Freshwater reef filtration methods.

knifegill

Peacock Bass
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Sep 19, 2005
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Oscar Tummy
Here's the plan. Sand as substrate, 2" deep as anaerobic denitrification zone. Locally collected live plants, rooted and floating varieties, not all identified. Some wood and stone decor, a pile of sticks coming toward the middle from a back corner, and loads of this macro-life I have in vases all over my house.

My main question is: Do I need any water movement / filtration in a set-up like this? Will a good swarm of daphnia move enough water on its own? You know how people do live rock only in SW and it works with light stocking? That's what I'm thinking, but in FW.

If I do need to filter, should I use fine gravel and do a very gentle UGF?

There will be much living plant matter and I suspect the hydra population will wax and wane from time to time. Food will enter in the form of green water (suspended algae) and either old fish food dust or active yeast. I don't plan on doing extremely frequent water changes on this one, probably 50% once a month or so. Unless it obviously needs it or is not functioning properly.
 

RESET

Feeder Fish
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Aug 8, 2010
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Have you researched the Walstad method? Google that or Natural Planted Tank and you will see that you are in the right track.
 

BigO6687

Jack Dempsey
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Mar 23, 2010
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banana land
use nass. snails on the sand bed, its not as simple as leave it there and nitrate goes bye bye

u need micro-fauna to stir the substrate, lots of mts should work though
 

micstarz

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Nov 28, 2008
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In a Saltwater LRO tank, people install powerheads to keep the water moving, especially around areas of rock where the water might become "dead". Just be aware that without sufficient water movement, excess nutrients could cause non-free floating bacteria (especially on the glass and the water surface) blooms which I think daphnia do not eat?
 

knifegill

Peacock Bass
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Sep 19, 2005
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Good insight but these suggestions are only creating more questions for me.

use nass. snails on the sand bed, its not as simple as leave it there and nitrate goes bye bye

u need micro-fauna to stir the substrate, lots of mts should work though
MTS can survive at 65ºF? If so, that would be great. I have a tank full of them and nowhere to put them right now. I'll have to read up on what a nass. snail even is. I'm currently using planaria, blackworm and MTS in my modular deep sand bed. I know the blackworm does really well at colder temps, it breeds for me regularly in an unheated 5g right now. It's just a matter of moving everyone into the 7 gallon, which means killing most or all of my established anaerobic bacteria. But whatever. At least I have the sand and critters at hand to reestablish it all.

Use dirt instead of sand, and more like three inches. I would look at a gentle RUGF or buried heating element to create a current through the substrate.
My2¢
Heating would not work at all. I doubt these plants and animals would fare well at tropical temps. I'd probably end up with many dead, and some that reproduce too much and crash the system. Temperate is as temperate does. My sand is derived from a local stream bed and has a lot of silt left in it. I rinsed the crud out of it. Many times. But the more I rinse the more clouds I get and it all settles out anyway so I'm just leaving it the way it is. It's a sort of mud/sand mixture.


In a Saltwater LRO tank, people install powerheads to keep the water moving, especially around areas of rock where the water might become "dead". Just be aware that without sufficient water movement, excess nutrients could cause non-free floating bacteria (especially on the glass and the water surface) blooms which I think daphnia do not eat?
Any sort of powerhead would tear my daphnia to shreds. Powerheads kill everything. They're like aquatic blenders and nobody survives. I tried it once and watched in horror as several organisms haplessly entered the intake and exited the chamber as clouds of muck. RIP, little critters, RIP. So anything I do will have to air-powered. Yeah, the daphnia won't eat slime. I will have to watch for anything like that. When it's all said and done I'll probably end up using some kind of DIY sponge filter like I do in so many other tanks.

But if I need water movement so badly why do the vases work with 0 movement or filtration?
 

Burto

Feeder Fish
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Jan 14, 2010
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For water movement in a larger setup I'd add a single air stone, not even an especially powerful one, and leave it at that.
 

micstarz

Feeder Fish
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knifegill;4605478; said:
But if I need water movement so badly why do the vases work with 0 movement or filtration?
I'm guessing that either they are in a sealed environment or a lack of light/nutrients means algae can't gain a foothold? Like someone else suggested a UGF could work.
 

Miguel

Ole Dawg
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Dec 28, 2006
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Very much south..
I am not sure about the sand in the bottom , as such beds are used in SW.

With plants you can have a fully functiional filtration depending on fish/plant load.

Check out Severum's "Greenhouse for fish " thread. He is doing it for allmost 4 years with incredible success.
 

knifegill

Peacock Bass
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Yes, I might very well use emergent plants in this setup.

Going to use my newly rimless 5g for this instead of the bowfront. Still using a FW Deep Sand Bed. I'll use all the sand I have and stop if it gets deeper than 3". Trying to find space upstairs for it. Stocking will be the aforementioned heavy plants (collecting more tomorrow from that location) and many worms, snails, daphnia, scuds and whatever flatworms stake their claims therein.

This is going to be difficult for me because I really love algae but have intentions of this tank looking photograph-able eventually. I also have algae in all my tanks and like it, so I've got no tricks up my sleeve for keeping it away. I'll be adding a lot of nostoc balls, too, so I may well prefer conditions that might favor them as well as the plants. I have a feeling this will turn into a 'help me learn to maintain a planted tank' thread.
 
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