The below email is a monthly e-minder that I signed up for with Tetra, years ago, to see what it was and I never did unsubscribe but every time I get it, I wonder how many fish Tetra killed this month??? This "e-minder program" from Tetra is mainly marketed to newbie's which makes it even worse.
Here is the email and I'll add my comments afterwards.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tetra [mailto:e-Minders@tetra-fish.com]
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 12:03 PM
To: Lenny Vasbinder
Subject: Monthly Aquarium Maintenance
Hello from TetraCare.
To keep your aquarium in tip-top condition, please be sure you're doing the following on a regular basis:
1. Test the water monthly using your test kit. Is the water okay (normal pH, zero ammonia, zero nitrite)? If not, please call us at 1-800-423-6458, and we'll help you correct any problems.
2. Do a partial (25%) water change, unless you're using EasyBalance(R). Be sure to add a water treatment such as AquaSafe(R) to the water you add to the aquarium, as tap water is toxic to your fish.
3. Change the cartridge in your Power Filter every month.
The TetraCare team is always here to help you.
You can contact us at 1-800-423-6458. We're here 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EDT Monday through Friday, and Noon to 6:00 p.m. Saturday & Sunday; otherwise leave a voice mail message, and we promise to return your call within 24 hours!
There's never a charge for TetraCare - we're happy to help.
The TetraCare team
----- END MESSAGE ------
OK... The first tip is OK except it doesn't talk about testing for nitrates... which while not the perfect test to determine how good/bad the water quality might be, it's certainly an indicator of a potential problem and should be tested on a regular basis... especially considering the rest
of the "tips" given in this email.
The second tip is suggesting only a monthly 25% PWC which might be OK for a very lightly stocked aquarium... although I think even this example of a tank needs more than 25% of fresh clean water a month. Can you imagine how high the DOC (dissolved organic compound) level would get after the same water is flowing through a dirty filter for a month? The WORST part of this second tip is how Tetra says "... unless you're using EasyBalance..." which is a product Tetra pushes on newbie's. This is a product that Tetra says can be added to a tank and then you only have to do PWC's once every six months. I've written about this crappy chemical before and it's nasty stuff to put in an aquarium and subject fish to for six months. One forum thread I read several years ago added this stuff to their guppy tank and the guppies did not breed in the tank... so I ask... can a chemical that stops guppies from breeding possibly be good for your fish? Maybe Tetra should market this as birth control for livebearers... LOL
If the first two tips didn't kill all of your fish, the third one will likely put them over the edge. Now, Tetra, in order to sell more filter cartridges, is telling people to trash their fully cycled and perfectly good and healthy filter cartridge and advising folks to put a new one in, which will put the tank into a mini-cycle with resulting ammonia and nitrite spikes... every month. (Read my article "Filter Maintenance And Cleaning" for more info on this topic)
In conclusion... this example tank likely has a high nitrate level, huge levels of DOC's in the water column and is being put into a mini-cycle with soon to come ammonia and nitrite spikes... and this is being advised by Tetra to do this on a monthly basis.
So... does Tetra own some of the importing and pet fish farms, so they have an interest in killing as many fish as possible so they can sell people new fish??? Inquiring minds want to know!!!
Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/
(Links to articles referenced above listed on the right side under Archives - Year, Month and under Labels)
Showing posts with label PWC- Partial Water Changes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PWC- Partial Water Changes. Show all posts
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
How-To Start Your Gravel Vacuum Siphon
http://tinyurl.com/GL-Gravel-Siphon
Updated with another YouTube link and commentary, on 2009-0829.
There is no reason to suck on the tube to start a gravel siphon.
Here is a YouTube video showing one way to start the siphon going without having to suck on the hose. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGU-IQk_xO8 Here's another YouTube showing a gravel vacuum in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC6BhvjUWts&NR=1. Here's a YouTube showing the way I start my gravel vacuum, which I describe after this link.... but I don't put the hose around my neck like the lady in this video does. I'm not sure why she's doing that anyhow. LOL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_440OaQxE
Another way to start the gravel vacuum, as shown in the third link above, which is less disruptive than pumping the vacuum tube up and down like in the first link, is to first set up your bucket.
Put your finger over the drain (small) end of the siphon hose.
Then dip the large end of the siphon (vacuum tube end) into the tank and turn it upside down so it fills up with water.
Then lift it out of the tank and slowly let the water drain down into the siphon tube until it reaches your finger.
Then put your finger on the end again so the tubing stays full of water.
Then while keeping the big end (vacuum tube) open side up, again sink it back into the tank so it fills up again (so no air is in the big end or the tubing).
Turn the big end over to get ready to start vacuuming and put the small end in the bucket and release your finger.
Voila! The siphon effect should be started.
Of course always rinse your hands and arms under hot running tap water to remove as much skin oil, etc. from your hands/arms before putting them in your tank.
If you have a long siphon hose, like some folks use to water their gardens at the same time as doing a PWC, this isn't practical and the simplest thing might just be to suck on the end but you should only have to suck a little to get the water up over the top of your tank and down to floor level in the house. It's best to use clear tubing for this purpose so you can see the water. After that, it should continue the siphoning until it reaches the end of the hose and flows out your back door.
Even if I was going to use the long siphon hose process, I would still use the method I described above, since I've read stories of people being 25' or 50' away from their tank when they started the siphon going with the sucking method and by the time they got back to their tank, one of their prized fish had swum up the siphon tube and got caught on the small opening of the tubing. A recent post in a goldfish forum had this accident happen to their small black moore and both eyes got sucked out and the fish didn't make it.
Of course, all of this is moot for me since I use a Python Water Change & Fill System which is worth its weight in gold as far as I'm concerned. I can do PWC's on all of my tanks in a 1/2 hour without making a mess or carrying a bucket.
Here is a recent question and my reply from a forum:
-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 9:33 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AquaticLife] Lenny, Your Blog
Don't you have a primer on gravel cleaning? I know you've typed that one should only do 50% per pwc. Could you post the link for me? I cannot find it.
My Reply:
My standard recommendation is 25% PWC's so that one is not changing the water chemistry parameters too much, too fast.
If the tank is especially dirty, then a series of 25% PWC's, one every couple of hours, should be done. For properly stocked tanks, a weekly 25% PWC should be sufficient. For overstocked tanks, 2 or 3 PWC's a week might be needed... daily in some cases.
As far as vacuuming the gravel, I do have a blog article on "How-To Start Your Gravel Siphon"
http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-to-start-your-gravel-siphon.html but as far as cleaning the gravel, it's just a matter of siphoning a small section at a time until the water being sucked up through the siphon tube is flowing clear, then move to another section. If you can't clean all of the gravel during one 25% PWC, wait an hour or so (or the next day) and do a 2nd and/or 3rd 25% PWC until the gravel is mostly coming up clean.
For folks with bigger tanks or multiple tanks, I strongly suggest a Python Gravel Vacuum And Water Change System or one of the other brands who have copied the Python. I think Lee makes one now and there's another brand I've seen and those two have lower prices than the Python.
Another option is a canister filter system like the Marineland HOT Magnum 350 Pro series that has an integrated gravel vacuum tube system so the canister filter provides the suction to suck up the detritus out of the gravel but then the water is returned to the tank so you would still have to do a separate 25% PWC using a regular siphon or pump... or modify that Magnum system to also have a valve that would send the water to a long drain hose instead of back into the tank... but even then, you would have to refill the tank.
The Python or a copy-cat brand is the simplest overall system since it does the gravel vacuuming, water change and then refill all from the same connection.
Maybe, I'll add this reply and more to my existing blog article on the gravel siphon.
Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/ (Links to articles referenced above listed on the right side under Archives - Year, Month and under Labels)
Updated with another YouTube link and commentary, on 2009-0829.
There is no reason to suck on the tube to start a gravel siphon.
Here is a YouTube video showing one way to start the siphon going without having to suck on the hose. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGU-IQk_xO8 Here's another YouTube showing a gravel vacuum in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC6BhvjUWts&NR=1. Here's a YouTube showing the way I start my gravel vacuum, which I describe after this link.... but I don't put the hose around my neck like the lady in this video does. I'm not sure why she's doing that anyhow. LOL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_440OaQxE
Another way to start the gravel vacuum, as shown in the third link above, which is less disruptive than pumping the vacuum tube up and down like in the first link, is to first set up your bucket.
Put your finger over the drain (small) end of the siphon hose.
Then dip the large end of the siphon (vacuum tube end) into the tank and turn it upside down so it fills up with water.
Then lift it out of the tank and slowly let the water drain down into the siphon tube until it reaches your finger.
Then put your finger on the end again so the tubing stays full of water.
Then while keeping the big end (vacuum tube) open side up, again sink it back into the tank so it fills up again (so no air is in the big end or the tubing).
Turn the big end over to get ready to start vacuuming and put the small end in the bucket and release your finger.
Voila! The siphon effect should be started.
Of course always rinse your hands and arms under hot running tap water to remove as much skin oil, etc. from your hands/arms before putting them in your tank.
If you have a long siphon hose, like some folks use to water their gardens at the same time as doing a PWC, this isn't practical and the simplest thing might just be to suck on the end but you should only have to suck a little to get the water up over the top of your tank and down to floor level in the house. It's best to use clear tubing for this purpose so you can see the water. After that, it should continue the siphoning until it reaches the end of the hose and flows out your back door.
Even if I was going to use the long siphon hose process, I would still use the method I described above, since I've read stories of people being 25' or 50' away from their tank when they started the siphon going with the sucking method and by the time they got back to their tank, one of their prized fish had swum up the siphon tube and got caught on the small opening of the tubing. A recent post in a goldfish forum had this accident happen to their small black moore and both eyes got sucked out and the fish didn't make it.
Of course, all of this is moot for me since I use a Python Water Change & Fill System which is worth its weight in gold as far as I'm concerned. I can do PWC's on all of my tanks in a 1/2 hour without making a mess or carrying a bucket.
Here is a recent question and my reply from a forum:
-----Original Message-----
From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 9:33 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AquaticLife] Lenny, Your Blog
Don't you have a primer on gravel cleaning? I know you've typed that one should only do 50% per pwc. Could you post the link for me? I cannot find it.
My Reply:
My standard recommendation is 25% PWC's so that one is not changing the water chemistry parameters too much, too fast.
If the tank is especially dirty, then a series of 25% PWC's, one every couple of hours, should be done. For properly stocked tanks, a weekly 25% PWC should be sufficient. For overstocked tanks, 2 or 3 PWC's a week might be needed... daily in some cases.
As far as vacuuming the gravel, I do have a blog article on "How-To Start Your Gravel Siphon"
http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-to-start-your-gravel-siphon.html but as far as cleaning the gravel, it's just a matter of siphoning a small section at a time until the water being sucked up through the siphon tube is flowing clear, then move to another section. If you can't clean all of the gravel during one 25% PWC, wait an hour or so (or the next day) and do a 2nd and/or 3rd 25% PWC until the gravel is mostly coming up clean.
For folks with bigger tanks or multiple tanks, I strongly suggest a Python Gravel Vacuum And Water Change System or one of the other brands who have copied the Python. I think Lee makes one now and there's another brand I've seen and those two have lower prices than the Python.
Another option is a canister filter system like the Marineland HOT Magnum 350 Pro series that has an integrated gravel vacuum tube system so the canister filter provides the suction to suck up the detritus out of the gravel but then the water is returned to the tank so you would still have to do a separate 25% PWC using a regular siphon or pump... or modify that Magnum system to also have a valve that would send the water to a long drain hose instead of back into the tank... but even then, you would have to refill the tank.
The Python or a copy-cat brand is the simplest overall system since it does the gravel vacuuming, water change and then refill all from the same connection.
Maybe, I'll add this reply and more to my existing blog article on the gravel siphon.
Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/ (Links to articles referenced above listed on the right side under Archives - Year, Month and under Labels)
Friday, March 2, 2007
Pond Maintenance - Q & A about an Algae Bloom and How-To make an inexpensive Filter system
Following is a post to a Yahoo Group forum that I belong to, and my reply to their questions/problems.
Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 14:15:29 EDT
From: cfit421@
Subject: gross water
Hi,
A friend of mine has a small pond. I'd say it's about 200 gallons. It is stocked with 12 (I think) Wal-mart goldfish, there's only a trickle of water falling from a rock to aerate the water, and the filter and pump are at the bottom of the pond.
The water is disgusting. It's FULL of stringy and blanket type algae and there's a rusty color to the water. She said she got a hold on it just a few weeks ago, then it rains, and it gets all gross again.
She said if there's any expense involved in making it right, it won't be able to happen. So, is there anything she can do to fix the water, even if it involves a LITTLE work and a LITTLE money?
Thanks!
AND NOW MY REPLY:
The algae bloom is usually caused by several factors. Too high of Nitrates and Phosphates in the water and too much Sunlight are the main two reasons for algae. The high nitrates are caused by over-feeding and poor water and filter maintenance. The biggest cause of all of these problems is TOO MANY goldfish. A 200G pond might be OK for 12 baby goldfish but as the grow, they simply create too much waste for that small of a pond. Long-bodied goldfish need at least 50G per goldfish so that pond is 300% overstocked.
Too much sunlight is a little tougher to handle but can be helped a little by water lilies and hyacinths in a wide open pond. You should let them grow till they cover over 50% of your pond. I don't know what the layout of the pond is and if there are any trees providing shade, etc.
Test the water for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates and also pH if a test kit is available. The Ammonia and Nitrites are usually more of a worry when a pond is new or too much of a bio-filter change has been done. Some people "clean" their ponds and disrupt the bio-filtration too much when they do this.
The high Nitrates can be lowered by PWC's (partial water changes) (if Mother Nature does not provide sufficient rainfall)... no more than 25% at a time unless it's an emergency such as an illness (or contamination)... just pump some of the pond water into the gardens and replace it with properly conditioned tap water but be careful about using the garden hose unless the hose has been running for a while to get any plastifiers out of it first. I just read about this recently after someone had a pond fish kill. I have a 30 gallon clean garbage can that I only use for the pond water. Then I add the conditioner and then pour the water into the pond. Set up the garbage can near the edge of the pond first so after it is full and conditioned, you can just slowly pour it into the pond.
The other reason for high Nitrates is OVER-FEEDING of the Goldfish. Goldfish are great actors and act like they are starving all of the time. Any time you walk near the pond, they will come to the surface and beg for food. Resist the temptation and ONLY feed them once or twice a day per the instructions on the food. Some times, it is good to skip a day just to let them scavenge around for any food that sank to the bottom and to give the bio-filter a chance to catch up with the goldfish waste. Many website articles recommend this. Some even say you can leave for a 3-day weekend without worrying about the Goldfish eating. They eat just about anything and if they are really "starving", they would munch on the greens in the pond but they won't really be starving... just acting! I take this back in advance if you come home from your 3-day weekend and all of your pond plants have disappeared. At least the Goldfish ate well! :P
Neither of the above items cost you anything.
Now, another low-cost or free long term solution.
I'll assume they have a pump that is pumping the water up to the rock and presuming that the pump is OK, then the pump and/or lines are just clogged up with algae growth. Take the tubing off from the Pump to the Rock and clean it out. I used the garden hose to force water through it. Take the tubing all the way out of the pond when you do this and let the junk and water that comes out of the tubing flow into a garden. It will be great for that purpose. Prepare to get a little messy during this job.
Next, make a pre-filter for the pump (assuming it's a small 3-4 inch cube type) to keep all of the junk out of it and the lines. I can't find the link now but I found a diagram on a website years ago where you take a 12" plastic basket, like the kind used for pond plants (get it at the local home improvement or pond store). Buy some "natural" filter material (it was a blue color and used for furnaces and was inorganic and will not harm the water and lasts forever). Buy enough so that you can cut it up to fit all four sides, the bottom and top of the plastic basket between the four side pieces. Put the bottom piece in and then put the four sides in. Put some pea gravel in as weight and for the pump to sit on top of. Then put the top piece on after cutting small slits for the tubing and electrical wiring. All of the pieces should be cut to fit snuggly inside of the basket and the top piece should fit snuggly on top. Optional - put a few bunches of weighted anacharis plants on top of the basket to finish off the system or you can tuck the ends of individual strands between the seams of the blue filter material.
Here is a link to a website http://www.mvwgs.org/filter.htm that shows a similar, but larger DIY pre-filter so depending on the size of your pond, you could use the one I describe with 12" plant basket or the larger one using a milk crate.
EDIT added 07/27/05 - Someone recently found the original website for my pre-filter in the wayback web archives... at this link, but the last time I checked, it was not working - http://web.archive.org/web/20001210043100/theplantplace.com/ourfilter.htm
Now you have a pre-filter for the pump and a GREAT bio-filter as well. Around $10.00... and maybe even free if you have these materials around your home already. The Blue filter material will turn greenish soon, as it filters out the junk and will blend in with the bottom of the pond or you can put it behind a plant or something which is probably where the pump was at in the first place. I also saw someone do this with a plastic milk crate but it required more of the filter material which most people do not have handy. Do not use Fiberglass filter material. I wish I could find the website that explained the exact material but it was the only Blue filter material that you could buy at Home Depot. It is about 1" thick and sturdy... like the material in a kitchen or floor scrub pad... but inexpensive and came in a 24" x 36" piece in one package. It was enough for one filter kit.
The gravel and filter material will become a phenomenal bio-filter after a couple of weeks. When cleaning, if necessary, never clean more than one or two pieces of the filter material at a time and never clean the gravel or bottom piece. When you take the assembly out of the pond, put it in a tub of pond water so you do not kill the good bacteria in the bio-filter. The best thing to do if the filter material is getting clogged up is to just swish it around in the tub of pond water to remove the big debris without removing all of the bio-filter bacteria. Put the piece of filter material back into the basket and use that water in the tub for watering your plants or garden. It's packed with nutrients!
Run this new pre-filter assembly for a week and then do another 25% water change and clean two of the pre-filter panels and repeat until your pond is crystal clear.
When you do maintenance on your pre-filter, always unplug the pump first and any other electrical items in the pond and then put a larger bucket in the pond and put the pre-filter in the bucket (with water) so the pre-filter stays submerged when you remove it and do your filter and pump maintenance.Continue this until the pond is crystal clear... which will happen as long as the over-feeding is cut out and partial water changes are made. Eventually, the partial water changes can be cut back on once the natural bio-filter is doing its job and the algae does not have all of the extra food/nitrates to feed on.
For even more GREAT information, check out these two articles.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ClearPond.html
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/PondAlgae.html
Hope this helps.
GoldLenny
Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, phots and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!
Comments:
Jim Prior said...
Hi Lenny, thats a very good description of working a pre-filter and bio-filter setup. I too have created my own setup incorporating a Skippy style fish pond bio-filter and aeration venturi to make my pond water much cleaner. It has plenty of photos for building such a filter. I hope this will be useful to you and your visitors.
Best wishes Jim.
Friday, September 30, 2005 9:23:00 AM
Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 14:15:29 EDT
From: cfit421@
Subject: gross water
Hi,
A friend of mine has a small pond. I'd say it's about 200 gallons. It is stocked with 12 (I think) Wal-mart goldfish, there's only a trickle of water falling from a rock to aerate the water, and the filter and pump are at the bottom of the pond.
The water is disgusting. It's FULL of stringy and blanket type algae and there's a rusty color to the water. She said she got a hold on it just a few weeks ago, then it rains, and it gets all gross again.
She said if there's any expense involved in making it right, it won't be able to happen. So, is there anything she can do to fix the water, even if it involves a LITTLE work and a LITTLE money?
Thanks!
AND NOW MY REPLY:
The algae bloom is usually caused by several factors. Too high of Nitrates and Phosphates in the water and too much Sunlight are the main two reasons for algae. The high nitrates are caused by over-feeding and poor water and filter maintenance. The biggest cause of all of these problems is TOO MANY goldfish. A 200G pond might be OK for 12 baby goldfish but as the grow, they simply create too much waste for that small of a pond. Long-bodied goldfish need at least 50G per goldfish so that pond is 300% overstocked.
Too much sunlight is a little tougher to handle but can be helped a little by water lilies and hyacinths in a wide open pond. You should let them grow till they cover over 50% of your pond. I don't know what the layout of the pond is and if there are any trees providing shade, etc.
Test the water for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates and also pH if a test kit is available. The Ammonia and Nitrites are usually more of a worry when a pond is new or too much of a bio-filter change has been done. Some people "clean" their ponds and disrupt the bio-filtration too much when they do this.
The high Nitrates can be lowered by PWC's (partial water changes) (if Mother Nature does not provide sufficient rainfall)... no more than 25% at a time unless it's an emergency such as an illness (or contamination)... just pump some of the pond water into the gardens and replace it with properly conditioned tap water but be careful about using the garden hose unless the hose has been running for a while to get any plastifiers out of it first. I just read about this recently after someone had a pond fish kill. I have a 30 gallon clean garbage can that I only use for the pond water. Then I add the conditioner and then pour the water into the pond. Set up the garbage can near the edge of the pond first so after it is full and conditioned, you can just slowly pour it into the pond.
The other reason for high Nitrates is OVER-FEEDING of the Goldfish. Goldfish are great actors and act like they are starving all of the time. Any time you walk near the pond, they will come to the surface and beg for food. Resist the temptation and ONLY feed them once or twice a day per the instructions on the food. Some times, it is good to skip a day just to let them scavenge around for any food that sank to the bottom and to give the bio-filter a chance to catch up with the goldfish waste. Many website articles recommend this. Some even say you can leave for a 3-day weekend without worrying about the Goldfish eating. They eat just about anything and if they are really "starving", they would munch on the greens in the pond but they won't really be starving... just acting! I take this back in advance if you come home from your 3-day weekend and all of your pond plants have disappeared. At least the Goldfish ate well! :P
Neither of the above items cost you anything.
Now, another low-cost or free long term solution.
I'll assume they have a pump that is pumping the water up to the rock and presuming that the pump is OK, then the pump and/or lines are just clogged up with algae growth. Take the tubing off from the Pump to the Rock and clean it out. I used the garden hose to force water through it. Take the tubing all the way out of the pond when you do this and let the junk and water that comes out of the tubing flow into a garden. It will be great for that purpose. Prepare to get a little messy during this job.
Next, make a pre-filter for the pump (assuming it's a small 3-4 inch cube type) to keep all of the junk out of it and the lines. I can't find the link now but I found a diagram on a website years ago where you take a 12" plastic basket, like the kind used for pond plants (get it at the local home improvement or pond store). Buy some "natural" filter material (it was a blue color and used for furnaces and was inorganic and will not harm the water and lasts forever). Buy enough so that you can cut it up to fit all four sides, the bottom and top of the plastic basket between the four side pieces. Put the bottom piece in and then put the four sides in. Put some pea gravel in as weight and for the pump to sit on top of. Then put the top piece on after cutting small slits for the tubing and electrical wiring. All of the pieces should be cut to fit snuggly inside of the basket and the top piece should fit snuggly on top. Optional - put a few bunches of weighted anacharis plants on top of the basket to finish off the system or you can tuck the ends of individual strands between the seams of the blue filter material.
Here is a link to a website http://www.mvwgs.org/filter.htm that shows a similar, but larger DIY pre-filter so depending on the size of your pond, you could use the one I describe with 12" plant basket or the larger one using a milk crate.
EDIT added 07/27/05 - Someone recently found the original website for my pre-filter in the wayback web archives... at this link, but the last time I checked, it was not working - http://web.archive.org/web/20001210043100/theplantplace.com/ourfilter.htm
Now you have a pre-filter for the pump and a GREAT bio-filter as well. Around $10.00... and maybe even free if you have these materials around your home already. The Blue filter material will turn greenish soon, as it filters out the junk and will blend in with the bottom of the pond or you can put it behind a plant or something which is probably where the pump was at in the first place. I also saw someone do this with a plastic milk crate but it required more of the filter material which most people do not have handy. Do not use Fiberglass filter material. I wish I could find the website that explained the exact material but it was the only Blue filter material that you could buy at Home Depot. It is about 1" thick and sturdy... like the material in a kitchen or floor scrub pad... but inexpensive and came in a 24" x 36" piece in one package. It was enough for one filter kit.
The gravel and filter material will become a phenomenal bio-filter after a couple of weeks. When cleaning, if necessary, never clean more than one or two pieces of the filter material at a time and never clean the gravel or bottom piece. When you take the assembly out of the pond, put it in a tub of pond water so you do not kill the good bacteria in the bio-filter. The best thing to do if the filter material is getting clogged up is to just swish it around in the tub of pond water to remove the big debris without removing all of the bio-filter bacteria. Put the piece of filter material back into the basket and use that water in the tub for watering your plants or garden. It's packed with nutrients!
Run this new pre-filter assembly for a week and then do another 25% water change and clean two of the pre-filter panels and repeat until your pond is crystal clear.
When you do maintenance on your pre-filter, always unplug the pump first and any other electrical items in the pond and then put a larger bucket in the pond and put the pre-filter in the bucket (with water) so the pre-filter stays submerged when you remove it and do your filter and pump maintenance.Continue this until the pond is crystal clear... which will happen as long as the over-feeding is cut out and partial water changes are made. Eventually, the partial water changes can be cut back on once the natural bio-filter is doing its job and the algae does not have all of the extra food/nitrates to feed on.
For even more GREAT information, check out these two articles.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ClearPond.html
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/PondAlgae.html
Hope this helps.
GoldLenny
Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, phots and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!
Comments:
Jim Prior said...
Hi Lenny, thats a very good description of working a pre-filter and bio-filter setup. I too have created my own setup incorporating a Skippy style fish pond bio-filter and aeration venturi to make my pond water much cleaner. It has plenty of photos for building such a filter. I hope this will be useful to you and your visitors.
Best wishes Jim.
Friday, September 30, 2005 9:23:00 AM
Chlorine - Chloramine Information
I was recently reading the Water Quality Report and Tables for my area, Jefferson Parish (J.P. - Parish is the same as County in the rest of the U.S.), Louisiana, USA, and they had a reading for Chlorine but not for Chloramine. Since I had always understood that my public utility used chloramine as a disinfectant treatment, I wondered why the report listed only chlorine and not chloramine so I fired off a short email to the water department. Here is a reprint of the series of emails.
----------------------------------------------------------
9/24/2006
In the 2005 Water Quality Report and Water Quality Table, there is mention of chlorine but not chloramine. Which chemical does J.P. use to disinfect the water? I have several aquariums and I was told several years ago that J.P. uses chloramines but now I am unsure since reading over the above reports.
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Lenny V.
Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, photos and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------
9/25/2006
Hi Lenny
Jefferson has always used chloramines in the drinking water distribution system. The Water Quality Report lists total chlorine, which includes both free chlorine and combined chlorine (chloramines), because the EPA regulation and the maximum contaminant level are based on total chlorine. Basically the sum of both free chlorine and chloramines should not exceed 4 mg/L on an annual average. Sorry about the confusion, but we have to use the federal regulatory language, even though at times it may be somewhat confusing to the general public. If you have any additional questions, let me know.
Wayne K.Water
Quality Scientist IV
Jefferson Parish Water Dept.
------------------------------------------------------------
9/25/2006
Thank you for your quick reply.
Since you show the combined level of free chlorine and chloramine added together at 4mg/l, I was wondering if you could tell me the level of chloramine added and what percentage of the chloramine is ammonia. I keep a couple of fish tanks and whenever I test my tap, I normally get a reading of around 0.5ppm (mg/l) of ammonia. Is that figure consistent with the chloramine you all are adding? Other than after Katrina, would there ever be a reason for higher chloramine dosing by JP? When you do a pipe repair, do you treat the affected area with chlorine or chloramine? And at what percentage increase over the "normal" level of dosing?
I'm just trying to get an idea since my tap water conditioner uses different dosages for chlorine and chloramine... with chloramine requiring a dose about four times higher.... but it does not say on the bottle about what level of chloramines that it treats. Is there a national standard for dosing chloramine by public utilities? As you probably know, chloramine does not break down as easily as chlorine but as long as we fishkeepers are able to break the chlorine/ammonia bond with our "chemicals", our fish do OK since the nitrogen cycle in the tank will break down the ammonia and the tap water treatment will neutralize the chlorine.
Lenny V.
-------------------------------------------------
9/26/2006
Monochloramine is the form of chloramine used by many water treatment systems in their distribution systems. Monochloramine is formed by mixing chlorine and ammonia in a ratio of 4 parts chlorine to 1 part ammonia by weight. At this ratio an excess of ammonia remains unreacted at a level of about 0.5 ppm, which you have measured. Water leaves the treatment plant with a chloramine residual no greater than 3 ppm and a free ammonia level of 0.5 ppm. There would never be any reason to raisethis level. It was not raised after Katrina.
Extensive waterlineflushing with the normal chloramine residual level was quite adequate to remove any contamination that may have been present. As this water travels through the distribution system, both chloramines and ammonia are gradually reduced; however since free ammonia is released when chloramine breaks down, the free ammonia level across the distribution system remains about the same at about 0.5 ppm. We use free chlorine to disinfect waterlines after a repair at a very high level which is undrinkable. Therefore all of this water is flushed out of the repaired section before it is put back into service, so you will never see freechlorine in the distribution system.
Wayne K.Water
Quality Scientist IV
Jefferson Parish Water Dept.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I hope this helps some people understand the difference between Chloramine and Chlorine and how the public utility companies utilize both chemicals in their water treatment process and repairs.
It did give me additional information about their post-Katrina water treatment. I was originally told they had raised the Chloramine level by three times but this gentleman says they did not and that they flushed out leaking areas with high levels of chlorine but it never got into the actual water supply so I'm not sure why my two Golden Mystery Snails ended up dying after I finally did my first 25% PWC around four weeks after the hurricane. I thought it might have been because the chemicals were still too high for them but now I have to wonder. Maybe it was because they were not getting enough food for those three to four weeks that I had cut back the feeding so much to keep the water from deteriorating.
Goldlenny
-----------------------------------------
Hailey's Reply:
Thanks for sharing this...it was very interesting and informative.As for your snails, I bet it was lack of food. Snails are incredibly tolerant of anything wrong with the water. They can live through massive extremes of temperature, ammonia (as my snail in the fishless cycling tank proved), nitrite, nitrate, and even chlorine. I have heard stories of live snails showing up on plants that were just bleached! The one thing they are very sensitive to is starvation. I killed off all of the pond snails that were taking over my tank more than a year ago by starving them (I fed the fish just enough for them, and had no shrimp at the time, so no food was allowed to stay in the tank after the fish were through eating). Within weeks, I had no snails at all. I added malaysian trumpet snails later, and those are the only snails I have seen in my tank since. Of course, I think I had help because my gouramis seemed to have learned to hunt pond snails.
¯`·.¸. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>¸.·´¯`·.,..·´¯`·..
><((((º>·´¯`·.,..·´¯`·..><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>
To learn more about the water quality for your area, in the USA, check here:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html
Hope this helps.
GoldLenny
Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, photos and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!
----------------------------------------------------------
9/24/2006
In the 2005 Water Quality Report and Water Quality Table, there is mention of chlorine but not chloramine. Which chemical does J.P. use to disinfect the water? I have several aquariums and I was told several years ago that J.P. uses chloramines but now I am unsure since reading over the above reports.
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Lenny V.
Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, photos and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------
9/25/2006
Hi Lenny
Jefferson has always used chloramines in the drinking water distribution system. The Water Quality Report lists total chlorine, which includes both free chlorine and combined chlorine (chloramines), because the EPA regulation and the maximum contaminant level are based on total chlorine. Basically the sum of both free chlorine and chloramines should not exceed 4 mg/L on an annual average. Sorry about the confusion, but we have to use the federal regulatory language, even though at times it may be somewhat confusing to the general public. If you have any additional questions, let me know.
Wayne K.Water
Quality Scientist IV
Jefferson Parish Water Dept.
------------------------------------------------------------
9/25/2006
Thank you for your quick reply.
Since you show the combined level of free chlorine and chloramine added together at 4mg/l, I was wondering if you could tell me the level of chloramine added and what percentage of the chloramine is ammonia. I keep a couple of fish tanks and whenever I test my tap, I normally get a reading of around 0.5ppm (mg/l) of ammonia. Is that figure consistent with the chloramine you all are adding? Other than after Katrina, would there ever be a reason for higher chloramine dosing by JP? When you do a pipe repair, do you treat the affected area with chlorine or chloramine? And at what percentage increase over the "normal" level of dosing?
I'm just trying to get an idea since my tap water conditioner uses different dosages for chlorine and chloramine... with chloramine requiring a dose about four times higher.... but it does not say on the bottle about what level of chloramines that it treats. Is there a national standard for dosing chloramine by public utilities? As you probably know, chloramine does not break down as easily as chlorine but as long as we fishkeepers are able to break the chlorine/ammonia bond with our "chemicals", our fish do OK since the nitrogen cycle in the tank will break down the ammonia and the tap water treatment will neutralize the chlorine.
Lenny V.
-------------------------------------------------
9/26/2006
Monochloramine is the form of chloramine used by many water treatment systems in their distribution systems. Monochloramine is formed by mixing chlorine and ammonia in a ratio of 4 parts chlorine to 1 part ammonia by weight. At this ratio an excess of ammonia remains unreacted at a level of about 0.5 ppm, which you have measured. Water leaves the treatment plant with a chloramine residual no greater than 3 ppm and a free ammonia level of 0.5 ppm. There would never be any reason to raisethis level. It was not raised after Katrina.
Extensive waterlineflushing with the normal chloramine residual level was quite adequate to remove any contamination that may have been present. As this water travels through the distribution system, both chloramines and ammonia are gradually reduced; however since free ammonia is released when chloramine breaks down, the free ammonia level across the distribution system remains about the same at about 0.5 ppm. We use free chlorine to disinfect waterlines after a repair at a very high level which is undrinkable. Therefore all of this water is flushed out of the repaired section before it is put back into service, so you will never see freechlorine in the distribution system.
Wayne K.Water
Quality Scientist IV
Jefferson Parish Water Dept.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I hope this helps some people understand the difference between Chloramine and Chlorine and how the public utility companies utilize both chemicals in their water treatment process and repairs.
It did give me additional information about their post-Katrina water treatment. I was originally told they had raised the Chloramine level by three times but this gentleman says they did not and that they flushed out leaking areas with high levels of chlorine but it never got into the actual water supply so I'm not sure why my two Golden Mystery Snails ended up dying after I finally did my first 25% PWC around four weeks after the hurricane. I thought it might have been because the chemicals were still too high for them but now I have to wonder. Maybe it was because they were not getting enough food for those three to four weeks that I had cut back the feeding so much to keep the water from deteriorating.
Goldlenny
-----------------------------------------
Hailey's Reply:
Thanks for sharing this...it was very interesting and informative.As for your snails, I bet it was lack of food. Snails are incredibly tolerant of anything wrong with the water. They can live through massive extremes of temperature, ammonia (as my snail in the fishless cycling tank proved), nitrite, nitrate, and even chlorine. I have heard stories of live snails showing up on plants that were just bleached! The one thing they are very sensitive to is starvation. I killed off all of the pond snails that were taking over my tank more than a year ago by starving them (I fed the fish just enough for them, and had no shrimp at the time, so no food was allowed to stay in the tank after the fish were through eating). Within weeks, I had no snails at all. I added malaysian trumpet snails later, and those are the only snails I have seen in my tank since. Of course, I think I had help because my gouramis seemed to have learned to hunt pond snails.
¯`·.¸. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>¸.·´¯`·.,..·´¯`·..
><((((º>·´¯`·.,..·´¯`·..><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>
To learn more about the water quality for your area, in the USA, check here:
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html
Hope this helps.
GoldLenny
Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, photos and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Nitrates - Long Explanation (Thanks to Steve S. on another forum)
From: "Steve S" (Edits in brackets added by Lenny)
Subject: Nitrate - Long post
There does seem to be a lot of unnecessary concern of nitrate levels expressed by people on this list for relatively low levels of nitrate.
Nitrate is the end product of the ammonia cycle ("The Nitrogen Cycle") that occurs in every tank.
There is no easy way to naturally remove nitrate without the use of a setup that uses anaerobic bacteria to reduce nitrate to its components. The usual method of deal with nitrate is water changes (25% PWC's) and the addition of live plants, which includes algal growth.
At what level should one really become concerned about the level of nitrates in the aquarium. A level of 1000 ppm is definitely a concern, since everything dies. So we need to go lower than that. 500 ppm is still of definite concern. Many animals and plants will die at this level also, but some will live, though not well, as they will be subject to long-term effects of nitrate, such as hole-in-head disease and the erosion of the lateral line. Some plants also will not survive this level of nitrates.
At 200 ppm, the effects of nitrate will be more long term than immediate. Again, we would be looking at such things as later line disease and hole-in-head as a result. Going lower will help reduce the effects. At 150 ppm, again, the effects are long term. Going even lower, long term effects are still present.
Ideally, one would wish to reduce nitrate levels to less than 20 ppm, but immediate action is not called for until you reach a number of more than 150 ppm. Please do note that figures for a marine (salt water) aquarium are very much different, and action is called for when nitrate is measured in the single digits of ppm. In a marine environment, it is possible to reduce nitrates to immeasurable levels through the use of foam fractioners, which do not work well in fresh water.
So, you notice that your nitrates are rising, or at a high level. One can simply panic and do immediate large water changes (or a series of 3-4 24% PWC's) to reduce the level of nitrates. However, doing this fails to discover and remedy the core cause of the high level of nitrates. Unless you are getting reading over 150 ppm of nitrate, you do have some time to do investigative work to discover and remedy the cause of the nitrates, while your regular water changes (25% PWC's) should help you reduce the level.
Where does nitrate come from? Nitrate is the end product of the ammonia cycle ("The Nitrogen Cycle") as we follow it in the aquarium. Ammonia is produced as a waste product by the animals you have living in your tank. It can also be produced by dead and decaying animals and plants as well as food added to the aquarium. If you are using fertilizer for your plants, this may also be a source of ammonia. You need to reduce the sources of ammonia. Feeding less will help reduce the level. Most of us feed our fish too well. A day of fasting may help the health of your fish, as well as reducing the amount fed each day. Raising fry is a whole other ball of wax, which I will not be covering here, but to get quick growth you do want to ensure they are well fed. If there is left over food when you are feeding, you will need to reduce the amount of food you give to your fish, until there is no left-overs in the tank. Until this is remedied, you will want to wait a while after feeding the fish, then siphon off the left-overs.
If you are fertilizing your live plants, you will want to reduce or stop the fertilization of the plants or start adding only the trace elements your plants may need for good growth and avoid a fertilizer that contain nitrogenous products.
Also look for and remove any dead materials from your aquarium. Likely, if this is a fish, you'll do it rather rapidly. If it is plant material, then you will need to, perhaps, do this on a daily basis. Algae poses a particular problem. Removal of algae will reduce the capacity of your aquarium to remove nitrates, but then, it is also difficult to know when to remove it because it may be dead or simply another form of algae. It may be best to follow your aesthetic sense and remove what does not appeal to you, and remove any that is not green. Those of you that have snails in your aquarium are faced with a sometimes difficult decision--is the snail dead or is it alive? Tough to tell sometimes. However, if you have a nitrate problem, it may be well to take the conservative course of action and remove any snails you have doubts about, either to dispose of or to place in another environment. (You can always do the smell test on a snail. If it smells rotten, it's probably dead but you can put it in another container with some of your tank water if you want to be cautious.)
Throughout this entire process, you will need to keep an eye on the progress you are making. Go back to daily testing of your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. Also test your tap water, which could be another source of nitrates in your aquarium. The EPA has a regulation that states that drinking water should not contain more than 10 ppm of nitrate. However, from reports of aquarist's around the country, not all water companies are meeting this requirement. Also, if you are using well water, your nitrates may be high, especially when the aquifer is in agricultural parts of the country. Our well fertilized lawns and gardens can also have an effect on the nitrate level of aquifers, but most research has pointed to agriculture as a large culprit. If your water is starting with unacceptable levels of nitrate, you will need to look into means to reduce the nitrate before the water reaches the aquarium. This is usually done with chemical adsorption products.
If your nitrate level still does not lower after doing all this, you will need to look at some other aspects of your aquarium. I have mentioned live plants in this discussion, but I am aware that not all people utilize live plants in their aquariums. There may be practical reasons for this, like the vegetarian habits of your fish prevent the growth of plant s to any great extent, and may reduce the number of plants you have, your fish may be diggers that uproot plants, etc. Your tank may simply be overcrowded with fish, and be overloading the biological processes that would normally handle such situations. In the former situation, you may want to utilize the marine idea of a refugarium, where there is a separate tank that water flows through that has plants to pull out the "bad stuff" from the water, with water from the main tank run through the filtration system into the refugarium and back into the main tank. You may also wish to investigate plants that may be immune to the predation of your fish. As for overcrowding, well, you simply need to reduce the numbers of fish that are present in the tank. You may set up more aquariums to house them or give them to friends who would like them. You may even be able to bring them back to you LFS for credit.
Another source may be a decoration that has recently been added to your tank that is leaching substances into your water as it 'cures' in your tank. Removal of this object will show a quick and drastic reduction with your next water change. Should this be the case, you'll need to either cure the item outside the tank, or do without it inside the tank.
Also, not usual, but, perhaps not as unusual as we may like to think, there may be an outside force acting upon the tank, like something some one has added to the tank without your knowledge. One of the kids could have put something in the tank without your knowledge and you may never know if the youngin' expects they'll get a punishment for admitting it or an adult at a party may have added something just o see what the fish will do. This kind of thing can be the devil to track down, and the influence will abate with time.
What ever you need to do, don't panic. Take things slowly and try to identify the cause of the problem. Your fish will allow you time to fix things. Should you be keeping marine fish, well, as I mentioned earlier, we are in a whole other ballpark there, and you may need to take more rapid action to avoid losing animals. Marine animals have less a tolerance for nitrate than freshwater do, and I would advise you to find a guru near you that can be of assistance. I'm not a marine person, nor do I play one on TV, and do not claim to have any special knowledge of marine topics.
Don't buy into any 'magic' cures for what ails your tank. They may do more harm than good.
Thank you for your patience reading this long, and somewhat involved post.
\\ Steve //
Here is a follow-up email from Steve to me.
Lenny,
I've been out of town since before you posted this, and have just returned today. I do need to emphasize that there are some fish, such as those of the _Apistogramma_genus (at least some have been placed in the _Microgeophagus_genus now, I think), that are fairly intolerant of nitrates of any level.
One needs to check the literature available on these, and any other species of fish to determine what levels of nitrate they can stand. I do not believe this was emphasized in my original post properly.
The original post was merely meant to ease some people's fears, and therefore need to do something immediately, about nitrate levels that may be considered to be too high. Rapid changes in water chemistry can be more dangerous to the fish than the condition you are trying to correct.
Generally, if the nitrates are out of whack, it did not happen overnight, but was a gradual rise over a period of time. The correction should lead to a gradual downward trend over time. If you are keeping fish that are sensitive to even minimal levels of nitrate, such as the rams mentioned above, you may need to react quickly to change the level, and try to save as many as you can, but generally, a slow and considered approach is best for all involved.
\\ Steve //
BIG THANKS to Steve for this long article on Nitrates and his follow-up clarification.
EDIT added August 23, 2009.
Here is another good article that I found after looking at a web page that file://steve// posted to the AquaticLife Yahoo Group, which further talks about the effects of nitrates on our fish.
http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Articles/TonyGriffitts/AdverseAffectofNitrateontheAquarium.htm
GoldLenny
Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, photos and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!
Subject: Nitrate - Long post
There does seem to be a lot of unnecessary concern of nitrate levels expressed by people on this list for relatively low levels of nitrate.
Nitrate is the end product of the ammonia cycle ("The Nitrogen Cycle") that occurs in every tank.
There is no easy way to naturally remove nitrate without the use of a setup that uses anaerobic bacteria to reduce nitrate to its components. The usual method of deal with nitrate is water changes (25% PWC's) and the addition of live plants, which includes algal growth.
At what level should one really become concerned about the level of nitrates in the aquarium. A level of 1000 ppm is definitely a concern, since everything dies. So we need to go lower than that. 500 ppm is still of definite concern. Many animals and plants will die at this level also, but some will live, though not well, as they will be subject to long-term effects of nitrate, such as hole-in-head disease and the erosion of the lateral line. Some plants also will not survive this level of nitrates.
At 200 ppm, the effects of nitrate will be more long term than immediate. Again, we would be looking at such things as later line disease and hole-in-head as a result. Going lower will help reduce the effects. At 150 ppm, again, the effects are long term. Going even lower, long term effects are still present.
Ideally, one would wish to reduce nitrate levels to less than 20 ppm, but immediate action is not called for until you reach a number of more than 150 ppm. Please do note that figures for a marine (salt water) aquarium are very much different, and action is called for when nitrate is measured in the single digits of ppm. In a marine environment, it is possible to reduce nitrates to immeasurable levels through the use of foam fractioners, which do not work well in fresh water.
So, you notice that your nitrates are rising, or at a high level. One can simply panic and do immediate large water changes (or a series of 3-4 24% PWC's) to reduce the level of nitrates. However, doing this fails to discover and remedy the core cause of the high level of nitrates. Unless you are getting reading over 150 ppm of nitrate, you do have some time to do investigative work to discover and remedy the cause of the nitrates, while your regular water changes (25% PWC's) should help you reduce the level.
Where does nitrate come from? Nitrate is the end product of the ammonia cycle ("The Nitrogen Cycle") as we follow it in the aquarium. Ammonia is produced as a waste product by the animals you have living in your tank. It can also be produced by dead and decaying animals and plants as well as food added to the aquarium. If you are using fertilizer for your plants, this may also be a source of ammonia. You need to reduce the sources of ammonia. Feeding less will help reduce the level. Most of us feed our fish too well. A day of fasting may help the health of your fish, as well as reducing the amount fed each day. Raising fry is a whole other ball of wax, which I will not be covering here, but to get quick growth you do want to ensure they are well fed. If there is left over food when you are feeding, you will need to reduce the amount of food you give to your fish, until there is no left-overs in the tank. Until this is remedied, you will want to wait a while after feeding the fish, then siphon off the left-overs.
If you are fertilizing your live plants, you will want to reduce or stop the fertilization of the plants or start adding only the trace elements your plants may need for good growth and avoid a fertilizer that contain nitrogenous products.
Also look for and remove any dead materials from your aquarium. Likely, if this is a fish, you'll do it rather rapidly. If it is plant material, then you will need to, perhaps, do this on a daily basis. Algae poses a particular problem. Removal of algae will reduce the capacity of your aquarium to remove nitrates, but then, it is also difficult to know when to remove it because it may be dead or simply another form of algae. It may be best to follow your aesthetic sense and remove what does not appeal to you, and remove any that is not green. Those of you that have snails in your aquarium are faced with a sometimes difficult decision--is the snail dead or is it alive? Tough to tell sometimes. However, if you have a nitrate problem, it may be well to take the conservative course of action and remove any snails you have doubts about, either to dispose of or to place in another environment. (You can always do the smell test on a snail. If it smells rotten, it's probably dead but you can put it in another container with some of your tank water if you want to be cautious.)
Throughout this entire process, you will need to keep an eye on the progress you are making. Go back to daily testing of your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. Also test your tap water, which could be another source of nitrates in your aquarium. The EPA has a regulation that states that drinking water should not contain more than 10 ppm of nitrate. However, from reports of aquarist's around the country, not all water companies are meeting this requirement. Also, if you are using well water, your nitrates may be high, especially when the aquifer is in agricultural parts of the country. Our well fertilized lawns and gardens can also have an effect on the nitrate level of aquifers, but most research has pointed to agriculture as a large culprit. If your water is starting with unacceptable levels of nitrate, you will need to look into means to reduce the nitrate before the water reaches the aquarium. This is usually done with chemical adsorption products.
If your nitrate level still does not lower after doing all this, you will need to look at some other aspects of your aquarium. I have mentioned live plants in this discussion, but I am aware that not all people utilize live plants in their aquariums. There may be practical reasons for this, like the vegetarian habits of your fish prevent the growth of plant s to any great extent, and may reduce the number of plants you have, your fish may be diggers that uproot plants, etc. Your tank may simply be overcrowded with fish, and be overloading the biological processes that would normally handle such situations. In the former situation, you may want to utilize the marine idea of a refugarium, where there is a separate tank that water flows through that has plants to pull out the "bad stuff" from the water, with water from the main tank run through the filtration system into the refugarium and back into the main tank. You may also wish to investigate plants that may be immune to the predation of your fish. As for overcrowding, well, you simply need to reduce the numbers of fish that are present in the tank. You may set up more aquariums to house them or give them to friends who would like them. You may even be able to bring them back to you LFS for credit.
Another source may be a decoration that has recently been added to your tank that is leaching substances into your water as it 'cures' in your tank. Removal of this object will show a quick and drastic reduction with your next water change. Should this be the case, you'll need to either cure the item outside the tank, or do without it inside the tank.
Also, not usual, but, perhaps not as unusual as we may like to think, there may be an outside force acting upon the tank, like something some one has added to the tank without your knowledge. One of the kids could have put something in the tank without your knowledge and you may never know if the youngin' expects they'll get a punishment for admitting it or an adult at a party may have added something just o see what the fish will do. This kind of thing can be the devil to track down, and the influence will abate with time.
What ever you need to do, don't panic. Take things slowly and try to identify the cause of the problem. Your fish will allow you time to fix things. Should you be keeping marine fish, well, as I mentioned earlier, we are in a whole other ballpark there, and you may need to take more rapid action to avoid losing animals. Marine animals have less a tolerance for nitrate than freshwater do, and I would advise you to find a guru near you that can be of assistance. I'm not a marine person, nor do I play one on TV, and do not claim to have any special knowledge of marine topics.
Don't buy into any 'magic' cures for what ails your tank. They may do more harm than good.
Thank you for your patience reading this long, and somewhat involved post.
\\ Steve //
Here is a follow-up email from Steve to me.
Lenny,
I've been out of town since before you posted this, and have just returned today. I do need to emphasize that there are some fish, such as those of the _Apistogramma_genus (at least some have been placed in the _Microgeophagus_genus now, I think), that are fairly intolerant of nitrates of any level.
One needs to check the literature available on these, and any other species of fish to determine what levels of nitrate they can stand. I do not believe this was emphasized in my original post properly.
The original post was merely meant to ease some people's fears, and therefore need to do something immediately, about nitrate levels that may be considered to be too high. Rapid changes in water chemistry can be more dangerous to the fish than the condition you are trying to correct.
Generally, if the nitrates are out of whack, it did not happen overnight, but was a gradual rise over a period of time. The correction should lead to a gradual downward trend over time. If you are keeping fish that are sensitive to even minimal levels of nitrate, such as the rams mentioned above, you may need to react quickly to change the level, and try to save as many as you can, but generally, a slow and considered approach is best for all involved.
\\ Steve //
BIG THANKS to Steve for this long article on Nitrates and his follow-up clarification.
EDIT added August 23, 2009.
Here is another good article that I found after looking at a web page that file://steve// posted to the AquaticLife Yahoo Group, which further talks about the effects of nitrates on our fish.
http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Articles/TonyGriffitts/AdverseAffectofNitrateontheAquarium.htm
GoldLenny
Mozy.com - FREE, secure, encrypted and automatic online backup of your documents and files. Check out how simple and secure it can be to use the Mozy backup system. It will back up your most important files, photos and folders... or your entire hard drive, every day/night (you set the schedule) while you aren't using your computer... and did I mention... it's FREE. I have been using this product/service since it was in Beta Testing and have been 100% satisfied with the final product!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
World Flag Counter added April 14, 2010 and U.S. State's Flag Counter added April 22, 2010
World Flag Counter added April 14, 2010 so the numbers are artificially low by over 10,000 hits (pageviews) based on Google's Adsense numbers. I'm only showing the top 60 countries but if you want to see the full list, open the FlagCounter in a new tab/window and you can then navigate around to see a Map, List, etc. The "Visitors" number is based on unique visitors so this counter does not re-count the same person who visits again.
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
