I have a 75gal running a FX5 housing 1 9-10in Rhom. I was struggling to keep my nitrates down by doing 50% weekly water changes. My nitrates were not horrible, but within 1 week they would hit about 40ppm. I only feed him once every 3-4 days. I added a bunch of pothos which helped by reducing my nitrates to about 20ppm in a week. Unfortunately, the light I was using (2 separate lights running about 5hrs a day) was leading to algae. It became a bigger pain to scrub the algae every week than to just siphon 50% of the water. I originally had the lights on 11hrs a day and slowly reduced them to 5hrs a day, but the algae still came.
I have left the plants on the tank, but removed the lights so I am expecting the growth rate of my plants to drastically be reduced. I have no removed 100% of my gravel though, and hope with no gravel it will be easier to keep my nitrates down.
Ultimately, my goal is to have the easiest setup possible. I know I will need to stick with water changes every 7-10days, but just trying to keep my nitrates as low as possible during that time. I have a baby due in 3 weeks and will not have time to scrub algae and other maintenance. A 50% water changes takes me 25-30min max and with a python I can easily just walk away and come back periodically to check on it.
Wish me luck!!
I have left the plants on the tank, but removed the lights so I am expecting the growth rate of my plants to drastically be reduced. I have no removed 100% of my gravel though, and hope with no gravel it will be easier to keep my nitrates down.
Ultimately, my goal is to have the easiest setup possible. I know I will need to stick with water changes every 7-10days, but just trying to keep my nitrates as low as possible during that time. I have a baby due in 3 weeks and will not have time to scrub algae and other maintenance. A 50% water changes takes me 25-30min max and with a python I can easily just walk away and come back periodically to check on it.
Wish me luck!!