Nitriate Romoval Spounge!

[djceri_g]

now I realise ive got one these in my Juwel Aquariums. Is this awhy my plants isn't doing well? Should I take it out?

 

[for_my_fish]

depending how long you have had it in, its probably not doing anything anyway (in terms of nitrate), but it will be full of bacteria for amnonia and nitrite removal. If its new then I'd say take it out.

 

[jaarus]

Yeah as said - if its new then take it out - it removes nitrate kinda messing up your readings and once it stops working it releases everything its absorbed back into the water.... EEK!

If its old then its probably done all that already and no longer "does what it says on the tin".
Eventually it acts just like another mesh filter layer in your filter - so if its old (over 6-7months, then just leave it and treat it as any other filter layer)

As to why your plants arent doing very well - it could simply be light levels and plant choice.
Juwel aquariums ( I believe come with 18w builbs but only a 15w ballast so you actually..) have less light as standard then you are led to believe.
If you through in some high light plants in there then they will suffer a bit.

Also surface agitation will remove too quickly any build up of CO2 so that could also be a cause.


Hope any of that helped you

 

[nry]

Yeah as said - if its new then take it out - it removes nitrate kinda messing up your readings and once it stops working it releases everything its absorbed back into the water.... EEK!

Hmm, it doesn't mention that, I never changed mine ever and I am wondering if the above could have been the cause of some problems I had a long time back.....I'm still using the sponge now, obviously just for normal filtering now, my plants take up nearly all my nitrAtes

 

[djceri_g]

My tank has been set up since September so I say 7 months? Every rerading I get is ) NitrAte and I believe plants feed on this. At this stage I did not know I had a nitrAte sponge. When bying a new Juwel trigon last week I noticed the same nitrate sponge and then clicked! Plants aint doing well because of this! In my old tank I have changed the lighting to Daylight plus (interpet) and still no sucsess. I aint no expert on plants but I always go for the ones I believe are easy to keep. (not for me obviously) I will defo take it out of my new tank and transfer all the plants there. The fish is in old tank as my new one is cycling! Sory for the long post! Thanks for helping!!

 

[nry]

Juwel state to change the NitrAte sponge I think every 6 weeks. I am a tad lost as to what affect it actually has on nitrAte, I would have personally expected bacteria to develop naturally in the filter to handle nitrAte if it could happen, rather than have to introduce them regularly. I think that the sponge has a lifespan, after which it will no longer reduce nitrAte levels, so removing it after 7 months probably won't be of any benefit.

 

[Castellop123]

NitrAte and I believe plants feed on this. At this stage I did not know I had a nitrAte sponge

Plants only need a small amount of Nitrate (it is a macronutrient and there only needs to be a small amount of Nitrate in the water, less than 10ppm... I doupt that if your tapwater has a Nitrate reading of 20ppm, for example, that the Nitrate sponge 'alone' would be able to bring it down 10ppm!

Plants aint doing well because of this! In my old tank I have changed the lighting to Daylight plus (interpet) and still no sucsess. I aint no expert on plants but I always go for the ones I believe are easy to keep. (not for me obviously) I will defo take it out of my new tank and transfer all the plants there. The fish is in old tank as my new one is cycling!

There are 'loads' of reasons for why your plants are not growing well; the Nitrate sponge will do very little... Juwel tanks only come with around 1WPG of light (just changing the original T8 tube with another T8 tube will do very little...) I bet is that the lack of CO2 in the water is starving your plants and stopping them from growing (CO2 is important!) Your Water conditions may also be totally unsuitable for the Plants (you have to think about all the Factors...)

Cheers...

 

[SuperColey1]

I've never read about Juwel tanks running 18W tubes off 15W ballasts. Are you sure you haven't been reading threads on Fluval tanks because they most definately do run 18W off 15W ballasts.

In my case 2x18W tubes from a single 2x15W ballast!!

Until I replaced the dodgy old magnetic ballast with an electric one and replaced the rear with a PC55W.

Andy

 

[djceri_g]

I have now put all the plants in my new juwel tank and took out the new nitrarte spounge. And have ordered iorn tablets. I haven't got a clue about CO2 but will do some searching. The plants look much brighter in the new tank. The new one is a juwel trigon 190L and the onl one is juwel 96L with a interpet daylight plus. Maybey the plants dont to well because of no ferts? Or coulf my old tank not been properly cycled showing 0, NitrAte? Cheers