what is best.....

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
G

gollum

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 30, 2006
140
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Australia
what is the best type of monster fish filtration?

I was told recently that a combination of reverse undergravel filter and a big sump full of bioballs etc... is all thats needed ... so much so that water changes are only required every 4 to 6 months !!!:) this person is a respected veteran lfs owner with two 10'x4'x4' tanks stocked with alligator gar redtail cat big aros...etc and other large setups... I believe what he is saying but was wondering what other MFKers have experienced over the years .

my biggest tank I'm running is a 72"x 30" wide x 20" high with two large external cannister filters (sacem marathon 2000 and fluval 404) and no gravel for ease of cleaning, stocked with three small polypterus (8"), juv.arowana (5"),long nose gar(10")

I would like to use gravel for looks and the fish prefer some substrate but hate to keep so much gravel vacc'ed clean hence the reverse under gravel makes sense

if this sort of setup is as good as its supposed to be it would mean a lot less maint. overall and will allow us all to get more tanks and fish :headbang2
I currently do 30% water changes on most tanks (four 4ft)every 7 to 10 days and run two filters on all tanks this keeps everything happy and healthy and breeding too ;)
 
Monster filtration does not mean less water changes. The filters job is to turn everything into nitrate, and the nitrate is what you remove with a water change. If you put a few guppys in a 300 then you might not have to worry about it for a couple months, but if you're stocking with big cichlids, arowanas, catfish ect. then you're going to need to keep up on water changes.


that said, a big wet/dry is all you need:)
 
that's what I said to the lfs and he said that having a massive under gravel filter working aswell as wet/dry breaks nitrate down further into nitrous oxide and other inert gases..
 
:grinno:
I've never heard of that. If it was that simple everyone would be doing it lol
 
UGF's are obsolete. The ultimate filtration consists of a massive wet/dry along with a good sized canister and a few powerheads. Water changes cannot be avoided. If you want to keep monster fish, expect 1-2 water changes every 2 weeks.
 
koliveira said:
You need an anerobic enviroment to brake down nitrate. Not easy to do and these anerobic bacteria create methane and other unwanted compounds.. Just keep doing water changes and disregard the LFS info on this one
Click to expand...

methane? naaaaaaw

Hydrogen sulfide is the gas your looking for

taken from wikipedia

Hydrogen sulfide (hydrogen sulphide in British English), H2S, is a colorless, toxic, flammable gas that is responsible for the foul odor of rotten eggs and flatulence. It often results when bacteria break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen, such as in swamps, and sewers (alongside the process of anaerobic digestion). It also occurs in volcanic gases, natural gas and some well waters.

They CAN create these gases with the addition of organic matter ( think substrate clogged with fish ****!!)

the medium must be anaerobic and clean if you just want to have nitrogen gas as the product.
 
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