Lets put this to rest: Do large water changes have a negative effect on Nitrifying Bacteria / BB
- Thread starter philipraposo1982
- Start date
IME water conditioners that I have tested appeared to be instantaneous in reacting with chloramine treated water. I haven't tested my water in years, as no real need to. I go by what the local water treatment plant supervisor says regarding residual levels, and that's it. When I was testing water, I used the same as Duane posted, and also used Seachem Multitest to test for free ammonia levels, once the chlorine/ammonia bond was broken. http://www.seachem.com/multitest-ammonia.php
And Kolt, without knowing anymore than what you have provided I would agree with what you said - a 3 month old HMF would not be what I consider "established", and I would not be performing large water changes in that scenario.
And Kolt, without knowing anymore than what you have provided I would agree with what you said - a 3 month old HMF would not be what I consider "established", and I would not be performing large water changes in that scenario.
Thanks
RD.
for the info. Probably a dumb question on my part but can I ask how you know what the local supervisor says? Do you know him/her personally or is there some online resource for local water conditions? I believe at several points in the past I used a online resource to find out about my local water quality but being uninitiated in the intricacies I didn't get all the use out of the available info. I could have.
And thanks for the response on the HMF situation. I was unsure if at 3 months old it would be established. While there is plenty of info about them one of the things I haven't seen is any approximation of how long establishment of the filter takes.
RD.
for the info. Probably a dumb question on my part but can I ask how you know what the local supervisor says? Do you know him/her personally or is there some online resource for local water conditions? I believe at several points in the past I used a online resource to find out about my local water quality but being uninitiated in the intricacies I didn't get all the use out of the available info. I could have. And thanks for the response on the HMF situation. I was unsure if at 3 months old it would be established. While there is plenty of info about them one of the things I haven't seen is any approximation of how long establishment of the filter takes.
I have a theory much along the lines of yours, and will post in nzafi's thread as soon as I can.
I called the supervisor and spoke with him on the phone a few times over the years, as our online info was lacking details at the time. Our tap water leaves the plant @ 2 ppm chloramine, a little higher during times of turbidity. Heavy rains, spring melt, etc. 2 ppm for chloramine is pretty standard, but of course residual levels can vary quite a bit with both chlorine & chloramine.
I called the supervisor and spoke with him on the phone a few times over the years, as our online info was lacking details at the time. Our tap water leaves the plant @ 2 ppm chloramine, a little higher during times of turbidity. Heavy rains, spring melt, etc. 2 ppm for chloramine is pretty standard, but of course residual levels can vary quite a bit with both chlorine & chloramine.
Thanks again
RD.
I personally couldn't suggest much as I'm just not that informed when it comes to aquarium diseases. The only thing I could think of to suggest was triple antibiotic and secondary filtration. I truly feel bad for nzafi as he's so incredibly light stocked and still having issues.
So you called to find out about the missing info. Was it for the fish or just something you'd normally make it a point to know for yourself. And my apologies for the constant barrage of questions. Sometimes I get overly curious, especially when it's something that I wouldn't have done but think it would be a good practice to have going forward.
RD.
I personally couldn't suggest much as I'm just not that informed when it comes to aquarium diseases. The only thing I could think of to suggest was triple antibiotic and secondary filtration. I truly feel bad for nzafi as he's so incredibly light stocked and still having issues. So you called to find out about the missing info. Was it for the fish or just something you'd normally make it a point to know for yourself. And my apologies for the constant barrage of questions. Sometimes I get overly curious, especially when it's something that I wouldn't have done but think it would be a good practice to have going forward.
I called him a number of times, always over fish. He said I was the only person in the city that ever asked, but he also had a small aquarium for his son so he was curious about the different water conditioners etc. We switched from chlorine to chloramine approx. 15-20 yrs ago., and a lot of people weren't sure how to deal with chloramine. At that time none of the LFS even carried Prime - until after I spoke with the managers and explained the difference between chlorine and chloramine.
Lol, I'm sorry but that's funny to me, no one calls except one guy and it's not for his own health and safety, it's for his fish. It's cool that he had a tank for his son and actually became interested. Who knows you may have affected one of them and their involvememnt i the hobby and how serious they are about their fish. It's also very cool that for the sake of other hobbyists and their fish you know your stuff. I imagine fish lives where saved by the LFS inclusion of Prime at your suggestion.
koltsixx
RD.
finally caught up with thread. Glad this thread was created as it has lots of info. Just want to add some info seeing it's my tank that spurred this. - The hmf on my 180g sits in one side of the tank. During water changes the filter cannot run because it's powered by air
- I dose my tank with safe before adding any water. I also have a powerhead on the opposite end of the hmf that is running during water changes to ensure circulation.
- I have tons of biomax behind the hmf, however did not appreciate the drop in efficiency due to much lower turnover. A
- while I knew hmf take longer to establish I did not appreciate how much longer and the biomax didn't counter this as expected
- it does in fact look like my tank is undertaking a mini cycle due to all this
I guess this is what happens when you experiment with a new filter.
RD - do you think dosing with something like QuickStart will help me at this stage?
I've had success with the following, but I dosed twice the recommended amount of product. http://www.seachem.com/stability.php
It saved my butt years ago when I accidently wiped out my BB in my filters when using medication.
It saved my butt years ago when I accidently wiped out my BB in my filters when using medication.
