Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
I just wanted to give some props to all the products I am currently using in my setup, because I just checked the water chemistry and was pleasantly shocked!!
I have a 55g freshwater community with livebearers and tetras mainly, and when I set it up on 1/1 after an 7-8 year hiatus from fishkeeping, I set it up using my UGF w/power heads. I have very regularly tested the water, done changes, gravel vacs, etc until I got sick of it. Constantly sucking tons of gunk out of the gravel, you know the drill if you're a UGF person.
So I got a Marineland C-360 Canister, and put some Seachem Purigen in there for chemical filtration (doesn't affect trace minerals, yay for plants) and pulled 1/2 of the UGF after it was running for a week. After 2 more weeks (which was last weekend), I pulled the other 1/2 of the UGF, and cleaned the canister (3 weeks running) and put the Purigen into the "The Bag" product that keeps it from getting everywhere, because it did.
So as of 5/16 at 9pm, 3 hours after the system overhaul and a 40% water change, by water parameters were as follows:
pH 8.2 (dropped to 7.4 by the next morning - tap is high in pH but drops in the tank quickly)
Ammonia 0.1 (again, tap water issue, 0 by the AM)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 8-10, which is where it had been at pretty much since the tank was set up
Phosphate 2-3ppm (can't get it down)
Now, 1 week later at 2:15pm 5/23 I tested the water before I did a PWC and here's what I've got:
pH 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phos 2-4 (still can't get rid of it)
My Ammonia/Nitrites have been 0 ever since week 3, but I have never seen 0ppm Nitrates in this tank, and it's had plenty of plants from the start. I can only attribute this to the effectiveness of the Seachem Purigen in the canister. The test tube was so yellow, I got it mixed up with the Ammonia test tube, the only way I could tell a difference was the water level in the Nitrate tube was higher because the test uses more drops.
To sum it up, I Love Purigen and Marineland. If they were a person I would marry them. Ok, maybe I don't love them that much, but my fish sure do.
Oh yeah and it kicks <expletive!!> not having to deep gravel vac all the time! I went over the top inch of all the tank which ended up being about a 25% PWC and most of what I got was solid instead of cloudy/dirty. Awesome!!
I have a 55g freshwater community with livebearers and tetras mainly, and when I set it up on 1/1 after an 7-8 year hiatus from fishkeeping, I set it up using my UGF w/power heads. I have very regularly tested the water, done changes, gravel vacs, etc until I got sick of it. Constantly sucking tons of gunk out of the gravel, you know the drill if you're a UGF person.
So I got a Marineland C-360 Canister, and put some Seachem Purigen in there for chemical filtration (doesn't affect trace minerals, yay for plants) and pulled 1/2 of the UGF after it was running for a week. After 2 more weeks (which was last weekend), I pulled the other 1/2 of the UGF, and cleaned the canister (3 weeks running) and put the Purigen into the "The Bag" product that keeps it from getting everywhere, because it did.
So as of 5/16 at 9pm, 3 hours after the system overhaul and a 40% water change, by water parameters were as follows:
pH 8.2 (dropped to 7.4 by the next morning - tap is high in pH but drops in the tank quickly)
Ammonia 0.1 (again, tap water issue, 0 by the AM)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 8-10, which is where it had been at pretty much since the tank was set up
Phosphate 2-3ppm (can't get it down)
Now, 1 week later at 2:15pm 5/23 I tested the water before I did a PWC and here's what I've got:
pH 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phos 2-4 (still can't get rid of it)
My Ammonia/Nitrites have been 0 ever since week 3, but I have never seen 0ppm Nitrates in this tank, and it's had plenty of plants from the start. I can only attribute this to the effectiveness of the Seachem Purigen in the canister. The test tube was so yellow, I got it mixed up with the Ammonia test tube, the only way I could tell a difference was the water level in the Nitrate tube was higher because the test uses more drops.
To sum it up, I Love Purigen and Marineland. If they were a person I would marry them. Ok, maybe I don't love them that much, but my fish sure do.
Oh yeah and it kicks <expletive!!> not having to deep gravel vac all the time! I went over the top inch of all the tank which ended up being about a 25% PWC and most of what I got was solid instead of cloudy/dirty. Awesome!!