oxygen

[fabian]

Re: oxygen

ok i figure it would help my fish ive got a oxygen consintrator that produces 98% oxygen i can use  i was just thinking it would help

[Obed]

Re: oxygen

On a lightly stocked tank with good filtration, I agree that regular water changes are enough. What I consider regular water changes in that case would be 25 to 30% a week. I would never suggest that anyone have any fish in any tank and do less than 15% a week. I have one tank that is a 125 , it is a fully planted tank. It has two eheim cannisters on it. The current residents are (1) angelfish, (5) dwarf albino ancistrus catfish. I still do 30% water changes a week in it.
Consistant, regular water changes are the absolute best thing you can do for your fish. If you think of you breathing quality air, the benifits it will give you, you are thinking about what the benefits of good clean water is to your fish. Filters are only a stop gap measure in providing good clean water for the fish, they remove harmful ammonia, but they do not improve the quality of the water, they just keep it from getting worse for a longer period of time, until you do water changes.

[Spot86t]

Re: oxygen

My grow out tanks are on an auto water change system and get 50% water changes daily. My show tanks do not get that.

Hey Obed,

Have any details on that auto water change system?  Particularly how you deal with dechlorinating the changewater?  I'd sure be interested in how you've got that set up.

Spot

[Obed]

Re: oxygen

I use a series of 20" cannister filters in line. The first is a 10 micron sediment filter, followed by (2) 20" 5micron carbon blocks, followed by a large whole house water softner cannister that holds about 150 pounds of zeolite to remove the ammonia left from the chlorimines when they pass thru the carbon blocks, then another 20" cannister with another sediment filter, then a final .5 micron carbon block. That way all chlorine, ammonia and any particles larger than .5 micron are filered out. That is about as clean a water system as you can get, even a diatom filter is only good for 1 micron, not .5.
After the filtration system I go thru a timer operated solenoid valve and have a central pipe system over all my tanks with drip emitters into each tank. the size of the emitter varies with tank size. The tanks get from two to sixteen gallons an hour.  Each tank has an overfolw that feeds from the bottom of the tank into a central drain line. This is the way my grow out tanks are taken care of.
All of my breeding tanks and hatching tanks are on RO water, I use the same type prefilter system for my ro with the exception of the zeolite which is not necessary because the ro unit removes the chlorine. My base ro unit gives me about 600 gallons a day, i have a back up unit that will give me 125 gallons a day if I have a problem with the large unit, I could use it until the large unit repaired.
Each of my ponds have filtration systems that i built, but they are not as elaborate as my angelfish set up as the Koi are nearly as sensitive as angels.
My wifes guppies and ancistrus catfish are in the same water as my grow out tanks.