New Drop1.2x scrubbers installed: progress report

[amwassil]

Jan18/16

Pleased to report that ammonia and nitrite are still zero after Saturday's cleaning. So I know now how much to clean the drops. While phosphate remains at zero, nitrate remains stubbornly at 5.0ppm. I changed 2 gallons of water yesterday but don't intend to change any more for a while unless nitrates (and/or ammonia) spike again. On the premise that something is generating nitrates and the most likely suspect is the attached Eheim, I took the Eheim offline after today's water tests. Because the algae in the drop is maintaining phosphates at zero, I conclude that the algae is growing normally and can eat whatever ammonia gets generated by the fish, snails and detritus decay.

My original purpose of adding the Eheim to the tank, to eliminate floating debris, has been pretty much replaced by the fish. They eat all the stray algae and everything else settles out where I can syphon it from the bottom every morning.

[amwassil]

Jan19/16

...you could enlarge the holes.

I reamed out the top hole in the drop in the gourami tank to 3/16" on the premise that I can always make it bigger if need be. My hope is that small bits of algae will work their way out and there will be an increase in water through the box. I'm thinking that will get more water over the algae and possibly increase efficiency. Because...

There was detectable, although not measurable ammonia today. No nitrite, though. I added a small amount of Prime just to be safe. I don't want to reattach the Eheim unless the ammonia increases.

When I pulled the drop and opened it up to ream out the hole, there was lots of new algae growth.

[SantaMonica]

I think you need more surface area in the tank for help with ammonia.

[amwassil]

I think you need more surface area in the tank for help with ammonia.

For algae or bacteria? I could move the other drop back from the frog tank. Or I could stick a light on the tank and try to grow algae in the tank where the fish will probably eat most of it. I'll see how it goes over the next few days. I'll feed a little less and syphon out bottom debris diligently.

[SantaMonica]

Just a porous decoration, to give more surface for bacteria.

[amwassil]

Weekly update Jan23/15 (gourami tank)

1. pH: 7.4
2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.0
3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
4. Nitrate (NO3): < 5.0
5. Phosphate (PO4): 0.0



Jan19: As noted, there was detectable ammonia. I added 50 drops of Prime.

Jan20: A slight increase in ammonia, but this was likely due to the Prime. Seachem's techs say that the presence of Prime will give false higher readings for both ammonia and nitrite with salicylate test kits like API.

Jan21: Ammonia was higher again, and nitrate was up also. The higher nitrate could also have been due to the Prime. I added 25 drops of Prime.

Jan22: I changed 5 gallons of water, which brought the ammonia down to 0.0+ and the nitrate back down to 5.0. I also moved the drop from the frog tank back to this tank. It seems to me that with the fish and snails the single drop can not consume all the nutrients being generated. Rather than increase bacterial filtration, which will only result in ever increasing nitrate that will require never-ending water changes, I'd rather increase algae growth and try to control nitrates with that. Moving the other drop resulted in a lot of debris getting into the water, so I reconnected the Eheim for about 3 1/2 hours to clean it up.

The wife and I went to one of our local fish stores in the early evening to replace the female pearl gourami who died last Friday. We ended up buying both a female pearl and another female golden. So there are now 7 gouramis, three large and one medium sized snails in the tank.

Jan23: I changed 5 gallons of water before doing today's tests indicated above. I cleaned both drops, although I did not make a photo of the drop I moved from the frog tank since most of its algae growth had occurred while in the frog tank. I also reconnected the Eheim for about 3 hours to clear debris from the water again. The water is nice and clear now and I have siphoned debris from the bottom.

I intend to change another 5 gallons of water tomorrow prior to testing to try to knock down the nitrate a bit more. With nitrate well below 5.0, I'll then see if the two drops can take it down to zero and keep the ammonia at zero for the rest of the week.

[amwassil]

Weekly update Jan30/16 (gourami tank)

1. pH: 7.6
2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.25
3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
4. Nitrate (NO3): 0.0+
5. Phosphate (PO4): 0.0



I only cleaned one of the drops and will clean the other on Wednesday. There was lots of algae in the drop and I simply rinsed out the loose gobs and used a toothbrush to clear algae off the lights and the lid.

Jan24: Changed 5 gallons of water. This brought Ammonia/ium down to 0.0 and Nitrates down to 0.0++.

Jan25: Ammonia/ium was back up to 0.25! but Nitrate was down to 0.0+. I added 50 drops of Prime to ensure the ammonia/ium didn't cause any problem. Later in the day I changed 5 gallons of water because when I used my Eheim with the vacuum tube to clean the bottom, there must have been some stale water in the tube and/or the canister which made the water stink again. The water change got rid of most of the odor, but not all.

Jan26: Ammonia/ium and Nitrate both went to 0.0.

Jan27: I changed 1 gallon of water cleaning the bottom.

Jan28: I added a sponge filter to help clear debris from the water. I also intend to let nitrifying bacteria colonize it to help with the bio-filtration. The drops don't seem to be able to maintain Ammonia/ium at zero on their own, but I'm hoping they will keep Nitrates at or near zero after the sponge starts cycling.

Jan29: Ammonia/ium went to 0.0+.

Jan30: I changed 1 gallon of water cleaning the bottom a couple hours before taking today's test readings. As you can see Ammonia/ium and Nitrate are both up a bit.

[amwassil]

Weekly update Feb01/16 (gourami tank)

1. pH: 7.4
2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.0
3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
4. Nitrate (NO3): 0.0+
5. Phosphate (PO4): 0.0

[amwassil]

Weekly update Feb07/16 (gourami tank)

1. pH: 7.4
2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.0
3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.25
4. Nitrate (NO3): < 5
5. Phosphate (PO4): 0.0



The left photo was made on Feb04 and right photo on Feb06. I had intended to clean the left drop on Feb03, but forgot. But the cleaning schedule going forward is Sat and Wed. As you can see from the above photos and previous photos, lots of algae is growing in both drops.

Unfortunately, although lots of algae is growing in the drops, they do not seem to be maintaining the nutrients at or near zero very well. Both ammonia/ium and nitrite fluctuate up and down during the week. Nitrates also go up and down but more slowly generally from zero to 5ppm over a week and a half or so. I've been doing 1 & 2 gallon water changes a couple times per week when cleaning bottom debris and those seem to knock down the ammonia/ium and nitrtrite. I do 5 gallon water changes to knock down nitrates below 5 once it gets above that. It seems that once nitrates go above 5ppm the algae cannot take it back to zero without a large water change.

Judging by the fluctuations in ammonia/ium and nitrites, I'd say the sponge is starting to cycle but still has a ways to go before those two nutrients become undetectable. At that point I suspect nitrates will go up faster than they do currently, so I'll likely have to do a 5 gallon water change once per week to keep it under control since based on my experience so far the two drops will not keep nitrated below 5ppm without the water changes. I'll see how it goes over the next couple weeks as I expect the sponge will be fully cycling in that time frame. I cleaned the sponge once this past week and it smells rather 'earthy' which I presume is the bacterial colony.

I'm still running the LEDs in the drops 24/7. Does anyone think algae would grow better/thicker/faster if the lights are off a few hours each day?

[SantaMonica]

No if they are packed with 24 hours of light, that's probably the max.