Filtration/life support question.

[JamesHitt74]

Hello all, I do residential, commercial, and industrial water treatment. Large softeners, R.O.'s, D.I.'s, Chlorination, De-chlorination, ...that kinda thing. I'm wanting to build my own system for a 125. I am beginning to get the impression that tank water can be almost "too clean". Is this true? If so, how clean is "too clean"? I don't plan on incorporating r.o. or d.i. of course, but I am wanting to run the water through several media tanks and filter down to at least 5 microns at multiple stages. I have many resources to work with from my stock, so price is not really an issue. What mistakes am I making? Please give any and all advice in this matter. All comments are welcome.

 

[Link119]

Dechlorination is always a good idea...

 

[jcolon]

For most fish members have ... tap water's fine as it has nutrients / minerals needed for not just fish, but other living organisms that are part of an aquarium. So yeah ... I do suppose there is such a thing as "too clean". Much like distilled water will hydrate you, but lacks the nutrients / minerals the body needs.

Problem with tap however is chlorine, chloramines, ammonia, nitrates among other additives that come out of the faucet. Thankfully, for most of us a good dechlorinator / conditioner like Seachem Prime's all you need.

 

[JamesHitt74]

First of all, thank you for replying. I am looking into the media that I might use in 8" by 48" in/out tanks. I believe I can remove chlorine and ammonia fairly well. I can also pass through a tank with cation resin to keep the water soft. I can do other mixed bed media tanks as well. What else would I want out of the water? I guess another question would be, what all does a good biological filter accomplish? I might be able to accomplish the same things with special media or chemical injection. I have aeration equiptment for well water iron removal. I can combine that with direct oxygen injection from a home medical oxygen concentrator I happen to have. Are any of these "bad" ideas? Again, any advice is helpful.

 

[jcolon]

I guess another question would be, what all does a good biological filter accomplish? I might be able to accomplish the same things with special media or chemical injection.

While I suppose you can accomplish the equivalent of biological filtration via various media and chemical filtration, a properly established tank with Beneficial Bacteria would convert Ammonia to Nitrites then to Nitrates for free.

It's for the most part a self sustaining system so long as the fish stay alive. You just have to provide the bacteria with an ammonia source, which your fish provide. We would just need to keep the fish alive by proper feeding, PWC's and consistent water temp and pH.

 

[Hholly]

It sounds like you can tailor your water conditions better than most of us to whatever fish you may want to keep.