Byron said:
The water got cloudy in the second 75 gallon tank yesterday... not sure why. Added a 40 gallon sump to is to bring the water total up to 115 gallons..... now its cloudy. I cleaned the front glass off, and noticed it was still discolored even in the sump ... so its not the glass that was fogging it up.
This is likely the new filter, a bacterial bloom. It should clear up on its own. I've had it clear in a couple days, to a few weeks.
What kind of "cleaning upkeep" do you recommend? I think previously you mentioned that the left over food and fish waste help produce stuff the plants need, hence the reason why in some cases fritz is not even needed. I guess the real 2 points of interest would be the filter padding and vacuuming the sand. I know your supposed to turn the sand over every once in a while.. if so when? I used to try to keep the same filter pad when I was doing the HOB
type filters, just a rinse and back in there... I guess the main reason I did this was the bio load that also lives on the padding too... but then again, you said they would compete with the plants also removing stuff out of the water... so would it be safe to assume that changing some of the pad here and there would not hurt things?
This depends somewhat on the aquarium, as biologically every aquarium is a bit unique; I have seven tanks with much the same conditions, yet I see this all the time.
Cleaning the sand is not needed, depending upon the set-up, any more than gravel. Provided you do not overload the fish, over-feed, or over fertilize, it is possible to leave the substrate alone. I rarely if ever even go over the top in my 115g, but in the 33g and 70g I do run the water changer over the open areas, and even down in a bit. Be careful not to suck up sand; the Python is easy to avoid this, but the manual water changers can be more forceful and pull up sand easily. I cedrtainly wouldn't go digging down, as any organics that have worked their way down should be left to decompose, being broken down by bacteria, producing lots of CO2 and nutrients like ammonia/ammonium which the plants will grab.
Filters are different, and here you will find serious difference of opinion. I rinse my sponge filters (in the smaller tanks) at every water change, unless sometimes I forget. The filter in a plant tank is mainly there to move the water and remove suspended particulate matter to keep it clear. Biological filtration is not that important, as it competes with the plants. So keeping the filter sponges, pads, floss clean is best to achieve this. My canisters I rinse thoroughly every 2-3 months, depending upon the tank. My Rena XP 3 on the big tank has to be rinsed every two months at the most, or it gets slow and that defeats the purpose of the filter. I have had cyanobacteria break out in a tank solely from the filter being too dirty. I was forgetting the schedule now and then, so this year I started in January cleaning all of the canisters, one a week, and then the Rena in March, May, etc, and the other two in April, July, etc. Easier to remember.
Byron.
Yeah this is where a person who uses a sump would be helpful lol. I need not to worry about the turnover slowing down due to the outlet into the sump would never be slowed down so to say. The surface area of the floss is like 16 inches by 12 inches and is free to flow where ever it wants.... I using it so it catches the derbs one way or another.... then trickles down onto the bio type pads.
Alright here you go, as you can see from the inital tank I think things are going well. I did add some Tetra plant food, posh and iron due to the yellowish leaves and transparent
Here is some grass I bought from the store around the same time. No clue what plant this is, could you give me some input what this is?
And now for the second tank, the plants seem to be doing very well here:
