Re: [APD] Online driftwood sellers -- or - Gnawing concerns

["Scott R.H." <irons_21 at yahoo_com>]

I wonder if a spary bar level with top of the
substrate would help this at all.

Scott RH.

--- "S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com> wrote:
> 
> --- Dan Resler <resler at liberty_egr.vcu.edu> wrote:
> > S. Hieber wrote:
> > > Gravel vacuuming is one way to stay ahead of the
> game.
> > It
> > > helps to have the filter outflow currents tend
> to sweep
> > the
> > > lighter material on the gravel surface towards
> the
> > filter
> > > intake.
> > 
> > I agree this should work, but I have 2 things
> going
> > against me. One is a
> > very dense planting making it tough to get at the
> gravel
> > (so everything
> > settles on the plants). 
> 
> I know that problem. That's when I got more artful
> in
> aiming the filter outflow.
> 
> > And secondly I use a trickle
> > filter with an overflow
> > box - much of the driftwood detritus goes out of
> > suspension before the
> > currents can take it to the overflow (my plants in
> effect
> > are working as a
> > mechanical filter or sieve taking alot of the
> > particulants out of the water
> > before they get to the overflow).
> 
> Let me guess: and at feeding time it's like a
> snowstorm in
> snowglobe, only not white, right?
> 
>  
> > What I have been doing, which is getting to be a
> real
> > pain, is I set up my
> > Vortex Diatom filter on the tank and then "stir
> > everything up" every 20
> > minutes or so which causes most everything to go
> into
> > suspension where it
> > can be removed by the diatom filter before it
> settles
> > again. 
> 
> Regular mechanical filtration, as opposed to diatom
> filtering, should be able to remove it as long as it
> is
> suspended. But the strong water flow from the diatom
> filter
> should help moves things around. It helped in my
> tank to
> turn the out flow downward, This doesn't get
> everything
> sucked into the overflfow but it tends to collect in
> certain places "shaded" from the filter current,
> which
> makes it easier to vacuum up much of it. This hasn't
> been a
> solution, but it has been a help.
> 
> I resigned myself to this partly because I have
> other
> tanks, crystal clear -- so this one can be my
> messier tank,
> partly because driftwood can be used to such good
> visual
> effect--so it's worth it, and partly because it
> makes the
> fish (the ancistrus anyway) happy -- I figure I owe
> them a
> little something for keeping me so entertained ;-)
> 
> > This gets most
> > of the wood detritus out of the tank but the
> effect only
> > lasts a few days.
> 
> Yep, definitely higher maintenance than using harder
> woods
> or no plecos.
> 
> If you yank all the wood, you wouldn't be the first
> I've
> heard to do that.
> 
> Scott H.
> 
> =====
> -  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
> She Wrote the book on low maintenance aquatic
> gardening!
> Diana Walstad, author of _Ecology of the Planted
> Aquarium_
> Meet her at  - The Fifth AGA Annual Convention
> Details & Registration at www.aquatic-gardeners.org
> & www.gwapa.org
> 
> 
> 	
> 		
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