reported seeing a change much more quickly than that. I'd assume there are a lot of variables, like, actual weight/volume of CC you put in, your water volume, your water flow, the rate at which autotrophic bacteria attach to your CC and stop it from dissolving. Also, I'd assume since its a mix of different types of shells and corals that the materials might have different rates of dissolving into the water.

I'll be interested to hear your experiences as another case.

~~waterdrop~~

You truely are a water geek ~waterdrop~. I tip my hat to u! *tiphat*

 

[waterdrop]

In the last year I can remember one member reporting that it took up to two weeks to see much effect from CC. A different member reported seeing a change much more quickly than that. I'd assume there are a lot of variables, like, actual weight/volume of CC you put in, your water volume, your water flow, the rate at which autotrophic bacteria attach to your CC and stop it from dissolving. Also, I'd assume since its a mix of different types of shells and corals that the materials might have different rates of dissolving into the water.

I'll be interested to hear your experiences as another case.

~~waterdrop~~

You truely are a water geek ~waterdrop~. I tip my hat to u! *tiphat*

Ha Ha, yes. Over the last year I've thought about taking the time to attempt to get my picture of water coming out of my spraybar into an empty tank out of my cellphone, into my computer, into imageshack or something and into my avitar but since the thought of pressing a camera shutter is something that only comes to me once a year, this is clearly all too daunting a move away from my computer screens to bother with this, lol. (this does not predict a bright future for my occasional dream of borrowing an SLR with a macro-lens and remote flash and attempting a true planted tank type of photo )

~~droppedwater~~

 

[Bobtastic]

borrowing an SLR with a macro-lens and remote flash and attempting a true planted tank type of photo

I have yet to bust out my flash (+ remote trigger), light stand and start trying to get decent shots of my tank. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time!

I don't have a marco lens, but in this case I'm sure it's a good thing. I can only imagine the hours that would be waste trying to get a up close picture of a moving fishies! "the pesky things keep moving!!! "

 

[Bobtastic]

Since I've put the bag of CC into the filter my water is all cloudy... I assumed that when I originally put it in that it was just a few particals that hadn't been washed off during cleaning, but it is still cloudy... Is this to be expected?

 

[waterdrop]

CC is just like gravel or sand, can have a lot of fine particles that need to be rinsed out ideally. Its probably no big deal though and will eventually clear, no harm done I'd think.

~~wd~~

 

[Bobtastic]

I removed it last night as it doesn't seem to be clearing... Hopefully it will clear over the next couple of days.

 

[Bobtastic]

We had a minor set back yesterday... The girlfriends little boy decided it would be fun to "feed the fishies" and dumped half a bag of freeze dried blood worms into the tank!

Lucky the gf noticed and managed to get out as much as she could and did a 30% water change, but the fish were behaving very strangely...

I did another 30% water change a little later as the Nitrite levels seemed a little bit high, I also had to clean out the filter a little too.

This morning all the fish as still with us, if not a little fatter, but that aren't behaving as they did to before. I'm currently putting that down to the fright.

 

[waterdrop]

Bloodworms can give off a lot of protein. I'd not hestiate to do additional gravel-clean-water-changes when you have the time. I also believe bloodworms can be a bit of a problem to fish intestines sometimes even when they get them in reasonable quantities so you might consider posting a short question in the emergencies section and see if Wilder sees it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Bobtastic]

I've just heard that the little *&#$ was caught with his hands in the tank again and pulling up the plants this morning and half of the fish have now dead... The gf is furious, as am I!