Oxygen Deprivation? Help!

[eaglesaquarium]

Thanks very much CL95.  The tank is doing much, much better.

 
No nitrites at all, still dealing with a small amount of ammonia that comes back about every other day, but once the Nitromax is added, the ammonia goes down to 0. Every reading of ammonia gets smaller and smaller too, so I think the bacteria is building back up in the filters.
 
Another thing that I've noticed is the filter that gets clogged the fastest is the one closest to the window, and would actually be getting light right into the filter itself. Fully supports the bioslime caused by direct light theory.

 
hypothesis...
 
Glad you are getting a handle on this.  I wish I was getting a handle on my issue.

 

[snazy]

There's no need for such a deep cap to be honest. But if it works fine for you, then no need to worry. Your tank is planted which helps.
It's good to read how deep sand bed works though. Normally it shouldn't be disturbed because poking it around doesn't do anything besides releasing stuff from it. It doesn't aerate it at all. The oxygenation comes from the way the flow is setup and obviously better oxygenated water.
Normally, a deep sand bed if not working properly(as in creating N2 gas), has the habit of converting nitrAtes back to nitrItes and ammonia, causing spikes.  So the layer either should be thinner to keep it mostly aerobic, otherwise if you want to keep a deep layer that will most likely go anaerobic considering its a sand substrate, don't touch it at all as it will cause more problems if you do. If you have more plants, with good root structures, then maybe you can get away with a bit deeper substrate. Make sure flow reaches the bottom layer of the tank as well to get oxygen there.

 

[greenmumma141]

Thanks very much CL95.  The tank is doing much, much better.

 
No nitrites at all, still dealing with a small amount of ammonia that comes back about every other day, but once the Nitromax is added, the ammonia goes down to 0. Every reading of ammonia gets smaller and smaller too, so I think the bacteria is building back up in the filters.
 
Another thing that I've noticed is the filter that gets clogged the fastest is the one closest to the window, and would actually be getting light right into the filter itself. Fully supports the bioslime caused by direct light theory.

 
hypothesis...

 
Glad you are getting a handle on this.  I wish I was getting a handle on my issue.

 
*Hypothesis. My bad Home-slice 

 
Not sure if it makes a difference or not, but there's only a couple inches of sand and the rest underneath is gravel.  I have two filters going, one at the top of the hill and the other is down at the bottom. I'm actually pretty pleased with the flow in my tank, I don't seem to have any dead spots so far.