designing a low maintenance system

[J. H.]

60ppm is crazy high! Koi are tough, and I know goldfish can handle 90+ long term, but you'd've long since killed angels or shrimp and may stunt your koi. I'd do a WC!
BTW, I like the way that algae looks. Maybe grow some in the main tank if the koi won't eat it?
The surface algae you got is from high Nitrate + light, but I'd leave it as long as your nitrate is high, because it does help.

 

[Richie10093]

I am aware that the fish could be given better conditions. However, long term I accept that water changes may not be happening at a regular interval on this system. which is why I am trying to address the various issues associated with no water changes by other means.

The koi both fortunately and unfortunately eat everything... no algae in the display gets over about 1/8" since it's constantly getting mowed down.

It actually started growing from the base of my water lettuce. since then it has formed the thick mat as seen in the photo since I decided to try and depend on algae more for nutrient control than plants in my sump.

It certainly does have high light. I have well over 100 watts of led grow lights over it! perhaps part of the reason the water lettuce didn't make it... it was looking fairly burned, but seemed to grow for awhile quite nicely...

 

[markstrimaran]

Interesting set up.
So Koi will graze algea?

The algea in the sump is some nice fibrous turf. Eventually the light will get blocked and the bottom will die off.
Negating the pros of algea filtration.

With a 100 watt led, a 2 on 2 off timer will help the lettuce burn.

Iron deficiency will be first problem. As the algea use it up.

A water flow that causes the algea to ball up and rotate, will help with algea die off.

Mechanically a 2" air lift that dumps over the top of the weir, will help prevent the debris from piling up. In conjunction with good flow from the spray bar, wave maker.

My fresh water faux reef tank, I had all the algea die back due to treating ICH, for several weeks this summer. It is growing back just this week.

It will get a lot thicker in a few more weeks, and provides a lot of filtration capacity and the cichlids keep it well manicured if I manage the timers on the 200 watt leds properly.

Kind of a full tank algea scrubber.

The front glass stays fairly clean as the lights are focused towards the back.

 

[Richie10093]

It may not be perfect, but it's all mine!

They sure seem to keep it short! Before they were added, some strands were over 5 inches. They ripped those out have kept it short since the moment they were added.

I'm glad it at least seems to be a nice type of algae for the operation.

I could turn it off and back on again with my current timer, however don't interrupted photo periods mess with plants sometimes?

Do you have any recommended suppliments for iron in particular to remedy the issue? are there any signs that the algae is experiencing or about to experience iron deficiency?

my primary concerns about getting flow in that chamber is air bubbles spraying water drops on the light as well as the increased flow stiring up detritus that has settled out in that chamber of the sump.

I have always been confused why people regardless of what they have in their tank try to fight algae. If you don't have plants that are being out competed or covered by the algae, why remove it? It should only benefit the system and is fairly natural to find in all sorts of aquatic environments.

what light do you have on your african tank? It makes sense to use all the surface area you can for a scrubber!

 

[markstrimaran]

Euphotica, LED Light fixture, repair
Thread title.

It's a 2012 euphotica. I replaced all the actinic leds last year.
So its got 18 450 mm A band blue.
4 , 420 nm Actinic
2, 439 nm indigo B band blue. On a 24, 3 watt bulb channel

Channel 2 has 14 original 3 watt chips, mostly white, 2 660nm reds, 2 greens.

My other two fixtures are smaller 24 led diodes, no name china. They are not as bright but were advertised as salt water coral growing lights.
The alaskan is a Walmart item, the other is from my old salt setup. I use nails, or grinding dust, I leave the steel to rust. I dose a cap full about every two weeks. I am not very scientific about it. The mineral supplement has no nitrates, phosphate, or potash found in regular 10-10-10 fertilizer.

When I am not so busy, I some times add phosphate, and potash, mostly in my fluidized algea scrubber, if Its been 2 months without a WC. As a experiment to burn nitrate, no real results " winter activity"

My upflow scrubber will grow a lot faster with the Alaskan. Than with just the old rusty nail. The main sign is slow growth,
I should add that my tap water is diluted with lots of RO water, as a county method of passing EPA Regs on nitrate.

 

[markstrimaran]

Euphotica, LED Light fixture, repair
Thread title.

It's a 2012 euphotica. I replaced all the actinic leds last year.
So its got 18 450 mm A band blue.
4 , 420 nm Actinic
2, 439 nm indigo B band blue. On a 24, 3 watt bulb channel

Channel 2 has 14 original 3 watt chips, mostly white, 2 660nm reds, 2 greens.

My other two fixtures are smaller 24 led diodes, no name china. They are not as bright but were advertised as salt water coral growing lights.View attachment 1330995
The alaskan is a Walmart item, the other is from my old salt setup. I use nails, or grinding dust, I leave the steel to rust. I dose a cap full about every two weeks. I am not very scientific about it. The mineral supplement has no nitrates, phosphate, or potash found in regular 10-10-10 fertilizer.

When I am not so busy, I some times add phosphate, and potash, mostly in my fluidized algea scrubber, if Its been 2 months without a WC. As a experiment to burn nitrate, no real results " winter activity"

My upflow scrubber will grow a lot faster with the Alaskan. Than with just the old rusty nail. The main sign is slow growth,
I should add that my tap water is diluted with lots of RO water, as a county method of passing EPA Regs on nitrate.

Oh ok, the Alaskan either has ammonia added but is the secret and unlisted with the ingredients. Maybe something else is causing a false ammonia on API.

 

[Richie10093]

Nice. I may need to look into some sort of supplement besides the super high in minerals tap water around my area (de-chlorinated with safe) and flourish.

At this point the tank is being fed about 1-2 tablespoons of food daily and the nitrates have not been increasing for some time stabilizing around 80 with algae going strong except when sump cleaning is skipped for 2+ months. It really does need cleaned out monthly at least since that is where all the waste collects for removal. I could also try to improve the surface area available to grow algae on by offering some slanted pieces of egg crate with mesh zip tied on but I am concerned about algae growth at the top taking over again and killing off the algae below. that said, skimming algae from the top is a fairly easy task, so that may be reasonable to do on a weekly basis or whenever topping off the sump. regardless, I certainly still want to accomplish my goal of dropping the nitrates into reasonable levels hopefully less than 40 so I welcome any ideas! (just as a reminder I currently have multiple philodendron vines and thick turf algae growing in the sump.)

A large reason behind this possible change is that it may be able to prevent the fungus gnats from surviving on top of the algae mat... certainly not something I ever expected to happen, but here we are!

The UV sterilizer was recently made fully functional due to a bad bulb that I was super slow on replacing, but it has been running for a couple weeks now and the tank did not seem to react poorly to it. I still need to check the water flow I am actually running through the 36 watt unit, however i would speculate that it is likely less than 150 gph. I am running it off a 1/2" gate valve attached to the return manifold and it is open just wide enough to allow water to have a slow continuous stream exiting through a half inch vinyl tube. so the water has a lot of dwell time given the wattage. With any luck that will help aid in breaking down biological compounds such as growth hormones and keep the fish happy, but it may make for an interesting experiment if some other observations can be made from the change.

Once again, I welcome any ideas or feedback regarding the setup, but if no progress has been made once spring comes around, I will be likely changing up the fish selection since the koi will absolutely appreciate finding a larger home likely in a pond. Can anybody come up with alternative stocking options (I don't have a heater running on the tank but could possibly set one up.)? I was thinking about just throwing in some smaller fancy goldfish varieties who stay around the 4-7" range max. But I would be open to trying tropicals or other cold water varieties of fish in that size range if any are recommended for a 40 and strike my fancy. But no single fish variety is really catching my eye around now.

sorry for the long absence! life kinda happens...