Basic Water Quality Question

[edmlfc]

Re: Basic Water Quality Question

On my cichlid tank I do 50% w/c twice a week. Of course the tank is highly overstocked. Never had a problem doing the large water changes. I mix the buffer, prime and small amount of water in a bowl, stir it until the buffer disolves and while refilling the tank I add the mixture. I run the python while filling the tank over the thermometer and adjust the temp of the water as necessary. I have done it this way for years with other tanks.
My saltwater tank gets a 25% water change once a week with the water stored in the 55 gallon drum.
My 90 and 29 gallon gets a 25% water change twice a week with faucet water same method as above (no buffer only prime).

Now my wet dry: Once a month I remove the filter padding, take all the bio balls out put them in a bucket of tank water and give them a quick swish. Then I syphon out the water in the wet/dry ,put the bio balls back in add new filter padding and refill the wet/dry with more tank water. Then I use the bucket of water I just took the bio balls out of and rinse the sponge, after rinsing replace the sponge and thow away the bucket of water. This gets all the sludge, worms, etc that got past the filter padding. Then I continue with the regular water change. No problems on that tank after months of doing the same routine. Before the wet/dry I had canisters and cleaned them the same way.

[wesleydnunder]

Re: Basic Water Quality Question

I'm not a biologist, CF, though I am a moderator at AquariumBoard.com Forums where several members are biologists. I started keeping fish in 1968, so much of how I keep fish was learned the hard way, before the internet. I've found some great info out there on the web, but I've also seen a lot of crap posted. One of the members of our board is Robert T. Ricketts, an occasional contributor to TFH and The Puffer Forum and a retired marine biologist. I've learned a lot from him concerning water chemistry and tank biology.

Mark

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Basic Water Quality Question

Steve,

Like edmlfc posted, I would take the Balls out and put into aquarium water, shake them clean and siphon out the bottom of the wetdry and then put the balls back.

If the smell is bothering you, I would suggest using Carbon as a wetdry prefilter and change it out once a month.

The only effective way to remove Nitrates is waterchanges and plants.  Resins help, but they only remove 20ppm or so.

Fish gasping at the surface are stressed by either ammonia or nitrite.  Increase areation of the tank by adding powerhead or airstones, and definately perform waterchange.

The whole bio-process is a continous chain of ammonia breakdown into Nitrite, and then Nitrite breakdown into Nitrate.  If your Nitrates are high, it is because wastes that are built up in gravel beds, mechanical filters, or in the bottom of wetdry's is decomposing and being processed.  My suggestion is clean your wetdry, and mechanical filtration you may have, and up your waterchange percentage.

Hope this helps..

GEoff

[CichlidFan]

Re: Basic Water Quality Question

Well this thread dates back to last August and alot has changed by now, my water changes are weekly ones now of about 40%, where I was doing three changes a week of 20-25% each change. My Wet Dry's are matured and are working better, and with the addition of carbon saturated pads in conjuntion with my tidepool boxes, my fishies tank water quality has improved quite a bit I would say. I rarely have any casualites these days, and if there are, they are usually due to tankmate territory disputes.

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions everyone, I can't say enough nice things about the good people on the box.

God Bless Everyone of you's.... :)

Steve