fireman731
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hey guys,
This is a fairly lengthy post with several aspects. It will be broken up into parts, first a background for those of you who don't know my set up and then the questions to follow. There is a short version at the bottom.
The background:
So some, if any, of you know that I have a 28 Gal bowfront tank that has been established for about a year now. I made a recent change a few months back from silk to natural, adding a piece of driftwood(or dogwood, cause it sunk pretty good after boiling) and adding amazon swords, a java fern and a moss ball. The tank has the standard 1 light bar hood, its the natural daylight 18" F15T8. I have a penguin HOB bio wheel filter that I stack with bio max, sponge, and polishing pad and a tank stocked with 6 cory cats, 3 neons, 5 black skirts, 3 snails and a bristle nose albino pleco. The pleco is about 5" long so I would say generally I have about 20 inches of adult fish give or take. The nitrates usually hop up to about 20-40 PPM a week and I do a weekly 5 gal water change, which has been difficult all in its own cause my tap water PH is really high so I typically lug 5 gal water jugs to and from the RO machine at the grocery. I add Prime to condition, then I typically add some liquid fert like flourish and some liquid c02 booster by API. Occasionally Ill throw some root tabs into my gravel/sand substrate. I wanted to start a low light, low maintenance tank that was planted, and I still do, but I want to push the limits now and go from low light to medium light and get it just right for my tank to where the plants have enough light to use up more nitrate but still not needing c02 injection or added nitrate supplements. I was thinking I could upgrade to medium and get away with it, but I was also worried that more lighting will bring on the algea, so, I was thinking of upgrading to a canister filter and adding an in line UV. The plants are surviving, but not thriving. I didn't want my tank to become an overgrown out of control bush, but I want my swords to grow tall in the back and they really aren't growing much at all. Other than the occasional dead/damaged leaf I trim off they are fine though.
So now, the many, many questions:
1) Does the bio wheel really take away from what the plants need with the surface agitation?
2) If I switched to a canister filter, adding a spray bar would be the same as the bio wheel mistake for the planted tank, correct? Also, the reviews I read on the fluval and the marine land canisters is plagued with leak horror stories, whats a good canister?
3) Would upgrading to a little more powerful light bulb, say from low to medium, give the plants more photosynthesis power to suck up more nitrates in the tank (the 20-40 PPM a week with PWC's) just enough to lower the weekly PPM to say 20 and overall reduce the amount of water changes needed weakly to lower nitrates? Also, the more light, the more photosynthesis, the less nitrates, the more fish you can keep, to an extent, correct?
4) If I increase the light from low to medium, can I still avoid a c02 system with the java ferns and swords that I have? Keeping it under 2 watts per gal but at least 1, because im sure right now im under 1 per gal. What is the wats on the the NDL T8 bulb I have?
5) Also if increasing the light but not the number of plants, should I consider a UV? I hear pros and cons, that it makes the fish immune system weaker?
6) I purchased a gravel vac 20 ft extension to attempt to make water changes easier, by at least reducing the buckets carried while syphoning, but without getting an RO system at home and adding some fancy expensive auto top, auto fill system plumbed throughout the house, what are my other options? I looked at the gadget that goes on the faucet to fill from tap without buckets, but I don't use my tap water, so that's a no go.
Short version:
Basically, I want to switch to a good canister filter that doesn't leak with an in line UV that has the correct wattage and flow for my tank (28 gal) while upgrading my lighting simultaneously to ultimately have healthier plants that grow a little quicker and use up more of the nitrates and waste while remaining without c02 injection and avoiding algae growth. I need help finding the balance.
Thanks,
Carl
This is a fairly lengthy post with several aspects. It will be broken up into parts, first a background for those of you who don't know my set up and then the questions to follow. There is a short version at the bottom.
The background:
So some, if any, of you know that I have a 28 Gal bowfront tank that has been established for about a year now. I made a recent change a few months back from silk to natural, adding a piece of driftwood(or dogwood, cause it sunk pretty good after boiling) and adding amazon swords, a java fern and a moss ball. The tank has the standard 1 light bar hood, its the natural daylight 18" F15T8. I have a penguin HOB bio wheel filter that I stack with bio max, sponge, and polishing pad and a tank stocked with 6 cory cats, 3 neons, 5 black skirts, 3 snails and a bristle nose albino pleco. The pleco is about 5" long so I would say generally I have about 20 inches of adult fish give or take. The nitrates usually hop up to about 20-40 PPM a week and I do a weekly 5 gal water change, which has been difficult all in its own cause my tap water PH is really high so I typically lug 5 gal water jugs to and from the RO machine at the grocery. I add Prime to condition, then I typically add some liquid fert like flourish and some liquid c02 booster by API. Occasionally Ill throw some root tabs into my gravel/sand substrate. I wanted to start a low light, low maintenance tank that was planted, and I still do, but I want to push the limits now and go from low light to medium light and get it just right for my tank to where the plants have enough light to use up more nitrate but still not needing c02 injection or added nitrate supplements. I was thinking I could upgrade to medium and get away with it, but I was also worried that more lighting will bring on the algea, so, I was thinking of upgrading to a canister filter and adding an in line UV. The plants are surviving, but not thriving. I didn't want my tank to become an overgrown out of control bush, but I want my swords to grow tall in the back and they really aren't growing much at all. Other than the occasional dead/damaged leaf I trim off they are fine though.
So now, the many, many questions:
1) Does the bio wheel really take away from what the plants need with the surface agitation?
2) If I switched to a canister filter, adding a spray bar would be the same as the bio wheel mistake for the planted tank, correct? Also, the reviews I read on the fluval and the marine land canisters is plagued with leak horror stories, whats a good canister?
3) Would upgrading to a little more powerful light bulb, say from low to medium, give the plants more photosynthesis power to suck up more nitrates in the tank (the 20-40 PPM a week with PWC's) just enough to lower the weekly PPM to say 20 and overall reduce the amount of water changes needed weakly to lower nitrates? Also, the more light, the more photosynthesis, the less nitrates, the more fish you can keep, to an extent, correct?
4) If I increase the light from low to medium, can I still avoid a c02 system with the java ferns and swords that I have? Keeping it under 2 watts per gal but at least 1, because im sure right now im under 1 per gal. What is the wats on the the NDL T8 bulb I have?
5) Also if increasing the light but not the number of plants, should I consider a UV? I hear pros and cons, that it makes the fish immune system weaker?
6) I purchased a gravel vac 20 ft extension to attempt to make water changes easier, by at least reducing the buckets carried while syphoning, but without getting an RO system at home and adding some fancy expensive auto top, auto fill system plumbed throughout the house, what are my other options? I looked at the gadget that goes on the faucet to fill from tap without buckets, but I don't use my tap water, so that's a no go.
Short version:
Basically, I want to switch to a good canister filter that doesn't leak with an in line UV that has the correct wattage and flow for my tank (28 gal) while upgrading my lighting simultaneously to ultimately have healthier plants that grow a little quicker and use up more of the nitrates and waste while remaining without c02 injection and avoiding algae growth. I need help finding the balance.
Thanks,
Carl
