Can a tank be TOO clean?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
T

Tor-Eriik

Bronze Tier VIP
MFK Member
Jan 3, 2010
1,488
8
568
Norway
I was checking my water last night, in my 3 stingraytanks. Tap water is Ph 8,2 , conductivity 175, TDS 90. Pup tank: Same as tap, to much clean water? How does the filters respond to such large waterchangescheduals? My 1400 gallon system has ph 7,6 Conductivity 215 , TDS 112 . 180 gallon hystrix tank has Ph 7,6 , Conductivity 180, TDS 100.

My concern is that the filters dont get enough to coop with, so the bactercia culture is minimal? Its not a problem as long as its how it is, but im thinking if you shut the drip off for a week or two, what would happen.. Ammonia, nitrit etc.. But People breeding discus also have a ton off clean water, and filters. I dunno, any thoughts?
 
imo if you shut the drip off you'll likely hit a mini cycle... as your bacteria are use to handleing a relatively small load due to the water changeover rate.. It has nothing to do with your "normal" perameters and everything to do with changeing your routine... the more stable the routine the less likely ime an ammonia or nitrite spike is to happen. Which imo a drip would be an awesome thing to have on my own tanks instead of doing 50% water changes every few days.

So in a nutshell I think your concern is absolutely valid.

and Yes, lol a tank can be Too Clean. tanks are living organisms in and of themselves ime. Just like ponds,rivers, ect they need to be allowed to develop.
 
IMO the missing parameter from your post is the amount of water changed per day. Without that, we don't know if you're dripping 10 gallons or 1400. If 10, you filters are doing it all. If 1400 they're probably doing very little.

If you were dripping 20% of tank volume a day you might guess the filters are operating at what, maybe 85-90% of necessary capacity for an un-dripped system but if you turned the drip off the bacteria would multiply to cover the difference in less than 24 hours.

I doubt you have anything to worry about unless you're dripping >50% a day.
 
MonsterMinis said:
imo if you shut the drip off you'll likely hit a mini cycle... as your bacteria are use to handleing a relatively small load due to the water changeover rate.. It has nothing to do with your "normal" perameters and everything to do with changeing your routine... the more stable the routine the less likely ime an ammonia or nitrite spike is to happen. Which imo a drip would be an awesome thing to have on my own tanks instead of doing 50% water changes every few days.

So in a nutshell I think your concern is absolutely valid.

and Yes, lol a tank can be Too Clean. tanks are living organisms in and of themselves ime. Just like ponds,rivers, ect they need to be allowed to develop.
Click to expand...

This...
 
Allthough what Pete states also makes aboslute sense, imo.
 
Im not really sure how much i drip, gonna check it out later tonight. Between 10 and 20% i think, maybe more on the puptank. The water is prestine and veeery stable, wich is nice, but i had filterconcerns. All of the above responds seems reasonable.
 
Checked out the drip amount today, was a little surprised. The 1400 gallon system was perfect, 140 gallon a day, 10%, i like that. The pup tank was way high, was almost 50% a day, took that a little down to 20%, the 180 gallon was about 45 gallons a day, a little high so i took that one down to 20% aswell. Nothing to worry about i gues.
 
Great system you must have :)
 
My worry was that the readings was so close to the springwater, and that shouldnt really be possible, since there is no fish living in my pipes in the house. But i gues its just positive. (good water in my tanks)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom