Pepere

Of course this begs the question of how do you know you “need” to do a water change? We only test for a few items.. ammonia nitrite, nitrate, gh, kh etc… As plants metabolise they create all sorts of metabolic waste products that are excreted into the water column and we dont test for them. Waste products tend to leach from the margins of leaves…esp. older leaves that the plant ceases to defend. Algae opportunistically colonizes on those margins loving the nitrogenous wastes… increased flow in an aquarium help in part by circulating fertilizer equally to all plants, but also by helping to flush waste products from leaves as well… but those compounds build up in the water… How many top aquascapers have a reputation for infrequent and small water changes? Of the scapes that impress me the most, the scapers advocate weekly deep water changes…. I certainly noticed far more success battling algae once I started weekly deep water changes…

Yep. I wasnt up for doing weekly water changes until I got sick of fighting Algae. I now feel water changes are more pleasant than fighting a losing battle against algae.

1 pump of Easy Green in 10 gallons of water provides 3 ppm Nitrate. On my densely planted co2 injected high light tanks I aim for 20-25 ppm Nitrate. I could get faster growth at 30 ppm nitrate, but that also means more frequent trimming… On my non CO2 injected tank I am at dosing to 15 ppm nitrate. On all tanks I do a 50% water change weekly, and then front load my entire dosageI to raise nitrates to20 ppm…. That would be 6 pumps in a 10 gallon tank. I also add about 3 ppm nitrates Wednesday morning based on my experience how quickly nitrates are consumed by my plants. Pretty much plants do not benefit much from Nitrate levels much above 30 ppm. The instructions on the bottle are not terribly useful to my needs.

Have you test ammonia levels?

Another week. I significantly thinned out the Val in left rear corner, shortened the Ludwigia Repens, (weekly task) and evened out the Rotala Wallichii and replanted tops to increase the patch size. Then clean glass, clean canister filter, and do water change. next week the cardinal Lobelia will need shortening again…. AR still not doing much of anything..

I suspect it is working as well as it ever has. But I might be wrong. Again, I am just not much of a fan of it. I personally think nylon scrubbies have much more functionally effective surface area for the volume they take up than ceramic or pumice media. I think foam has even more functional surface area, but scrubbies rinse out quicker and easier than foam… I just am not sold on bioballs, bioring, biohome, matrix etc…. But it might be the Bees Kness and I might be all wrong…

Ebay is cheaper than Amazon. Look for the Inkbird store.

I use INKBIRD Thermostat ITC-306T . It does not have the wifi function to send alarms to your phone and let you adjust temps remotely. It does however suit my needs to a T.

Just mentioning that you don’t necessarily need “the absolute best” fertilizer schedule. Within appropriate nutrition there is a range that works well…. Some people are constantly altering their fertilization rather than picking something that will work well and working to keep those levels stable. Plants adjust to the soup being provided. Alter the soup and the plant expends energy adjusting again.. By and large I agree with you. Just providing a small amount of context…

And yet Aquascapers have great success both with EI and with lean dosing.

Yes. I show the pics to friends and family and they just nod politely… Early on I had no idea. I tried finding advice online and mostly heard “just put it where it looks good to you.” In reality it is not horrid advice, because early on you are going to be quite occupied learning how to just grow healthy plants and try to control Algae… i think Takashi Amano is quoted to have said “You can’t learn to Aquascape until you have learned to grow healthy plants.”

Well, seeing it is riparian creek, and peaks in spring, it likely is not a point of decreasing waterchanges as naturally water flow in a creek would be high in spring.. But likely photoperiod and intensity would be at peak so pegging lighting and perhaps increasing flow might recreate conditions… observing local streams ponds and lakes, I notice Algae highest surrounding the solstice. By mid August it clears dramatically…

But that begs the question…. If you actively try to cultivate algae, does it struggle to survive?

I know Fluval recommends new o rings at a year. Other brands might be different. I wonder if the reputation for being prone to leaking is due to not lubing and changing o rings as recommended.

A lot of them are hiding. 29 gallon 14 neons 12 lambchop rasbora 3 American Flagfish 8 Serpae Tetra 8 emerald Green Corydora 6 Kuhli loaches

It did end up costing me about twice as much, but it allows me an inline co2 diffuser and circular flow of water across top of the tank, down front back and back up across the full width of the tank holding co2 bubbles to stay in suspension.. As to complexity, labor etc, I so much more prefer the 15-20 minutes I might spend cleaning the canister filter monthly over the multiple times a week I was fiddling with the Tidal..,

The beauty of a free market economic system…. We all get to make our own decisions as to what we wish to purchase…

I do 50% water changes in order to keep waste organics and algae fragments to a minimum. It is a simple practice to decrease the incidence for Algae to grow. Shortly after starting this practice I noticed significant reduction of algae growth and nitrate levels. With a python system, it really doesn't take much longer to do a 50% water change than a 10-25%.

I originally bought and installed a Tidal 35 in my first 29 gallon tank. I think it is a ridiculously design piece of plastic masquerading as a filter. In order for such a thing to filter, the water has to pass through media and not bypass the media. The Tidal 35 is little more than a pump to move water around the tank with precious little filtering taking place. One of the best decisions I made was to chuck the Tidal 35 and replace it with a canister filter and flow bar. Had I gone with the canister filter at the beginning, the money I spent on the Tidal 35 would have covered half of my canister filter cost.

As an aside, I have no need of nitrate reducing filter media. I do a 50% water change weekly and need to dose nitrates in the tank with fertilizer weekly as after water change nitrate levels are lower than 10 ppm. I also redose midweek to next water change. I also clean my canister filter monthly as per manufacturer recommendation, and not at 3-6 month intervals as some people advocate. By cleaning the filter monthly it is not anywhere near the chore that it appears to be with 3-6 month intervals. I suspect by cleaning it out monthly I am removing a lot of poo and detritus that would otherwise be decomposing in the filter and pumping out nitrates… I also suspect monthly cleaning reduces waste organics in the tank that tend to facilitate algae growth.

I am not sold on the benefits of rock, pumice ceramic hard media types…. I never put them in. I put in nylon scrubbies instead. In essence the marketing claim of the various hard media is their porous structure gives dramatic surface area for growth of beneficial bacteria. I suspect that the functional surface area of such media is dramatically less than the calculated due to small pore size. Ie: once a biofilm forms, flow is impeded to the smaller internal pores. The second marketing claim for these media types that the inner core of these products are anoxic and breaks down nitrate to nitrogen gas… which would require decreased flow… My suspicion is that the nylon scrubbies give dramatically higher surface area than hard type media. I dont have lab proof, but the hard media folk dont seem to offer lab results either… We all get to make our own decision about such things. Mine was to substitute nylon pot scrubbies over ceramics, pumices etc…

Less friction and abrasion as you fit the lid to the canister hence longer leak free life.

If it was my filter, replacing the impeller would be my first attempt to fix the rattle. Its the only moving part. Its what is going to make noise, and it is what is going to wear. My guess would be the tolerance between the shaft and the impeller itself is looser than when new…. But, I have guessed wrong on things before….

They need replacing from time to time. Fluval recommends once a year on the 07 line… have you looked up the owners manual online for yours?

My first effort in April of 2022 July 2022 Sept 2022 January 2023 March 2023 May 2023 July 2023 December 2023 mid February 2024 same tank, hopefully getting better…