The Puffer Forum

Awwwww... cute lil sprout! Floss is fine & clogs easily, therefore it is only good for mechanical filtration. I always top off my canisters with floss for a final "polishing" of the water. Pumice is biological, I believe.

+1 to what RTR said about the order of the media. When I set up my DIY wet/dry filters I use, in this order: Macro prefilter, some sort of drip tray to distribute water flow, a space, and large bio balls suspended over another flow through tray (like egg crate). This way you don't have to interrupt the bioballs to clean anything. If you want water polishing or micro filtration you can use a power head with a pre filter. I engineered my own out of PVC tubes filled with filter floss attached to the intake and it works wonderful.

+1 to Dadof4 comments on separate polishing/large scale mechanical filtration. Frankly, I do consider this very significant in water management. Separating out bulk mechanical so that it can be easily maintained without disturbing biofilter flow or operation is to me the easier and best improvement that you can make to a tank's water quality. Being able to rinse (or even replace) mechanical filtration before all the trapped debris composts completely is IME the largest single factor I can influence in reduction of nitrate load (and DOC load, even if we cannot measure that). I rinse all mechanical filtration weekly at least (some more often), biofiltration I disturb only rarely. I wish I could claim the credit for that discovery, but it was taught to me many years ago by a reefer, who rinsed all his mechanical daily - it makes a huge difference in buildup of the undesirables in the tank water. FW is not nearly as demanding, so I slack of to mostly weekly rinsing of mechanical filtration, but it still makes a highly significant difference. I have not used all-in-one filtration since that long-ago era. Nor will I ever again. I may learn slowly, but I do learn.

while playing with the filter set up today I noticed another sprout!

I am happy that more that 95% of my plants are already starting to show root development

Here's an update with pics!

Most of the plants are doinge very well and I found 5 or 6 snails in the tank last night. I tried to scoop one out for a photo but it kind of jumped away and ran off.

These are the pics of the plants to show the growth that has occured over the last couple weeks.

Of course all comments and recomendations are welcome!

I've also asked for some plant ID at: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=20687&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15

Just a little more electrical work to do. Maybe a couple more small porer heads and I'm ready to go!

When I got my plants they came with lots of snails. my puffs were happy

That's exciting. I had some snails hatch today There's about 20 little dots on my glass.

I got 4 of the 5 fish transplanted from the 30 gal. 2 Ruykin, 1 koi and 1 pleco. The 3 stooges are currently housed in their own 55 gallon section (for now). They promptly checked out the new tank and proceeded to tear apart the plants. (I knew that would happen)

One problem I found immediately was the floating food gets carried away almost immediately ad is promptly deposited into the pre-filter. I'll have to find an alternate food or figure out a way to get it to sink a little more quickly (possibly soaking it first).

In my reef tank, I shut off the flow to feed.

If you keep GF in one section, what are you going to do with the others, being that GF are coldwater fish? (Plecos are not, BTW.)

I am planning on having the bottom section heated and 1 top section (the pleco) heated also. The next 3 sections are not heated and, (I hope) should be cool enough for the GF. Ther is actually a margan of a few degrees between the first top section (heated) and the final section GF because there is no top (evap maybe?).

I'm confused--isn't this all connected?

Pufferpunk wrote:I'm confused--isn't this all connected?

yep yep

it is, I am not sure if it is the location at the end or the evap, but after the water runs for 12' it is between 2~3 degrees cooler at the end section. That end section is very close to a hall way and a flight of stairs.

The furthest section in the pic is heated and the remainder are not (on the top half).

P.S. those are towels on the floor from moving the ferns around...

Strange happenings:
After doing the final water changes and refilling the tank with warm water I noticed that many my plants are dying off. The root structure looks good on most but dead leaves, spots / blotches and a couple unknows that I have have died completely. I have another test kit on the way and some potassium, but I am wondering if it is the water softner that is creating the havok.
Today, I bipassed the watersoftner and hopefully it will help a little.

Just as a side note: Don't open the valve all the way without proper placement of the hose Firstly, I had water spraying all over the living room then after getting it into the tank, it uprooting 1/2 the plants. another of life's harsh lessons

I hate water softeners. They steal Ca++ and Mg++ (calcium and magnesium ions) which the plants (and fish) must have, and substitute Na+ (two for each Ca++and Mg++). You cannot read/test the sodium ion content. Death to plants without addition of Ca and Mg - they must have them. Using KCl rather than NaCl in the softener is better, as K is required also, and overdoses seem harmless withing reason (we cannot test for K+ either). But KCl is more expensive - but healthier for you too if you use the soft water for food prep.

Many plants (Crypts especially) tend to drop their old foliage after transplant. That is no big deal, they do come back.

Feeding rings? DIY from airline tubing and a connector, suction cup to the side of the tank. Your choice of diameter. Best to remove it between meals if it is a large ring (slows the surface movement and O2 uptake). Don't have the suction cup tight to the tubing - I use a thread loop.

I'm not sure that is the best deal for the goldfish. They are likely to survive it, but it will shorten their lives.

Got the food issue worked out

Along the glass where the water cascased in.. I dropped a pellet in there and it was caught in the circulating current. Droped 4 more and and got the same action. The fish already know where the feeding station is now Although it is funny to watch them getting caugt in that current also

As for some plants dying.. I received the Seachem Flourish Excel and Flourish Potassium today. I did the recomended doses but have a question about the excel.

As some may know the dose is 5mL per 10 Gals. My dose for the tank should be 250mL (half a bottle)? or should I only dose the the 210 section?

Thanks in advance