Add another pump, or add a canister?
- Thread starter Insite
- Start date
In my reef tanks I ran 14x turn over using powerheads or wavemakers for at least half of the flow. Random was good. Kept the rock and sand bed clean and corals were happy. So i don't see why those wouldnt work well here too.
Generally speaking the flow pattern in reef and fresh water tanks is completely different, especially when it comes to fish and plants.
I used to have a common pleco, he pooped a lot. So I mastered the flow pattern of my filters to the point I could never see his poop. So setting things right will make for a cleaner looking tank, if that's the aim. However, if one uses their bio-media as mechanical filtration, one needs to be very vigilant about cleaning their filters very regularly.
Yes I agree fresh is different. And I agree he needs to have good mechanical filtration which is why I like filter socks. And I also agree that if there is a way to make it strategic aiming of flow then that would be better then random if there are problem areas. If not then "controlled" random would probably do well too. I'm not talking about blowing sand off the bottom and dislodging plants and plastering fish to the glass......at least I hope that not what it sounded like.
making a few changes to my strategy.
first, i changed the wave pumps from 60% to 10% and decreased the frequency to the minimum (90s). this is substantially less turbulent and still keeps the sand clean
next, i addressed the sump. my sump design is one i used on smaller tanks; it worked well. i had a stack of poret foam, getting gradually more dense as the water went down. in the bottom of the sump was a gallon of seachem matrix. i RARELY cleaned the mechanical filtration. i let it hold as much as possible & then did a deep clean. this means i was carrying a LOT of organic waste. i used a ton of purigen to keep keep the nitrates in the water column at reasonable levels between water changes (usually weekly).
i have changed this up. i pulled out nearly all of the foam & quadroupled the matrix. so, now i have a 1" coarse poret pad, followed by 4gal of matrix, another coarse 1" pad, and then a 2" extra fine pad. the extra fine pad will be swapped out every two weeks and bleached. i am anticipating a mini-cycle, so i am adding prime every two days as a precaution against ammonia & a handful of salt to protect against nitrite.
i did a 50% water change to get out the gook. also, i was using seachem GFO mixed with seachem phosguard. these can't be tumbled, so i had them in a tight bag. i am now using coarser GFO only, from bulk reef supply, and i let it tumble. this should greatly improve my phosphate / silicate levels. they were low already, but the media would exhaust quickly because it got no flow at its center.
so far, i have some cloudiness form the organics i stirred up, coupled with maybe a bacterial bloom. the particulate in the water column is greatly reduced. we'll see how things clear up over the coming days.
after i get a new baseline, i'll play with flow patterns. for now, they're static. thanks everyone for the tips. i'll post back in a few days.
first, i changed the wave pumps from 60% to 10% and decreased the frequency to the minimum (90s). this is substantially less turbulent and still keeps the sand clean
next, i addressed the sump. my sump design is one i used on smaller tanks; it worked well. i had a stack of poret foam, getting gradually more dense as the water went down. in the bottom of the sump was a gallon of seachem matrix. i RARELY cleaned the mechanical filtration. i let it hold as much as possible & then did a deep clean. this means i was carrying a LOT of organic waste. i used a ton of purigen to keep keep the nitrates in the water column at reasonable levels between water changes (usually weekly).
i have changed this up. i pulled out nearly all of the foam & quadroupled the matrix. so, now i have a 1" coarse poret pad, followed by 4gal of matrix, another coarse 1" pad, and then a 2" extra fine pad. the extra fine pad will be swapped out every two weeks and bleached. i am anticipating a mini-cycle, so i am adding prime every two days as a precaution against ammonia & a handful of salt to protect against nitrite.
i did a 50% water change to get out the gook. also, i was using seachem GFO mixed with seachem phosguard. these can't be tumbled, so i had them in a tight bag. i am now using coarser GFO only, from bulk reef supply, and i let it tumble. this should greatly improve my phosphate / silicate levels. they were low already, but the media would exhaust quickly because it got no flow at its center.
so far, i have some cloudiness form the organics i stirred up, coupled with maybe a bacterial bloom. the particulate in the water column is greatly reduced. we'll see how things clear up over the coming days.
after i get a new baseline, i'll play with flow patterns. for now, they're static. thanks everyone for the tips. i'll post back in a few days.
