New Drop1.2x scrubbers installed: progress report

[dryworm]

put some floating plants in your aquarium like pennywort, anacharis or hornwort. they are fast growing and absorb alot of nitrates.

[amwassil]

Weekly update Dec12/15:

1. pH: 7.5+
2. Ammonia (NH3/4): 0.0
3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
4. Nitrate (NO3): 0.0
5. Phosphate (PO4): 0.0
6. kH: dKH 3 (53ppm)
7. Calcium: 420ppm



I cleaned the Eheim filter today. I thought the lingering odor might be coming from the sponges or floss in it, but that was not the case. I cleaned and bleached everything just the same. In case someone hasn't read previous posts, I am using the Eheim for mechanical filtration only, not bio. I added a small bag of activated charcoal to the tank to eliminate the last vestiges of odor. This seems to be working as there is hardly any detectable odor now. Before putting my two gouramis back in, I'm going to let the pH drop a little since it is at the upper end of the desired range for them and the small bowl they're in now has a lower pH. I'll try to match pH in both the smaller bowl and the 15 gallon tank before moving them back in.

Also, I need to raise KH a little. Does anyone know how to do so without increasing pH? I use sticks of chalk to maintain calcium levels, but even though they are carbonate, they don't seem to affect KH at all. So I've been using baking soda to raise KH, but I don't want to do that because it will also raise the pH. So what to do? Thanks.

[SantaMonica]

Just add a little CO2, or vinegar, to bring the pH down.

[amwassil]

Weekly update Dec19/15 (gourami tank)

1. pH: 7.2
2. Ammonia (NH3/4): 0.0
3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
4. Nitrate (NO3): 0.0
5. Phosphate (PO4): 0.0
6. kH: dKH 3 (53ppm)
7. Calcium: 440ppm

Looks like things have stabilized sufficiently to re-introduce the two dwarf gouramis back to this tank. There is no odor any more. I'm in process now of equalizing pH and temp between this tank and their temporary bowl. While waiting to complete that, which will take a couple more hours I'd guess, I'm going to pull one of the drops from this tank and put it in my african dwarf frog tank.

4:20pm:
I've cleaned both drops and moved one to the frog tank. Both drops had about the same amount of growth as last week, which I found somewhat surprising given the low nutrients in the gourami tank. About half the algae in each drop was brown. It looked just like the green hair algae growing in them, except its colour. Would I be correct in thinking the brown colour is the result of low nutrients?

Weekly update Dec19/15 (frog tank)

1. pH: 7.0
2. Ammonia (NH3/4): 0.0
3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
4. Nitrate (NO3): 40.0+
5. Phosphate (PO4): 10.0+

This tank has a cycling canister attached to it, so I'm only going to report on the pH, Nitrate and Phosphate here. My main goal in this tank is to determine how long it takes the algae to lower Phosphate and Nitrate. I do partial water changes in this tank, but not on any particular schedule, only when the water starts to look grubby and/or there's a lot of debris buildup on the bottom. The pH tends to drop in this tank so I will continue to use baking soda to try to keep it at or slightly above 7.0 to max algae growth in the drop. There are some snails in this tank as well, and I add chalk to maintain some calcium in the water.

[amwassil]

When I put the two dwarf gouramis back in the tank the male started showing signs of stress almost right away (ie flopping on his side). I waited about an hour to determine whether it was just due to the move, but apparently not. So I put them back in the small bowl again.

I decided to do a 100% water change, clean both the tank and the Ehein canister and try again today. That's done now and both fish are in the tank again with no signs of stress this time. That suggests to me that the most likely culprit is the chalk sticks I've added for carbonate and calcium. There's possibly something else in them, binder I presume, that the gourami is sensitive to.

New starting water parameters Dec20/15:

1. pH: 7.2
2. Ammonia (NH3/4): 0.0
3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
4. Nitrate (NO3): 0.0
5. Phosphate (PO4): 0.0
6. kH: dKH 3 (53ppm)
7. Calcium: 40ppm

I am going to stop using chalk sticks and try to substitute another source of carbonate and calcium. There's never a dull moment.

[SantaMonica]

Brown means higher nutrients in the water, or less scrubber light. Green means less nutrients in the water, or more scrubber light.

[amwassil]

Brown means higher nutrients in the water, or less scrubber light. Green means less nutrients in the water, or more scrubber light.

Thanks. That's good to know. My suspicion is it's related to light. Those two drops were not on a timer so I had to turn them on/off manually. I can see the necessity of using a timer to get the light consistently right.

[SantaMonica]

Try them with no timer. Some FW scrubbers can do it.

[amwassil]

Weekly update Dec26/15 (gourami tank)

Lots happened this past week. I bought a 25lb bag of 'Cinnamon Farms General Purpose Dolomite Lime' which is produced in Nanaimo, BC. It is crushed calcium and magnesium carbonates along with whatever other minerals are in the source dolomite rock. It is very fine grained, mostly powder mixed with a small amount of very find sand. It does not contain any additives. Most of it dissolves into the water, leaving only the small sand grains on the bottom. I imagine they will also dissolve over time. So that's my new calcium/magnesium and carbonate source to try to buffer pH and bring up the general and carbonate alkalinity and provide calcium and magnesium for the snails.

In my water tests on Dec22 there were very small, but detectable, amounts ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate. I added a 1/4tsp of dolomite to the tank in the hopes of stimulating the algae. I also left the drop lights on both in this tank and the frog tank. They have been on non-stop until I pulled them out for cleaning today.

In my water tests on Dec23 ammonia/ammonium and nitrate were still at small but detectable amounts, however, nitrite and phosphate had increased! The phosphate had increased to 1.0ppm from only a trace the day before! The rising nitrite concerned me because the two gouramis are very sensitive to nitrite. So I changed 2 gallons of water. This tank has about 12 gallons total.

The morning of Dec24 I changed another 2 gallons of water and did so again in midafternoon. These water changes knocked everything except phosphate back down to barely detectable (I indicate this in my log as 0.0+). Also, the drop was growing a nice looking crop of dark green algae. So it looks like the algae is consuming nutrients again. After my water test, I change another 2 gallons of water. Also, just to be safe, I pulled the male gourami out of this tank temporarily. He is extremely sensitive to nitrite, and he was injured by previous nitrite/ammonia exposure, so I want him out until water params stabilize again. The female is not showing any signs of stress, so she is still in the tank.

The morning of Dec25 I changed another 2 gallons of water and then tested. Everything now was back to 0.0 except phosphate.

Dec26/15 (gourami tank)
1. pH: 7.2
2. Ammonia (NH3/4): 0.0
3. Nitrite (NO2): ~ 0.1
4. Nitrate (NO3): 0.0
5. Phosphate (PO4): ~ 0.25

After doing the above tests, I changed 2 gallons of water to try to dilute the nitrite more. It is still detectable, so I'll change another 2 gallons of water this evening after feeding, so any leftover food gets siphoned out of the tank. Detectable nitrite is a concern. There must be some nitrifying bacteria colonized in the tank and/or the Eheim filter sponges. I guess to be safe I had better just let it continue to colonize both in the hopes of growing enough nitrite-eating bacteria to keep it under control. So no more sterilyzing the canister sponges! Unfortunately, that kind of defeats the object of my experiment to determine whether the drop can function as the sole filter on this tank. But I don't want my fish to die!

The drop from the gourami tank prior to cleaning:

I suspect that the problems arose from cleaning the drops too vigorously last Saturday and they stopped growing algae for a couple of days before recovering. So today I did a much less thorough cleaning in the hopes to avoid that happening again.

Try them with no timer. Some FW scrubbers can do it.

I'm going to leave the lights on 24 hours for awhile. We'll see how it goes.

[amwassil]

Weekly update Dec26/15 (frog tank)

1. pH: 7.0
2. Nitrate (NO3): 40.0+
3. Phosphate (PO4): 2.0+



Interesting how much the phosphate dropped from last week, from 10+! I suspect phosphate fluctuates quickly, even daily. Uneaten, decaying food, poop? I changed 2 gallons of water in this tank yesterday using clean newly filtered water. So that likely brought the phosphate down some, but I think the algae eats phosphate first so I expect it will continue to fall over the next week when I am unlikely change any water other than topping up as it evaporates.

As I mentioned in a previous post, there is a cycling canister attached to this tank, so I am not reporting on ammonia/ammonium or nitrite since they are always 0.0. I put the drop in here in the hopes the algae will eventually consume the nitrates and phosphates.


Update Dec28/15:

I changed 2 gallons of water around noon today as there was quite a bit of food debris. I did not test the water. I need to feed less since the frogs eat very little. There are also some snails in this tank with the frogs and they do clean up some of the leftover food.