Am I Crazy or Could This Possibly Work? - Goodbye Water Changes
- Thread starter Angelphish
- Start date
Honestly the way I see it you have 3. Options:
1. Convince your dad of a drip. With the funds you seem to have you could install one that is 99.9% failsafe.
2. Heavily reduce bioload, install a drain in the basement and do WC when you come home on weekend. If you have a nearby drain and a pump it really isn't that time consuming.
3. Shut down the tank for college.. honestly the way things seem to be right now this seems to be the most viable option.
1. Convince your dad of a drip. With the funds you seem to have you could install one that is 99.9% failsafe.
2. Heavily reduce bioload, install a drain in the basement and do WC when you come home on weekend. If you have a nearby drain and a pump it really isn't that time consuming.
3. Shut down the tank for college.. honestly the way things seem to be right now this seems to be the most viable option.
That is only if you have pollution. Nitrates are not bad. It's not like he has mercury or cesium in his water. Nitrates just kill fish if they build up too much. They are good things, though algae and higher plants use them to stay alive and to grow. You don't have to throw things in the garbage if you can still use them for something.
If the tank was given a waldstad-riparium sump of say, 200g, or even converted to a riparium and given a sump or canister with soil in it, and a good light source why wouldn't it work?
Coleus, English Ivy, Pothos, Spider Plants, Peace Lilies, Papyrus, Mangroves, Water Lily, Lotus, Cattail, and many others suck up huge amounts of nitrate, salts, and metals, while still being able to get CO2 from the air and not have to worry about how deep light can penetrate water. A couple pieces of acrylic with holes cut out for the plants, wires and hoses, and hatches would make good jump-proof lids for a riparium like this.
LOL, you should actually read her book before commenting further on a subject that you have zero experience in. Gotta luv google experts. Water changes do much more than reduce nitrates, and the Walstad method was never designed with overstocked tanks in mind. See Hendre's comment above, unlike you he actually understands the concept.
This entire discussion is so far over the top I have no idea why I even attempted to assist. Good luck to the OP.
This entire discussion is so far over the top I have no idea why I even attempted to assist. Good luck to the OP.
Never read the book, but understand the basics to some degree. A friend has an even lower tech tank than walstad, a 10 gallon with PFS, vallis, moss and a pile of rocks with a powerhead to move water over the protruding stones. Stocked with shrimp and 2 guppy fry. He just tops this tank up and cleans twice a year, it's in direct sun and he has almost no algae anywhere but a solid carpet of vallis that's constantly pearling with no added nutrients.
That's walstad, not a tank full of monster fish that eat high protein food. So whilst aquaponics or a riparium whatever can work they don't remove everything. You'll never stop needing water changes
I have not read her book, but I have kept overstocked ripariums with almost 0 nitrates permanently. I currently have 25 guppies in a 10g (8g) with a 18w LED, top off only, coleous, english ivy, and 0 nitrate. My coleous outcompetes my ivy for nitrate which barely grows at this point. I gave up on spider plants after I got the coleous, as they just fade don't grow because there is so little nitrate.
It all has to do with the plants/fish/bacteria ratio and metabolism. The soil is just a cheap and easy way of instant cycling the tank and supplying the plants with nutrients (and CO2) they can't get from fishfood.
In backyard aquaponic systems, the general rule of thumb is 1-10 gallons of water per pound of fish. Commercial systems tend to stock much more heavily. I am not telling anyone to do this with their pet fish, but I am saying that as long as QOL is okay and water quality can be maintained, there is no law about the size/number of fish you can keep.
Here is link to a relevant website:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2011/02/aquaponics-101-part-five-fish-to-water.html
"So, let me start by giving you the ratio of 3 gallons of system water for every pound of Tilapia."
"With an increased amount of bio-filtration (more grow beds), the water to fish ratio can be decreased to as little as 2 gallons of water per pound of fish. With a decrease of bio-filter volume then this ratio must be increased. This is based on feeding the fish as much as they will regularly eat and as often as is practical with no food left in the tank."
Many aquaponics systems raise large, predatory fish, such as barrumundi. In the wild, there are no aliens that zap off the extra nitrate into space - it gets reused. That is why it is called the nitrogen cycle, not the nitrogen progression.
RD.
, you have enough experience to be able to call me a "google expert" most of the time, but I think I am right this time 
Commercial systems keep their fish to a point where they can sell them, it's called "how many corners can you cut before you lose money". That can be in sick fish or the likes lost to overstocked tanks.
Growth hormones, secretions and other forms of excretion from fish aren't as easily removed from systems either so water changes are a must still.
I'd say go with a method of nitrate reduction but keep water changes going, plants don't buffer water.
Growth hormones, secretions and other forms of excretion from fish aren't as easily removed from systems either so water changes are a must still.
I'd say go with a method of nitrate reduction but keep water changes going, plants don't buffer water.
In the wild there are very low amounts of fish compared to aquaria. There are deep silt beds and a whole complex ecosystem that entwines with the nitrogen cycle and nitrogenous processing. Buffers from soil salts being washed into waterways and the likes. Poor example for a contained environment with large amounts of fish and no complex ecosystem
Those are easier to achieve in saltwater. May be worth a try
A kid schooling a kid, that is attempting to school grandpa. Funny stuff. In the wild indeed. lol Thanks to Hendre for breathing some common sense into this discussion.
@J.H. you should have just sat on your hands after the comment below. This isn't a guppy tank, and the OP had no intentions of growing a small jungle in his basement.
J.H. said ..... I was thinking of enough plants to handle the bioload. They would eat up the salts & metals. I see now that the OP is not really discussing that route, so I guess I was off topic.
I do not really have any knowledge about or understand the current topic, so I guess I'll go into lurker mode
@J.H. you should have just sat on your hands after the comment below. This isn't a guppy tank, and the OP had no intentions of growing a small jungle in his basement.
J.H. said ..... I was thinking of enough plants to handle the bioload. They would eat up the salts & metals. I see now that the OP is not really discussing that route, so I guess I was off topic.
I do not really have any knowledge about or understand the current topic, so I guess I'll go into lurker mode
You win. I was getting into territory thatA kid schooling a kid, that is attempting to school grandpa. Funny stuff. In the wild indeed. lol Thanks to Hendre for breathing some common sense into this discussion.
@J.H. you should have just sat on your hands after the comment below. This isn't a guppy tank, and the OP had no intentions of growing a small jungle in his basement.
J.H. said ..... I was thinking of enough plants to handle the bioload. They would eat up the salts & metals. I see now that the OP is not really discussing that route, so I guess I was off topic.
I do not really have any knowledge about or understand the current topic, so I guess I'll go into lurker mode
Angelphish
marked as off limits when he started this thread. I did say I would shut up, but I didn't anyway. Sorry everyone for the derail.