I am a bit confused by your answer. It is my understanding that beneficial bacteria turns ammonia into nitrites and then nitrites into the less harmful nitrates. The only way to remove the nitrates is through water changes.
265 Mixed African Tank
- Thread starter Cjaco4
- Start date
Plants and anaerobic bacteria also consume nitrates. I've not had good luck cultivating anaerobic bacteria in fresh water. Salt water I had a dsb that was consuming nitrates. My last house I had a 55g drum with 150lbs of sand and 50lbs of lava rock on top of that.
I know plants do but doesn’t it have to be very low oxygen for the bacteria to cultivate? Is that the reason for the 5-6 inches of substrate, low oxygen at the lower levels?
With that high of stocking it would be nearly impossible that you have undetectable nitrates, I'm not saying is impossible, but for example I have a 180 gal with 6" sand bed and a nitrate reactor with similar species stocked and only about 20 fish. I do weekly 100 gal water changes and my nitrates stay around 15ppm mainly due to the reactor.
I know DSB work great but I've never heard of reduction to zero nitrates on an unplanted tank, if your test arnt faulty youd have some kind of breakthrough that most of the people on this site would really like to hear about. If your using a dsb drum as you said earlier a few more details would be great. I've been working on reactors and fractionators for a while to simply lower nitrates into a healthy range of 20ppm with a quarter of your stock, so to have undectable nitrates would be a dream on a cichlid tank.
Just to check, if your using the api nitrate test, your vigorously shaking the 2nd bottle and the test tube right?
On another note, seeing your fronts looking fine in that hap tank makes me a lot more confident with mixing one into my tank, I recently got a big front and have it in quarantine so when he is done in there hopefully the haps leave his fins alone. I have a pretty open tank, but your fish appear to be doing fine so many I shouldn't be so paranoid of over stocking.
I don’t like Texas Holey Rock in the aquarium.
Why?
1) It does not appear in water in nature. Therefore it is unnatural.
2) It does not stay that nice white for long, they get covered in algae easy.
3) A fleeing fish can very easily be cut or hurt by the sharp corners of the rock.
DJRansome
is an expert in the field and would agree.
I think the use of any substrate or rocks in a tank is purely subjective and left up to the taste of the owner.
Our entire hobby, putting fish in little glass boxes, is unnatural. Mixing fish from different continents, lakes, waterways is not natural....but almost everyone here does it.
Our entire hobby, putting fish in little glass boxes, is unnatural. Mixing fish from different continents, lakes, waterways is not natural....but almost everyone here does it.
I would say the person you just quoted is as well versed in the subject as the person you tagged. But he may not be willing to say so. Do you think about or look into anything you say before you post?I don’t like Texas Holey Rock in the aquarium.
Why?
1) It does not appear in water in nature. Therefore it is unnatural.
2) It does not stay that nice white for long, they get covered in algae easy.
3) A fleeing fish can very easily be cut or hurt by the sharp corners of the rock.
Is there a point to your post? For one, I disagree with you. For two, I think you should avoid the personal shots at me.
Yes me point is that the person you quoted
A201
is also very knowledgeable in African cichlids. My "shot" at you isn't personal. It's in reply to your direct post. Could be anyone spouting that nonsense....just happened to be you.