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#16
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Cycling and Bio-Filter in Planted Tank
fusQuanto wrote,
what filter do you have? I have a 5 gal. tank of neons in a spair bedroom for the grandkids when they visit. It always has an AquaClear Mini (100gph) on it. One of the 90 gal. tanks for a couple of months now, has had two Marineland's bio-wheel 330s - great filters. Last week I put two AquaClear 500s on the other 90 gal. tank. A bit of an overkill (each 500gph), but not as bad as I thought they were going to be (so for). I run tests and evaluate aquarium equipment and products for a wholesale house and a couple of pet stores. ............. Frank |
#17
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Cycling and Bio-Filter in Planted Tank
Richard Sexton wrote: In article .com, Frank wrote: fusQuanto wrote, well, the bottles of liquid fertilizers tell you to remove the carbon from filters.......... That makes no sense. Who says this? actually its only the melafix that says it, not the ferts. i figured the ferts would have the same problem too because the carbon is soaking up the nutrients? no? im not a chemistry nor biology major so perhaps you can shed some light. thx |
#18
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Cycling and Bio-Filter in Planted Tank
fusQuanto wrote,
i figured the ferts would have the same problem too because the carbon is soaking up the nutrients? no? That makes no sense. Who says this? Makes sence to me - activated carbon removes; ammonia, nitrite, organic compounds such as acids, phenolics, proteins, carbohydrates, hormones, drugs, chemicals, trace elements, and natural metabolic compounds. I know it removes heavy metals, it sucked the iron right out of my liquid fertilizer! .................... Frank |
#19
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Cycling and Bio-Filter in Planted Tank
Frank wrote:
fusQuanto wrote, i figured the ferts would have the same problem too because the carbon is soaking up the nutrients? no? That makes no sense. Who says this? Makes sence to me - activated carbon removes; ammonia, nitrite, organic compounds such as acids, phenolics, proteins, carbohydrates, hormones, drugs, chemicals, trace elements, and natural metabolic compounds. I know it removes heavy metals, it sucked the iron right out of my liquid fertilizer! ................... Frank I accidentally left some carbon in one of my planted tanks - result was the plants were decimated.... Gill |
#20
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Cycling and Bio-Filter in Planted Tank
In article ,
fusQuanto wrote: That makes no sense. Who says this? actually its only the melafix that says it, not the ferts. i figured the ferts would have the same problem too because the carbon is soaking up the nutrients? no? im not a chemistry nor biology major so perhaps you can shed some light. thx Ok sure. Carbon filters out long-chain organics. Small molocules pass tight through. In practical terms if you add say methylene blue to the water and it's dark blue, carbon will filter that out quite quickly. But, if you were say to add salt to the tank, carbon wouldn't touch it. It does not remove salt. There are no hard and fast rules about this, but in a very rough sense, rely on carbon not to remove anything transparent, but any chemical "big" enouh to have color - well that will be filtered out by carbon. Melafix is good stuff, but it smells and looks like something that would be filtered out by carbon. Not so fertilizers. Having said that there are people who believe carbon will take things ouf of the water like copper, iron and the like and its no good for plants. This is slightly true. Carbon will remove minicsule amnounts of these thigs, so if you never change water and use carbon for months the plants may suffer. OTOH I've done this and if they suffer it's really not so you'd notice. -- Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org 1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home page: http://rs79.vrx.net 633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net |
#21
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Cycling and Bio-Filter in Planted Tank
In article . com,
Frank wrote: the ferts would have the same problem too because the carbon is soaking up the nutrients? no? That makes no sense. Who says this? Makes sence to me - activated carbon removes; ammonia, nitrite, Nope. -- Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org 1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home page: http://rs79.vrx.net 633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net |
#22
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Cycling and Bio-Filter in Planted Tank
Frank wrote:
Altum wrote, The only thing plants don't remove from your list is solid particulate waste and much of that settles in the root zone. Plants do not remove inorganic pollutants such as DOCs (Dissolved Organic Compounds = uneaten foods and fish waste) from the water column. As a matter of fact, a 20% weekly water change still leaves about 30 days of accumulated DOC pollutants in the tank. DOC levels can be determined by comparing the differences between a chemical hardness test and the TDS (total dissolved solid) reading from a conductivity meter. As the DOCs start to accumulate over time, the water starts to turn yellow and the water quality starts to drop. Actually, I've never had the water in a planted tank turn yellow the way it does in a fish-only tank. That's why I thought they removed DOCs. As a general rule, plants use pretty much every molecule they can "get their hands on." I don't have access to a conductivity meter so I'll have to take your word for the measurements. |
#23
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Cycling and Bio-Filter in Planted Tank
Richard Sexton wrote,
Nope. OK, OK - I got carried away, your right :-( , carbon does not remove transparent inorganics! ............ Frank |
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