[Low maintenance denitrifying tanks, 5.5 gallon with nearly zero nitrates.]

13 month update on 20 gallon long. It's still measuring 0 nitrates and the other parameters are stable.

The only maintenance I've done has been topping off with distilled water, cleaning the aglea off the glass, and clearing duckweed/trimming the plants. I have taken about 8 gallons from this tank over the past 10 months to use in newly setup tanks, but no other water changes.

The only water change this tank had was about a year ago when a CFL bulb dumped it's contents into the tank and I drained it down as low as possible to get the white powder out.

The fish seem to be doing very well, for the most part. The Betta I had in here died a few months ago, I had him for a year. He was healthy so I'm pretty sure a Julii Cory killed him. I have 2 Black Neons left from the 5 in my first tank, I got them in Nov 2021. One is fat and active, but has an injury near the base if it's tail, the other has one eye and hides in the plants but seems healthy. The snails have layed eggs twice but nothing came of them. The regular Neon Tetras are doing great although they were getting skinny when I had 6 female guppies in the tank for a few months. The guppies would eat all the food, so they are now with the other females in their 29 gallon tall paludarium. I got a "Mermaid" betta from a big name pet store and he's doing great so far, he matches the Neons well.

Now back to the Juliis. I started out with 5, from the LFS, then added 1 from a big box store and now I have 7. The 7th one appeared about 2 weeks after the Betta died. It was about 1/4 the size of the others. I realized that they had babies and one survived. My assumption is that the Betta had eaten one of the baby Juliis and chocked.

This picture is from December 3rd the first time I saw the little one. The picture is fuzzy but it's right next to the big one.

The plants seem to be growing fairly well. Sorry the pictures aren't too good, I couldn't get the glare to go away.

Here are some pictures from today. 

Here is the little Julii below, the one by the snail, it's almost fully grown.

[Crayfish with eggs.]

I didn't put any snails in with them, I was afraid they'd attack them. 

I said that I'd given them crab cuisine, but I was mistaken, they wouldn't touch the crab cuisine (but my snails love it) I was giving them the shrimp cuisine. They did get baby brine shrimp a few times too, but I haven't had any luck with my last few batches.

I got them at the beginning of February and they were fully grown, so the last 2 were probably around a year old.

[Crayfish with eggs.]

I am not sure what happened with this tank but I have lost the last crayfish. My only guesses are the temperature was too high or the pH too low. She was carrying eggs (for the second time at the end of October) and I was able to get a few pictures but unfortunately none hatched. I had her and one other crayfish left, it died while she was holding the eggs.

The plants were/are doing great, but it did have a strong (but not foul) odor. The nitrates were zero and pH was stable at 6.2, the TDS was stable at around 280ppm with 180ppm being our tapwater hardness. I was feeding them Hikari crab cuisine, micro pellets, and Tetra flakes and they were feeding well until they died. She died a few days ago.

As I drained the tank I saw a lot of those tiny white creatures that quickly go around the tank. This is the only tank I've seen them in.

With just the crayfish the tank needed more attention than I was able (or know how) to give. The biodiversity of my other tanks is better at keeping things in check, I think.

[Low maintenance denitrifying tanks, 5.5 gallon with nearly zero nitrates.]

On 8/11/2022 at 11:26 PM, GoldyGirl said:

Because I have never had any reduction prior , the size of my Goldie’s for the size of pond - plants do not use any noticeable nitrates, I have always kept plants , the duck weed I try to add back regularly because my fish will demolish any duck weed on top over night. That duck weed does not last in my pond. It is lost definitely not the plants , I have looked into that also and they only consume a small amount while they are photosynthesising or at peek photosynthesis, maybe in a low stocked aquarium like my betta and shrimp tanks plants help ,  but  with Goldie’s , their waste production is way to high .

I think high waste is one of the keys. My best tanks are heavily stocked. My first 20 gallon really took off when I started adding more fish.

My tiny 5.5 gallon has 11 fish and the filter can only get the nitrates down  30ppm (about 20 less than my tap water) but that seems ideal for the plants and fish since they all seem to be doing great. 

My second 20 gallon long is full of algea. It only has about 14 male guppies and 5 corys and I don't think the waste load is enough to really get it going. The fish seem to be doing very well though.

[Low maintenance denitrifying tanks, 5.5 gallon with nearly zero nitrates.]

On 8/8/2022 at 5:25 AM, BlubAquatics said:

How do you know if the reduction in nitrates was due to the plants (especially floating duckweed) or anoxic filtration?

I can't say for sure since all of my tanks have plants. My 1 gallon has the fewest though and it's been stable for months now with only a tiny amount of duckweed, due to its small surface.

I can say for sure that I had high nitrates and couldn't grow any plants before, so availability wasn't the issue in my opinion.

My nitrates have been at around 30 ppm in my 5.5 gallon for a few months now. It currently had 5 adult guppies, 6 green corys, and a mystery snail. It just has the UGF and an airstone for a couple of months and is doing great.

My 20 long has been setup since the first week of January and is looking awesome. It has almost no algea and the plants and animals are thriving. The nitrates jumped up to 10ppm when I added about 20 female guppies to the tank for a while but the system handled the additional load with no problem.

I attribute the health of my tanks to the UGF slow flow and SafeTSorb substrate. 

[Crayfish with eggs.]

It's been almost a month and I'm not sure what happened but we haven't seen any babies yet and she hasn't been carrying the eggs for a while. There are plenty of hiding spots so I'm hoping they are in there somewhere, but it doesn't seem likely. 

I am setting up my 29 gallon tall as a paludarium for them. It has a larger footprint and I plan to incorporate different levels in the underwater area so they'll have more room to get away from each other.

[Low maintenance filter system for 1 gallon fry container]

On 7/6/2022 at 2:15 PM, drewzero1 said:

I finally bought a gallon of pickles a few weeks ago. At my current rate of consumption I should be ready to try this around Christmas. 😂

I've been checking out some local thrift stores and found a nice 3/4 gallon glass jug that I'm going to setup this way.

I'd like to find a shorter and more square jar for an actual aquarium with plants and permanent fish, around 3 gallons. The tall one is nice for the fry though because it gives them more time to feed as their food falls to the bottom.

[Low maintenance filter system for 1 gallon fry container]

On 7/6/2022 at 2:01 PM, AquaHobbyist123 said:

Hope it works!

Thanks. Yeah it's been working great. The nitrates are still at zero and I've done nothing but add RO water when it evaporates. Right now I have 7 or 8 babies in there. I just wait until I can tell if they're male or female then move them out. The glass is dirty, but it's crystal clear when I look down through the surface. 

[Crayfish with eggs.]

One of our crayfish dug out a nice cave under a slate stone about 2 months ago and I think I know why. She has at least 10 eggs under her tail.

Sorry for the low quality pictures.

Here she is digging out some more.

You can see a few eggs from this side.

She's going back in to hide for now.

I'm not sure what to do about the babies once they hatch, they are in a 10 gallon and that's too small for all of them to grow in and I'm sure the adults will eat them. I may setup a tub in the basement for them to grow in.

[Homemade Double Tank Stand]

On 5/14/2022 at 9:24 AM, hannah662parker said:

Thank you so much for the advice and concern. I sent it to my dad to see what he thinks. 
Fortunately/unfortunately maybe, the tank is already all set up! We spent 5.5 hours straight doing to big move! It feels super stable and doesn’t want to budge. I’m pretty confident that it’s going to be okay and not go anywhere. It seems like the sides of the stand go in enough to where they’re directly under the tank and seem to be taking all it’s weight. 

Ok good. I have never had a tank that big and that much weight is scary, so I wouldn't have felt right if I didn't mention my concerns.

It looks great. 

[Low maintenance filter system for 1 gallon fry container]

Final update, unless something major happens. The nitrates have stayed at zero for a few weeks now. I've done a few 25% water changes due to the TDS climbing, but no other maintenance. 

It currently has 21 baby guppies in it. I have been leaving them to mature then I separate the males and females.

[Homemade Double Tank Stand]

On 5/12/2022 at 9:15 AM, hannah662parker said:

Thank you for this tidbit! I feel a lot better with what I'm going with for filtration to start off the tank at least. I'm sticking with my 2 big sponge filters and adding an AquaClear powerhead with their pre-filter. 

Last coat of the stain is done!!

 Now we let it dry, and he's bringing it over to my house Saturday and we're going to do the big set up process 😆 It could be all day event, I can't wait. 

This looks like a really nice setup, I look forward to seeing it come together. I just have one major concern.

With a 60 gallon tank on top that's 600 pounds. The side boards are more than strong enough up and down, but they could potentially allow the top to shift side to side. It could then collapse (like a cardboard box with both ends open) under the weight.

If the water were to shift, due to someone bumping it or whatever, that weight could carry a huge sideload along with the 600lbs download and it would just have to move a couple of inches to get the weight off the side boards. I don't think you could test this with 3 big guys on it since their weight can't really carry side to side like tank water can.

I suggest either 4 hefty corner gussets (2 at the top back minimum) made from 1/2 plywood or perhaps some short 2x4s with two 45 degree cuts that can be attached in the upper corners between the sides and top (like under a picnic table), or a full back panel. Like a cardboardbox with one end closed it becomes much more rigid.

I would just hate to see the worst happen and you lose both tanks.

Good luck.

On 5/11/2022 at 1:13 PM, Minanora said:

Here's @R Budds adventure in plenums.

Thanks for the mention. My tanks are all doing great. My 5.5G has to be my favorite. It's so overstocked (11 fish, 2 mystery snails, and at least 4 ghost shrimp) but they all get along and seem very healthy. The nitrates are zero and the plants are doing great, for me at least. 

The results are so great that I've been sharing it with anyone who will listen. I'm keeping a close eye on them waiting for something to creep in because they all seem too good to be true.

I did some minimal water changes just to feel a little better, but otherwise they've been very little maintenance. Scooping the duckweed 2 or 3 times a week is the main thing.

[can i add herbal rosewater or boiled lemon grass to my fish tank]

On 4/29/2022 at 6:42 PM, Torrey said:

For anyone reading along, please be aware that melaleuca is the ingredient in "Fix" medications, and is a known lung irritant (I tried to bring over the peer-reviewed literature, but the link won't work due to paywall). It damages the labyrinth organ in bettas, gouramis, and other labyrinth organ fish.

I cannot, in good conscience, recommend allowing any essential oil compounds around surface breathing (labyrinth organ) fish, where they can't avoid the essential oil if it irritates them. I follow this article from a reputable veterinary school in my decision making process. 

I love internet conspiracy theories especially ones with tangential, but seemingly irrelevant, sources. I'm not recommending pouring undiluted tea tree oil onto a cat's head, lol.

Of course appropriate caution should be used, which should go without saying, but people often can't understand or follow directions and that makes life harder for everyone unfortunately. 

[Low maintenance denitrifying tanks, 5.5 gallon with nearly zero nitrates.]

Update on all 5 of my denitrifying tanks. These are the test strips and the TDS readings. From left to right: they are all around 6.5pH, the KH is low for all 5, no chlorine, the top 4 are hard (180/200ppm) and the bottom one is softer (around 80ppm), the top 4 have no nitrites or nitrates and bottom one is still cycling.

The top 20 long has low TDS climb. It's top is surprisingly tight and it grows a lot of duckweed. The only maintenance has been pulling the duckweed and some trimming.

The 10 gallon has the tightest top and has the lowest TDS increase. It's high due to the extra iron and regular fertilizer I added when I set it up. I have done little maintenance on this tank besides 2 or 3 filter floss changes and top offs since the beginning of February. One full in-tank filter cleaning due to java moss growing in it. 

The 5.5 gallon's TDS has been climbing due to the top having gaps, I need RO water to top it off with. The fish and plants look good, but I will probably do a 25-30% water change soon to get it into the 400ppm range. I have only changed the filter floss when it gets floaters and topped it off and trimmed the wisteria, with small incidental water changes that went into the 1 gallon jar until it cycled.

The 1 gallon jar's TDS is climbing due to the fry food and its small size. I will probably do a 50% water change on it. Right now it has 17 baby guppies in it.

The new 20 long has increased nitrates of about 40ppm from the tap and the nitrites are just showing, so the cycle has started. It only has 6 baby guppies in it for now but they should cycle it.

The TDS is (was?) GH from my tap water.

I ran an API water softening pillow for 36 hours to lower the GH, it seems to have turned it into something that's still in the water, because most of the TDS of my tap water is GH and the TDS didn't go down to 80ppm.

So far the denitrifying filtration seems to be working well. 

[Low maintenance filter system for 1 gallon fry container]

The jar has had 13 baby guppies in it for a while now. I moved one out about a week ago. Last night I moved 2 into a 20G long I just setup and today I am moving 4 more.

The nitrates are barely showing and the nitrites are gone. It never had a bacterial bloom, but seems to have cycled. 

The 7 youngest ones will stay in the jar for now.

Update a few hours later. 9 more guppies were born today and are in the jar, so it has 16 now.

[Setting up new tank with denitrifying filtration]

I ended up with about 2 to 2.75 inches of SafeTSorb in the back; the front is about 1.75 to 2 inches thick. The first .75 inch was the sifted out bigger rocks, then a thick layer of unsifted rocks, and finally a thin (.25 to .50 inch) layer of the small rocks. I may add more small rocks to the top once it starts getting stirred up and settled.

Here is the water when I first filled it, after thorough rinsing. I added dechlorinator after I filled it, and that's all I'm adding for now.

I added a HOB for a 10 gallon at the end and that helped clear the water up after a day.

Above is after a few hours. From the water softener pillow package behind the tank the SafeTSorb is about 2.25 inches deep on the right side.

I moved the package today to show the clarity and depth, it is about 2.65 inches on this side and most of the dust has settled.

Above is the top layer of small rocks.

I put 2 juvenile guppies in last night and they look good so far.

[Setting up new tank with denitrifying filtration]

On 4/24/2022 at 8:43 AM, BuzzDaddy21 said:

I`m not very smart but how does this system work.😕 pro/con

Hi BuzzDaddy, I'm not sure how it actually works (I don't know what different bacteria, if any, are growing) all I know is that it has worked great in 3 other tanks. I've tried standard setups in the past, with the sand and/or gravel directly on the tank bottom using standard HOB filters/sponges and always got mediocre results, with lethargic fish and dying plants. 

I believe the UGF helps keep any areas of water from stagnation and forming gas build-up. Once it's setup I will put an air tube down the uplift tube and start a slow flow through it. From my other tanks (5.5G, 10G and 20G long) I believe it can be a fairly wide range of water flow, turning the tank over between 5 and 20 times per day.

This seems to create the right conditions for the nitrates to be fully eliminated, along with the ammonia and nitrites, and helps the plants and animals thrive. There is a positive/negative ion exchange with the water and the SafeTSorb too, but I'm not too sure what is actually happening there.

Here is my denitrifying 5.5 gallon. It is a bit overstocked with: 7 green corys, 3 adult guppies, one juvenile guppy, 2 mystery snails, and 6 ghost shrimp. The water quality seems very good and the fish are active and doing great. I plan to move the corys into the new 20 long once it's set up.

As for pros/cons from my experience.

The pros compared to all of my previous tanks have been: healthier plants and animals, cleaner and clearer water, a lot less maintenance, and cleaner smelling water.

The cons have been: rinsing the SafeTSorb.

The plants growing well is a byproduct of the filtration in my opinion.

[Setting up new tank with denitrifying filtration]

I am setting up a new 20 gallon long with a denitrifying filter that is similar to other tanks I have had success with. I hope to keep some Bolivian Rams in this tank so I will be using an API water softening pillow to get it around 140ppm GH.

For this type of filter I use SafeTSorb and a UGF. First I made the UGF. It's made from plastic fabric that has 7 holes per inch.

Below is the bottom of the UGF (upside down). I made the supports from scraps of the plastic fabric and EPP foam. I angled the longer ones towards the uplift tube area (green circles)

In the pictures above you can see how the corners are just cut out and folded over, like a box, then hot glued. 

I added a few more random foam supports (not pictured) in areas that flexed too much. I put my BBS hatching bottle on it to see how well it held the weight.

Below is the uplift tube connection. I used 1/4 inch thick EPP foam to make each level. This is to create a funnel effect for the uplift tube and to pull water from a bigger area.

Below is the foam connector attached to the UGF. The green lines are the cutouts in the bottom 2 plates and the blue is where the uplift tube sits.

In the picture above you can see the height to the UGF, the plastic fabric is 7 holes per inch, so about 1.3 inches at the back and about 1 inch at the front.

Below is the uplift tube fitted into the foam connector and the connector is hot glued to the UGF. I just pushed the tube in because the foam seals well.

Below is the foam block glued to the UGF. The green circle is the hole in the bottom foam plate where the water goes up into the tube.

With the uplift tube and bottom supports in place i put in some SafeTSorb to hold it.

In this tank I used bigger granules on the bottom, so they don't fall through the UGF. Below are pictures of separating out the smaller rocks. I thoroughly rinsed the SafeTSorb before putting it in The tank. I used the same size plastic fabric (7 holes per inch) as a strainer; I believe 5 holes per inch is available too for even bigger ones.

Just give it a good shake and the small ones fall through.

This is as far as I've gotten today. I need to grade a lot more SafeTSorb to get about an inch of bigger rocks on the bottom layer. Then I plan to put about an inch of upgraded SafeTSorb and cap it with the small ones I graded out.

[Low maintenance denitrifying tanks, 5.5 gallon with nearly zero nitrates.]

On 4/21/2022 at 11:00 PM, GoldyGirl said:

Everything looks nice and healthy🥰  and plants look like they are doing well, do you find your plants do better with the plenum as well? Or have you always had good growth. I found a big difference in my plants growth once I added the plenum. 
shrimp will love it 😁

The only plant that I was able to grow was wisteria, all the others were stunted and dying. I just added some dwarf hair grass to my 5 5 gallon and I have another clump to add to my 20 long, I hope they do well too.

[Low maintenance denitrifying tanks, 5.5 gallon with nearly zero nitrates.]

On 4/20/2022 at 1:43 PM, Zenzo said:

@R Budds I dig your foam box/reflective fabric setup. Cool DIY. 

I feel like my above-pond sump system on my patio pond kind of follows the same principles. Low flow, with the water traveling through about 18" of media. That, coupled with the giant plant growing out of this tub, has reduced nitrates to a level never above 5ppm...even after months of no water changes (just top-offs from evaporation (and rain in the wetter months). 

Thanks. It's the best all around top I've had. The lighting is evenly distributed and the water's surface is easily and fully accessible. 

It uses normal light bulb sockets so I can swap out the lights easily and adjust the light levels with different bulbs

Just a general update on the 20G long and the 5.5 gallon.

Here are some of the Black Neons in the 20. This one lost its eye about 2 months ago, he's doing well though.

Below is the whole tank, most of it at least.

Some S. Repens, crypts Parva, and Java moss. It's growing great, at least for my skill level.

Below is the 5.5G. The yellow circle is the first born guppy. I'm 80% sure it's a female and the male in here isn't it's father.

I also decided to get some ghost shimp. I put 6 in the 5.5G.

Two more went into the 1 gallon fry jar to clean up a little and see what happens. Hopefully they don't eat any of the babies. This one is either waiting for a little guppy or its catching food.

Both the 20 and 5.5 are at zero nitrates and doing very well. A few plants have dead spots but are doing great for the most part.

I may get a phosphate test to see what's going on with that.

[Dwarf crayfish digging deep under rock.]

On 4/17/2022 at 12:44 AM, Ken Burke said:

Are they getting ready to molt?  Seams like a safe place to hide while the exoskeleton hardens up. 

No they've melted several times already. Maybe he just wants more room this time. 

[Dwarf crayfish digging deep under rock.]

One of our crayfish has been digging heavily under a rock. 

It pushed a lot of gravel out from under the flat rock, it's the clean pile without any algae on it.

This is looking at it from the right end of the tank. One is under the rock and one is visible in the java moss. 

They both seem involved but I'm not sure what's happening. We've had them for 2 months and they've never dug this much before. It only took a couple of hours for it to dig this out. I saw it carrying out a few pieces and pushing them onto the pile but it stopped as soon as I tried to record it. The substrate is SafeTSorb which is quite light for them to move around.

[Low maintenance denitrifying tanks, 5.5 gallon with nearly zero nitrates.]

I've watched a few videos by Ozponds and he likes bog filters. He thinks that his are making anoxic conditions near the top, since the pond water enters from the bottom and goes up, then when the water comes to the surface it reoxygenates before flowing back into the pond. It's an interesting filter and kind of like a combination of the BCBs and a plenum. He also mentioned that water flowing through the filter, instead of just around it, seems to work better or more efficiently. 

Your water looks crystal clear. Mine has been cleaner than ever too. 

I've seen some skeptics say that nitrates aren't bad until 1000ppm and that nitrates have to be there anyway for the plants to grow; both of these things may be true but that doesn't really matter to me, all that matters is that my water quality is better than ever and my fish are doing great plus I'm growing plants like I've never been able to before.

My 5.5 gallon is so clear and the fish are so active I wouldn't have thought it was possible with how many I have in there. It has 6 corys and 3 adult guppies plus a 3 week old juvenile that I put back in there today and 2 mystery snails with no signs of stress. 

[Low maintenance filter system for 1 gallon fry container]

The babies have been in the jar for 11 days now. I gave them regular flakes crushed up yesterday and today. My nitrites are up a little to around .50ppm and the nitrates came up to 20ppm. The water is still clear and they are looking very good. We also added 7 more to the jar, so that will really test it in the next few days.

I think the first born one is almost ready to be moved it's 18 days old. I will probably put it in my 20G long with the tetras and betta since he has calmed down a bit and there is plenty of space.

Here are the ones born today.

[Signature as Context]

I just figured out how to add links to my posts into my signature, so I wanted to share. I apologize if this info is already on here somewhere. I am using an Samsung phone, so this may not work for other devices. The text will apply to the picture above it.

Go to the activity you want to link. I have selected my post about my low maintenance 1 gallon jar.

Hold the title until this menu pops up then select "Copy Link Address".

Then go to your "Account" tab....

and select "Account Settings".

In your account settings expand "Settings Area".

Select "Signature".

Here is my signature with just the text "Returning fishkeeper blah blah blah". Put the cursor where you want the link to go (green circle) then select the link button (purple circle). 

This box will pop up. 

Paste the link you copied earlier into the URL box and give it any name you want in the "Link text" box and hit the insert button.

Now the link will show up in your signature.