Quick aquarium question mate; What's the best way to recharge my Nitrasafe bags? The drip method seems a bit hit and miss.. Any ideas ?

I've got a tank and it pee's me off:rant:

I've got a tank and it pee's me off:rant:

 

What's up with it mate?

I had 2 fish in a tank once but they couldn't drive it......

Its full of fish :lol:

Its full of fish :lol:

 

you tool..lol

Molly pee me off, they always have a fungus face. I've got some baby guppys but I think there all female which is a shame. Oh and they keep eating the plants, basically its costing me a small fortune.

 

Whats this bag about?

Molly pee me off, they always have a fungus face. I've got some baby guppys but I think there all female which is a shame. Oh and they keep eating the plants, basically its costing me a small fortune.

 

Whats this bag about?

 

Mollies and guppy's are boring dude, get your self some barbs and catfish etc.... Most fish will eat plants, java ferns are pretty resistant to being eaten though.

 

The bags remove Nitrate from the water which helps reduce algae blooms and makes for a better quality of living for the fish. They replace the nitrate with salt but do need to be recharged with a salt solution once they're full.

I've only got two and there black lol

 

Got two dwarf fish that are like a disc. Its orange and blue and the other is blue to purple. Got a red tipped shark and 2. Brisslte nose plecos. 5 male guppys one is a red long fin on like a Japanese fighter and 2. Females and 4 baby's

 

I don't struggle with the water there is nitrate there but I think its normal

Your water quality is probably better than mine mate, so I get quite high levels of nitrate even though I do water changes etc.

I have text him that he's wanted

I'm due a change today but I cannot be arsed. Need the catch the molly then and sort him out,

 

How come you like little barbs but not guppys with big fancey tails? Everyone loves guppys plus there easy to keep :)

I'm due a change today but I cannot be arsed. Need the catch the molly then and sort him out,

 

How come you like little barbs but not guppys with big fancey tails? Everyone loves guppys plus there easy to keep :)

 

Barbs are much more interesting to watch, they can be a bit nippy when it come to fins but I've found that if you keep them in large groups (8 or more) the tend to just chase each other round.

They want to kill each other :lol:

speak of the devil and he shall appear....:devil2:

I haven't used the product itself, although Im aware of similar products. I would stick with the manufactures instructions, however I wouldn't use the product in the first instance. Using products like these are often a cover up tbh, if your experiencing high nitrate then something is a miss, so I would start by solving the cause rather than the symptom. I see you suffer from the issue regardless of water changes, have you ever tested your tap water? Its not uncommon for tap water to be filled with nitrate and phosphate and high in other total dissolved solids. So I would start there, obviously if what you put in in as dirty as what's being removed your achieving nothing. Countray to popular belief tapsafe does not make tap water safe, its merely a chlorine reducer, probably sodium thiosuphate. There are ways round this thankful, the best being reverse osmosis water which is stocked by most lfs, be carefull with this as unreputable ones will not keep upto date and will sell you nutrient rich R.O. You cannot test R.O with convention test kits, you must use a tds meter. to buy your own unit is actually pretty cheap and cost effective.

 

If you find this isn't an issue and your tap water is clean, then I think its bets to start looking at what loads your putting on your system. Ie is it over stocked? over fed? or other factors such as deep substrate beds becoming nitrate factories due to anaerobic activity, or insuffient gas exchange not allowing the nitrogeon cycle to complete at the correct rate(least likely)

 

Anyways lets keep this thread going over the next few weeks, and try to get down to the nitty gritty of it, and solving your issue. :) sorry if any of that was teaching you to suck eggs, and if it wasn't quite the answer you were looking for but as you know I like to do things properly.

What he said :)

Molly pee me off, they always have a fungus face. I've got some baby guppys but I think there all female which is a shame. Oh and they keep eating the plants, basically its costing me a small fortune.

 

Whats this bag about?

 

theres somethings you can try there bud java fern an Anubis are quite bad tasting and should avoid the grazing, or you can use some good quality fakes, or a mix of both, which works well. the above plants are often available attached to wood, which are a little more costly but look great, and you don't have to fill the tank. have a look at Japanese aquariums(yes theres jdm fish tank fan boys too haha.) less can be more.

i do water change every weekend and filter change every month my water is crystal clear all the time ,old saying lager the tank the easier it is to keep clean

i've got all sorts of fish ,cats sissor tails even 2 large plec's,

iv'e never tested my water in over 10 years just 10% water change with safe water

theres somethings you can try there bud java fern an Anubis are quite bad tasting and should avoid the grazing, or you can use some good quality fakes, or a mix of both, which works well. the above plants are often available attached to wood, which are a little more costly but look great, and you don't have to fill the tank. have a look at Japanese aquariums(yes theres jdm fish tank fan boys too haha.) less can be more.

 

 

I have some Japanese moss balls. There cool lol

I have some Japanese moss balls. There cool lol

 

lol see you have been influenced by takeshi amano without even knowing it check his stuff out bud.

i do water change every weekend and filter change every month my water is crystal clear all the time ,old saying lager the tank the easier it is to keep clean

i've got all sorts of fish ,cats sissor tails even 2 large plec's,

iv'e never tested my water in over 10 years just 10% water change with safe water

 

clear water isn't always clean water, regular testing allows proper management that allows you to see the future before things go downhill, but good on you for your successes, and you are correct the larger the body of water the more stable it is, conversely the larger it is the more of a pita it is when it does go wrong. I work with thousands of gallons of water every day at work , and big can be a nightmare.

Also bamboo plants lol. Will check that guy out

speak of the devil and he shall appear....:devil2:

I haven't used the product itself, although Im aware of similar products. I would stick with the manufactures instructions, however I wouldn't use the product in the first instance. Using products like these are often a cover up tbh, if your experiencing high nitrate then something is a miss, so I would start by solving the cause rather than the symptom. I see you suffer from the issue regardless of water changes, have you ever tested your tap water? Its not uncommon for tap water to be filled with nitrate and phosphate and high in other total dissolved solids. So I would start there, obviously if what you put in in as dirty as what's being removed your achieving nothing. Countray to popular belief tapsafe does not make tap water safe, its merely a chlorine reducer, probably sodium thiosuphate. There are ways round this thankful, the best being reverse osmosis water which is stocked by most lfs, be carefull with this as unreputable ones will not keep upto date and will sell you nutrient rich R.O. You cannot test R.O with convention test kits, you must use a tds meter. to buy your own unit is actually pretty cheap and cost effective.

 

If you find this isn't an issue and your tap water is clean, then I think its bets to start looking at what loads your putting on your system. Ie is it over stocked? over fed? or other factors such as deep substrate beds becoming nitrate factories due to anaerobic activity, or insuffient gas exchange not allowing the nitrogeon cycle to complete at the correct rate(least likely)

 

Anyways lets keep this thread going over the next few weeks, and try to get down to the nitty gritty of it, and solving your issue. :) sorry if any of that was teaching you to suck eggs, and if it wasn't quite the answer you were looking for but as you know I like to do things properly.

 

 

Thanks for the reply mate, I did look into using RO but thought it would be cheaper to try and reduce the NO3 and PO4 levels using the removal stuff.

 

Here's my setup;

 

450l (approx) tank with no real plants, just artificial ones, a 1400lph canister filter with built in 9w UV (ceramics in the bottom Bioballs in the middle and Nitrasafe and Rowaphos in the top basket along with some poly wool)

 

Fish: 8 Rosy Barbs, 1 Plec, 2 Flying foxes, 6 Siamese Flying Foxes, 3 distichodus affinis, 2 Bronze Cory's and a Sucking Loach. They get fed Aquarium Flakes and the plec has Hikari algae wafers. I've just bought a an artemia hatchery so they'll be getting those as well. I only feed them once a day.

 

Water quality is generally fine NO2 is 0, PH is 7.0, KH is 0 but GH is 180 and NO3 has gone up to 160! PO4 is around 0.25 but still coming down. My tap water has 40ppm of NO3 and a PH of 8.0. The fish seem fine and happy but the main problem I'm having is algae growing over everything. The substrate is around 2 to 3 inches thick but I do have a raised area where it's nearer 6. I do my water changes by syphon off the crap under the gravel. I also have a decent amount of Nitrate removal gravel in the tank near the filter inlet.

 

The nitrate levels were coming down but the nitrasafe bags are needing to be recharged. I've bought a couple more bags of it so that I can keep the filter loaded while I recharge the other ones.

 

Thanks again for your help bud, really appreciate it :thumbup1:

 

Problem is *as you can see) i've still got high levels of Nitrate

that's not many fish in 450 litres of water really so overstocking out the question, I spoke to a friend of mine for you today who is currently working with bournemouths oceanarium, and was previously to that a big of a big wig within the company maindenheadaquatics. anyways what he was saying is that because you're putting in effectively dirty water its a chain reaction.

 

Ideally id like to do a 50% change on that tank, with good quality water and then reduce down to 25% for the next few weeks, obviously that isn't going to very easy when doing 200+ litres of water, not to mention expensive. but I think at that level even a 50% with 40ppm no3 in it will help. then move onto ro for the 25%s. get those nitrate sponges recharged and hammer it. move the outlet of your filter close to the surface to it breaks the surface as much as possible, causing turbulence and bubbles, this will increase your gas exchange. personally id reduce the amount of gravel in your tank that deep bed at the back is a damn sediment trap. furthermore id reduce your feeding down to one every other day and push you onto a good quality flake such as newera. aquariun flake food is full of crap and not very high in nutritional value. did I read that your po4 is 0.25? with a no3 of 160? that is imbalanced and I would be surprised if you didn't have cyanobacteria. link here....

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/member-submitted-articles/cyanobacteria-23633/

My orange spotted file fish died yesterday :sad: rip Stanley

Thanks again for the help. I've got my spray bar just above the water and pointing outwards so it gives a nice agitation to the surface, I've just done a 20% water change. So will look at going further as you suggested. I've recharged my nitrasafe bags and put them back in the filter along with a much better filter bag for the rowaphos, that allowed me to spread it better and cover more water. I'll test the water again tonight to see if there's any change. I've only just started with the rowaphos and nitrate bags within the last week or so, before that I didn't realise that phosphate was such a problem (didn't test for it before), I always thought (naively) that the tap water didn't have nitrate in it. So in effect I was just replacing bad water with slightly better water. Before I started this the NO3 was at 200+ and the PO4 was at just below 3 so they they have come down a fair bit.

 

Had a read of that article about cyanobacteria and very interesting it was too. I haven't noticed any smell coming from the tank though so not sure if it is that or not. But will be keeping an eye on it. Didn't know that about aquariun flakes so will definitely look at New Era flake instead.

 

I'll post up my tests when I get home tonight (after 10).

 

Many thanks again for your help mate.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

My orange spotted file fish died yesterday :sad: rip Stanley

 

Sorry to hear that :( RIP Stanley.

Edited January 14, 201313 yr by Steams