The drawback of large fish still growing

[FINWIN]

FILTER CLEANING!

Yuk...I had a schedule of w/c and filter cleaning for the 225 which up until recently was solid. Pads cleaned twice a week, no problem. Not now! I have to monitor the ceramic media bags too...Had to do a breakdown and clean of those last week. Bio Bale is still staying pretty clear. So now with over 52 inches of fish (mostly cichlid fatness) I'm cleaning the pads 3 times. Good thing the w/c schedule is holding for now (one 50%, one 90% per week) although that may change before too long, too. The high suspect list: one O, one Choc, one BP. The lesser suspects are an acara, rainbow and two syno catfishes.

Anyone else ever run into this, that sudden tipping point where you gotta up your game? Mine happened suddenly for sure.

 

[Rocksor]

Yeah, it was with a SA lungfish being the culprit with 5 bichirs (less than 7” each)

 

[dr exum]

dang,

can you add filters or a nitrate reactor?

doesn’t seem super packed?

brick is laying down some ?

 

[esoxlucius]

Both my tanks are pushing out a fair amount of bio load. Obviously it's been gradual as the fish grow slowly. Many hobbyists don't have a good handle on this correlation between fish growth and bio load, and things can start to go south pretty quick if you don't adapt to the changes in your systems.

The added bonus for me is that I love doing loads of water changes and changing out cruddy filter padslol.

 

[FINWIN]

It's icky!

But at least my setup pretty much dissolves/sucks up the turds. Brick doesn't like me to see him eat now. Sometimes he'll eat once a day , skip a day, then pig out another day. It ain't like he's suffering, lol. The choc is a pig, the bp is a pig, the acara is a pig. The synos depend on how much is eaten before they can get to it. I rarely see the rainbow eat but he's fat as a plug (I leave some algae in for him) he gets bits from pellets too. I target feed to minimize waste and uneaten food. I'm surprised the bio bale is staying so clear considering the 'mud' pads. The ceramic media is somewhere in between but at least it rinses quick. The pre filters get a two or three week clean. They go back and forth, sometimes dirty and sometimes not. I might be going to 2 max w/c s before too long. Sometimes I have to remember the rotation of cleaning all the components!

December will be year 2 anniversary for my O. He's a red slab. My choc looks like a club sandwich. And the bp is a big ball. So there you go.

 

[duanes]

I have always had to "up my game" as fish grew, mostly for me, having to double or triple the amount of water changes to keep up with invisible nutrient load.
Fish that are 3" juvies put out only half the nitrate precursors, and otherdeletarious nutrients as a 6" fish, but as they get larger, say 12" or more, they may produce triple or quadruple that amount.
As you've observed, the visible waste entering filters of laying on the substrate also triples, but what you can see, is really not as relevant as what you can't see. Sure a big pile of feces on the substrate is aethtsetically obnoxious, but may be mostly ash, and not be as dangerous to the fish as the invisible soup the fish have to try and breath or live in 24/7.

 

[FINWIN]

dang,

can you add filters or a nitrate reactor?

doesn’t seem super packed?

brick is laying down some ?

Guess you could call him a "Brick Layer". (Yeah I know that's awful!)

 

[Chefken]

How often do you feed? I cut back to 3 times a week for both tanks......sometimes a pinch of flake in between for my barbs. Feeding daily I could not keep nitrates down, i cannot do more than one 50% change a week per tank as I do not want to stress my well. We are still in a drought around here.

 

[Deadeye]

Until you’ve seen a tank with a clawed frog and goldfish... you don’t know filthy.?

Your best bet would probably be to reduce feedings though.

 

[FINWIN]

My feeding schedule varies depending on food interest. Some days nobody wants to eat so I don't bother. If hungry, the smaller fish get 2 meals spaced apart. The large fish get one a day or two light. Sometimes I skip a day. At times the Oscar will skip 2 days.

A lot of this I think is because my O is now growing in 3D...his mass compared to last year is noticeable, and the length is a slow creep. The Chocolate had a growth spurt of nearly 3 inches. The parrot grows in height and sideways more than length. The two thickest fish in the main tank are the Oscar and BP.

I've had clawed frog and large goldfish in the past. Yeah, they're messy as heck. But nothing has come close to my Oscar...although he doesn't poop like he did when he was smaller. At 8 inches he would put out half his body size in waste, piles of the stuff. Once he passed 11 inches there was a drop off in the mess. Now I might see a log here and there but the filters catch most of it.?