Pond matrix n Purigen

[morpheus]

As a followup - Just did first water change last night since reintroducing the matrix, so 15 days since putting it back.

nitrates were at 40ppm before WC, which matches what it was when reintroduced. dropped to maybe 15-20ppm after a 30% WC. again color cards are hard to determine which level.

will keep you posted after next WC in about 1-2 weeks. just added 4 new mbunas to the tank this week so that may skew the levels

[SunnyHouTX]

That's kind of high for after WC but maybe that's because you're only doing 30%. Thanks for the update.

[mnemenoi]

Following, might have to add some to our HOB's... I always enjoy Seachem stuff and they usually always deliver

[morpheus]

That's kind of high for after WC but maybe that's because you're only doing 30%. Thanks for the update.

No problem. Was not a large WC, but ammonia and nitrites were still at zero before WC. I will be increasing the frequency of changes due to adding more fish. The tank is still understocked, but I should move to weekly instead of 2+ weeks.

[SunnyHouTX]

Yeah. Even with heavy bio load in the 450, nitrates barely get to 40 - 50 ppm before water change

[nightster]

Water change? What's that? Lol kidding...

[morpheus]

Update #2 - Increased my WC schedule for this tank to weekly. The nitrates were at 40ppm, and after WC were at 20ppm. still a 30-40% change....so an increase of 20ppm in a week.

I doubled the amount of fish in the tank this past week too, so it makes sense the nitrates went up quicker than my first update.

[SunnyHouTX]

Yeah man. Still it's good numbers

[morpheus]

Did not do my update on 2-21-14 since the nitrates were still 40ppm before WC.

I just did my next WC last night and the nitrate level was 15-20ppm. This is the first significant drop - about 50% decrease - before WC since introducing matrix again to the canister and HOB. After the WC it went down to 0-5ppm.

[SunnyHouTX]

Nice. Very good turn of events

[johnnymisty]

Good glad it's down for ya

[mnemenoi]

Definitely tempting me to give it a try...

[johnnymisty]

Definitely tempting me to give it a try...

+1 or find a big supply of pumice stone

[SunnyHouTX]

So about 6 weeks for the denitrifying bacteria to start working well.

[morpheus]

glad i was a good guinea pig. yes about 5-6 weeks. i havent opened the canister since the process started, so that part of the system has just been continually flowing. but i need to replace that purigen in the canister so it was a good the drop happened now