I was referring to excessive nitrates. Nitrates in themselves are really not super dangerous to your fish. As long as your doing weekly water changes and your tanks are not overstocked you really shouldn't be having a nitrate problem in the first place.
Deep Sand Beds for Freshwater tanks
- Thread starter kurare
- Start date
Yeah, but for wild-caught fish nitrAtes are a bigger problem. My wild Oscar will start showing HITH when the nitrAtes get above 20ppm, which can easily happen in a week if I give him some live food. It goes away within a day or two of getting things under control, but why should he have to suffer this yo-yo? I want better for him.
I dont have a problem with you experimenting with dsb, I was just merely explaining why I personally will not try one in freshwater, and the possible downfalls I see with attempting to try one.
All in good taste, too. I am addressing the downfalls as I plan this and I am grateful for all the good points you bring up.
One lurking problem is that it might be many years before certain problems show themselves. So I might have really good results for five years until year six when theoretical toxins are released and everything dies! But that gets me thinking...what if you just start the bed all over every few years in a different tank and then switch it out for the old one? Since it will be a modular bed anyway, why not?
One lurking problem is that it might be many years before certain problems show themselves. So I might have really good results for five years until year six when theoretical toxins are released and everything dies! But that gets me thinking...what if you just start the bed all over every few years in a different tank and then switch it out for the old one? Since it will be a modular bed anyway, why not?
Tsc123;4486070; said:
Check out Amazon frogbit or other floating plants. Nothing to uproot, grows extremely fast since it's leaves are exposed to the air and provides a natural looking cover. Some fish will eat the roots but the plant seems to do fine. At the rate it grows it can reduce nitrates to 0 in all but the heaviest stocked tanks.
wow, i just skimmed those 15 pages, I'm pretty impressed. I'm not so sure if I would be as confident about that massive black spot in her tank as she was, but I dont remember her posting anything indicating it causing any serious problems. although she did say she was tankless a year later, but I'm impressed regardless. Still not sure I'm fully convinced about this being as effective in sw, but i guess it has been done
Blackworms i found prefer small gravel over sand, well my type do at least- easier to move through.
Carsona, your quick to defend your responses bud.
Its ok, we're all friends here, its your opinion & its respected.
As long as you, me & anyone else is aware of all the known facts, then each to their own. Always better having two sides of the coin of any given subject anyways. If not, it would just be called "The Way".
The article most have bounced responses on has focused on the subject of animals turning your bed to maintain good diffusion. As much as this is true & logical, its also subjective based on your own factors. As an example, If nothing performs this loosening / channelling role, then less depth of bed can be achieved. Like wise anything penetrating the bed, roots ect, its an easier path for diffusion also.
Diffusion happens regardless, i guess untill the point of total compaction where transfer stops. Im pretty sure most common sizes for domestic environments wouldn't encroach to far into this category.
knifegill, i wish you luck on your experiment, Just like anything else in the hobby, use common sense and you cant go wrong. Beds do their thing without your involvement, so technically its not rocket science.
Carsona, your quick to defend your responses bud.
Its ok, we're all friends here, its your opinion & its respected.
As long as you, me & anyone else is aware of all the known facts, then each to their own. Always better having two sides of the coin of any given subject anyways. If not, it would just be called "The Way".
The article most have bounced responses on has focused on the subject of animals turning your bed to maintain good diffusion. As much as this is true & logical, its also subjective based on your own factors. As an example, If nothing performs this loosening / channelling role, then less depth of bed can be achieved. Like wise anything penetrating the bed, roots ect, its an easier path for diffusion also.
Diffusion happens regardless, i guess untill the point of total compaction where transfer stops. Im pretty sure most common sizes for domestic environments wouldn't encroach to far into this category.
knifegill, i wish you luck on your experiment, Just like anything else in the hobby, use common sense and you cant go wrong. Beds do their thing without your involvement, so technically its not rocket science.
The black spot from her rotting gourami.
Anyway, back to my trough.
I've got an acrylic trough 2.5" deep with sand rinsing in the basement. The trough was meant for wall mounting so it has two screw holes where water pours out. I'm letting hot water from the basement hose trickle across it in hopes of removing anything that would have rushed out and killed my fish had I not done this. I was mounting in to my 2 x 10gallon livebearer breeding tank set up when I had second thoughts about the cleanliness of the sand.
I rinsed it over twenty times and now that the organic debris is gone it is less like clay and more like truly nice sand. It's stiff above water but very yielding (almost intangible at first) to a finger push once submerged. The average grain size also appears to fall into the correct zone, but I shook it down and the tiniest granules are at the bottom and larger ones at the top. I think that lends to a more functional sifting habitat so I'm leaving it like that.
Tomorrow I'll put screens over the exits to confine the trumpet snails which I will also buy tomorrow. I'm not worried about the worms. They probably will hunker down and stay put just fine.
The only thing to work out is the "in" flow. I have a 1/2" hose that, without intervention, will land in the center of the trough and dig a big narsty hole. I don't see any problem with said hole except for lost anaerobic potential, but would rather diffuse the return. I might try a holey piece of plastic tubing or something. The return from the trough will be the two screw holes.
One interesting thing here is that the water depth above this sand will be less than an inch. I hope the worms and snails are okay with that. Input?
The sand is riddled with pyrite. If it were gold, it would not be on top. Is the pyrite or associated minerals a threat?
Anyway, back to my trough.
I've got an acrylic trough 2.5" deep with sand rinsing in the basement. The trough was meant for wall mounting so it has two screw holes where water pours out. I'm letting hot water from the basement hose trickle across it in hopes of removing anything that would have rushed out and killed my fish had I not done this. I was mounting in to my 2 x 10gallon livebearer breeding tank set up when I had second thoughts about the cleanliness of the sand.
I rinsed it over twenty times and now that the organic debris is gone it is less like clay and more like truly nice sand. It's stiff above water but very yielding (almost intangible at first) to a finger push once submerged. The average grain size also appears to fall into the correct zone, but I shook it down and the tiniest granules are at the bottom and larger ones at the top. I think that lends to a more functional sifting habitat so I'm leaving it like that.
Tomorrow I'll put screens over the exits to confine the trumpet snails which I will also buy tomorrow. I'm not worried about the worms. They probably will hunker down and stay put just fine.
The only thing to work out is the "in" flow. I have a 1/2" hose that, without intervention, will land in the center of the trough and dig a big narsty hole. I don't see any problem with said hole except for lost anaerobic potential, but would rather diffuse the return. I might try a holey piece of plastic tubing or something. The return from the trough will be the two screw holes.
One interesting thing here is that the water depth above this sand will be less than an inch. I hope the worms and snails are okay with that. Input?
The sand is riddled with pyrite. If it were gold, it would not be on top. Is the pyrite or associated minerals a threat?
