Increasing airation
- Thread starter Geobala
- Start date
Combination of increasing water changes, quality food and tank space help increase growth rates usually.
If your running air into the tank you might as well run a sponge filter for added filtration. Unless you don’t like the look of them. Just running a air stone seems like kind of a waste . Slap a sponge filter on that and get some filtration with your surface agitation .
OP-this is all you need to increase growth. Some cichlids grow so slow regardless and there is no way to speed that up.
I believe water changes are the most important factor in good growth for any cichlid, getting rid of the growth inhibiting hormones in the water(all fish produce) and nitrate.
Although more filtration is always good, the by-product of filtration (metabolism) is nitrate, so unless your filters are regularly cleaned of debris (nitrate precursors) more filtration without filter cleaning and water changes may not do much.
If you change 50% of the tanks water once per week, you will get less, and slower growth than if you change 50% twice per week, and so on and so forth.
I change @ 40% every other day, my breidhori went from this size.
to this size (below) fairly quickly
male above female below
Although more filtration is always good, the by-product of filtration (metabolism) is nitrate, so unless your filters are regularly cleaned of debris (nitrate precursors) more filtration without filter cleaning and water changes may not do much.
If you change 50% of the tanks water once per week, you will get less, and slower growth than if you change 50% twice per week, and so on and so forth.
I change @ 40% every other day, my breidhori went from this size.
to this size (below) fairly quickly
male above female below
I've seen studies on it and dissolved oxygen levels are like protein and feed levels, there's a sweet spot or range that benefits growth in various studied fish, much below or above this range can mean less growth. So it could conceivably make a subtle difference if your 02 is less than optimal, otherwise not really.
Increasing filtration (adding sponges, etc.) if you already have good filtration won't do much. In other words, if ammonia and nitrite are already zero, water is already clear, (and to be technical, redox is already good) more filtration won't make things better. Yes, beneficial bacteria will colonize the sponge, but the deal is the size of your bacteria colony is pinned to the nutrients available. Doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling your filtration won't give you a bigger bacteria colony than what's already supported by the available nutrients. If filtration is marginal it would bump up your filtration. Otherwise, if filtration is already good to excellent and what you want is better aeration, adding a sponge won't accomplish much for your current tank. It would give you a seeded sponge to use in another tank. If left alone, similar to driftwood, it can grow algae and micro critters for fish to graze on. But not much more.
Increasing filtration (adding sponges, etc.) if you already have good filtration won't do much. In other words, if ammonia and nitrite are already zero, water is already clear, (and to be technical, redox is already good) more filtration won't make things better. Yes, beneficial bacteria will colonize the sponge, but the deal is the size of your bacteria colony is pinned to the nutrients available. Doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling your filtration won't give you a bigger bacteria colony than what's already supported by the available nutrients. If filtration is marginal it would bump up your filtration. Otherwise, if filtration is already good to excellent and what you want is better aeration, adding a sponge won't accomplish much for your current tank. It would give you a seeded sponge to use in another tank. If left alone, similar to driftwood, it can grow algae and micro critters for fish to graze on. But not much more.
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This is a long read, but it’s interesting.
The specifics to the topic can be found at 2.5
http://www.unuftp.is/static/fellows/document/yovita07prf.pdf
I do agree with water changes, quality food and plenty of space for good growth.
But Oxygen, I’m sure plays a roll in this as well.
Besides the obvious.
The specifics to the topic can be found at 2.5
http://www.unuftp.is/static/fellows/document/yovita07prf.pdf
I do agree with water changes, quality food and plenty of space for good growth.
But Oxygen, I’m sure plays a roll in this as well.
Besides the obvious.