How do "You" control nitrates?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have a 55 gallon grow out tank with an Eheim 2075. I have 2x 3" Oscars, 1x 7" silver arrowana, 1x 4" pleco, and 2x 2" pacu. I had started with 1" gravel and was doing 50% wc a day for 2 weeks. Bought pool filter sand at home depot, 3/4lb black worms at lfs and changed over to a 3.5" deep sand bed. After 2 weeks of the sand being set up and 50% wc daily, everything read zero and has been for 2 weeks straight. Will be doing a 40% wc just to refresh the water soon.
 
AlexLbk said:
I use aquaripure filter on my well stocked 150. My nitrates are steady at about 5-10ppm. I do change about 20% of water every week to two and replace the mechanical filtration once it begins to overflow in the sump.
Click to expand...

Does this filter really work? I was looking at this before and was thinking of getting it.

I do 75% water changes every week and still get a high nitrate reading. Have never had any luck with growing plants.

It's pretty expensive. Would you recommend it?
 
Genomaxter,

Tell me more about the black worms. Are they in a sump or just in the sand in the tank. Do your fish try to eat them and defeat the purpose? Curious to try it but also leaning toward aquaripure if I can afford it.
 
I dont have a sump or even an overflow. Just an inake for my Eheim canister pulling from the tank. The worms live in the sand inside the tank. When they were first settling in, my oscars went crazy for them (before I had pacu). But the worms have been doing fine inside the tank after the first few days it took for them to spread out. Neither the oscars or pacu sift the sand for any of the worms anymore since they dont see them.
 
Ah. I figured they would sift. I guess I kind of have an example of that myself. I have a borneo loach that hides under rocks and my albino african is the only one that tries to eat him. That's actually just when he's out from under the rock.

Do the worms eat fish waste only or do they also eat some nutrient you have to provide? Do you have to add anything at all for just the worms?
 
lots of water changes, using RO water or aged water pumped with carbon, works fine in combination with plants for me
 
So... This probably isn't nitrates directly but I found this on youtube and got interested for the water clarity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBWgJCWrJBk

Anyone think this is the way to go? Might not stop nitrates but could make it easier to seek out waste and dispose of it before nitrates are a problem. Haven't done more research than clicking play so I'm curious.
 
This looks like a cool idea to incorporate. I can't see it being anymore effective in terms of water chemistry but it could make the process smoother if it could maybe be done with baffles on the bottom? I figure the bottom would be grid layout with baffles. For each, there would be a corresponding valve leading to an exit manifold before a single faucet. Seems more practical for a large aquarium in my mind. You would fill the tank with new water and let a single valve release so the individual baffle would be emptied. After some amount of time, the next would be emptied until all were empty. I don't think the same gravity would be present unless the faucet were much lower than the typical water level and closed when not filtering. Hopefully, there wouldn't be too much pressure on a baffle too far below the water line. Maybe an overflow box could further be incorporated? That would make it able to filter at all times. Just keep trading off valves one at a time so the speed of the water will stay high enough to move debris from the bottom through the baffles. That'd probably be blatant disregard for the KISS rule but it'd be pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFMEr54WjIA
 
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