I would say CO2 won't help you too much. Any type of aquatic moss isn't going to be fast enough growing to be considered a nitrate vacuum as it is. If you want this route, I would say some anachris, hygrophilia, or foxtail would be the way to go.
"Black weed" and the refugium... Calling all 'fuge experts!
- Thread starter Potts050
- Start date
I've since gone with hygrophilia and a few other higher plants instead of java moss. She who must be obeyed didnt like the moss gyre anyway since it wasn't very attractive.
My shrimp passed away during my CO2 learning curve. Within a week of switching over I had all four sides of the 'fuge completley covered in green algae, because I was leaving the CO2 and light on twenty-four-seven. A bristlenose pleco took a week to clean it up, then I had an outbreak of snails that started chewing holes in the leaves and destroying the apical buds on the plants.
A couple of weather loaches dispatched the snails, and now things seem to have stabalized. The cyanobacter hasn't disapeared yet but doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment.
I can post pics if anyone is interested in the current setup.
My shrimp passed away during my CO2 learning curve. Within a week of switching over I had all four sides of the 'fuge completley covered in green algae, because I was leaving the CO2 and light on twenty-four-seven. A bristlenose pleco took a week to clean it up, then I had an outbreak of snails that started chewing holes in the leaves and destroying the apical buds on the plants.
A couple of weather loaches dispatched the snails, and now things seem to have stabalized. The cyanobacter hasn't disapeared yet but doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment.
I can post pics if anyone is interested in the current setup.
sure post them pics. I'm interested in either a refugium or an algae mat to help with nitrates so any info is helpful
My intention was to reduce the amount of water changes that I do in my Mbuna system. It consists of two 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tanks powered by a single XP3 cannister filter augmented by several Hydrosponge filters.
I use RO water that has rift lake salts added to it to optimize general hardness and I maintain the carbonate hardness with Seachem Malawi/Victoria buffer. Needless to say doing 25% water changes weekly equates to a lot of RO water and salts going to sewer, which has cost and environmental implications that needed to be addressed.
The operating theory behind the project was that plants are known to utilize nitrates as a nitrogen source although they prefer ammonia. By circulating a small percentage of the return water from my cannister through a planted tank, it seemed possible that the plants would sink the nitrates and reduce the need to change water and replace the salt that is lost during the process.
Not too many plants available locally seem to do well in rift lake water but from what I could see, Java Moss was able to grow reasonably fast. Constant pruning and removal of the new growth should equate to nitrate removal...or so I thought.
I set up a very used 50 gallon, tank above my system and reconfigured the manifold from a DIY sand filter to divert water for the Java Moss filter. I then wove some moss through egg crate screens before leaning them against the sides of the tightly sealed tank. The original lighting plan involved a two lamp 4 foot flourescant shoplight that had a couple grow light bulbs, on 24/7.
As Cassharper mentioned earlier the moss didn't grow as fast as the Cyanbacter, which rapidly took over, causing me to open this thread asking for help. This is how it looked about a week after start up...
I use RO water that has rift lake salts added to it to optimize general hardness and I maintain the carbonate hardness with Seachem Malawi/Victoria buffer. Needless to say doing 25% water changes weekly equates to a lot of RO water and salts going to sewer, which has cost and environmental implications that needed to be addressed.
The operating theory behind the project was that plants are known to utilize nitrates as a nitrogen source although they prefer ammonia. By circulating a small percentage of the return water from my cannister through a planted tank, it seemed possible that the plants would sink the nitrates and reduce the need to change water and replace the salt that is lost during the process.
Not too many plants available locally seem to do well in rift lake water but from what I could see, Java Moss was able to grow reasonably fast. Constant pruning and removal of the new growth should equate to nitrate removal...or so I thought.
I set up a very used 50 gallon, tank above my system and reconfigured the manifold from a DIY sand filter to divert water for the Java Moss filter. I then wove some moss through egg crate screens before leaning them against the sides of the tightly sealed tank. The original lighting plan involved a two lamp 4 foot flourescant shoplight that had a couple grow light bulbs, on 24/7.
As Cassharper mentioned earlier the moss didn't grow as fast as the Cyanbacter, which rapidly took over, causing me to open this thread asking for help. This is how it looked about a week after start up...
Green algae started to grow on the tank walls, which is a good thing since it is able to pull nutrients from the water column faster than cyanobacter anyway. I got some ghost shrimp for the tank and removed as much of the blackweed manually as I could. I then tossed in a clump of Java Moss about the size of a tennis ball that was fairly free of cyanobacter into an otherwise empty tank. After adding a power head and a CO2 injection line I started my experiment again.
Nitrates were between 20 and 50 ppm and gradually climbing. The ball of moss rolled around the tank constantly rotating, the shrimp holding on and wandering through it. It was a lot of fun to watch as it gyrated and moved around exposing the threads of moss evenly to the lighting installed overhead.
After a week it looked like this;
Nitrates were between 20 and 50 ppm and gradually climbing. The ball of moss rolled around the tank constantly rotating, the shrimp holding on and wandering through it. It was a lot of fun to watch as it gyrated and moved around exposing the threads of moss evenly to the lighting installed overhead.
After a week it looked like this;
Over the next week I lost my shrimp due to a sudden drop in the pH as I got too aggressive with adding CO2. The gyre continued and the moss got larger but as you can see from the earlier pic, the powerhead tended to plug up with breakaway strands of moss, which would slow down the circulation of the moss ball. My nitrates weren't increasing but the goal was to get them below 10 ppm.
The moss just didn't grow fast enough;
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My wife didn't like the look of the refugium, and since she shares my fish room as her laundry room I had to give in and go with a traditional planted tank in order to keep the peace.
I miss the Gyre though and at some point would like to get back to exploring that option again. I think it would work better with cooler water that is a little softer.
The moss just didn't grow fast enough;
View attachment 296791
My wife didn't like the look of the refugium, and since she shares my fish room as her laundry room I had to give in and go with a traditional planted tank in order to keep the peace.
I miss the Gyre though and at some point would like to get back to exploring that option again. I think it would work better with cooler water that is a little softer.
I got a bubble counter and some flourite substrate and set up a planted tank with some cheap weeds from the LFS. I'll determine over time which ones grow the most quickly and no doubt in a few months time the tank will have a totally differant look.
After a minor setback with snails, and some lighting adjustments the tank is doing well. I prune it weekly but so far have'nt removed a lot of material. I'm just taking cuttings and moving them around. My nitrates are consistantly below 10 ppm now and my water changes are limited to 20 gallons per week, which is less than 10%.
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View attachment 296800
After a minor setback with snails, and some lighting adjustments the tank is doing well. I prune it weekly but so far have'nt removed a lot of material. I'm just taking cuttings and moving them around. My nitrates are consistantly below 10 ppm now and my water changes are limited to 20 gallons per week, which is less than 10%.
View attachment 296799
View attachment 296800
