Simple Over Head polishing filter

[Fishermoe14]

I catch hell but I gravel vac using my canister filter and dont do the traditional water change. Due to living in the desert I do appx 5g per month water change because of evaporation. That is it and my water perms are 0-0-0 every time. Every 6 months I will do a 20% wc. Fish are health and active.

Also my tanks are waaaaay over filtered also with a ton of bio filteration

so you have no nitrates? i dont see how thats possible if you have fish in the tank..

 

[BigFishMommy]

I'm not saying you are wrong(not even a little) but we may have different definitions of "Vigorous". I gravel vac my UGF every 7 to 10 days in what I would consider a pretty vigorous manner. I've never triggered a cycle. Perhaps how vigorously one is able to vacuum is affected by what other materials are in the tank and the external filters for BB to form on.
Am I just getting lucky or is my bio filter so large that i can lose a percentage during vacuuming ?

so just to clarify you are running a UGF and an external filter too? if so, then your external filter should retain enough bacteria (if you don't clean it at the same time as the vigorous gravel vac) that a mini cycle shouldn't occur.

what is your other filter (brand/size)?

 

[wizardslovak]

5 gall in month in evaporation?? damn here in ny i am evaporating 5 gall in 4 days !!
btw i used to change 20-25% every week, 8 days ago i got columnaris and out of 13 fish only 2 survived . Now i am changing 25% twice a week . I learned it hard way .
and for polishing purposes i got cascade 300 filled with floss only , works like charm tho