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Re: Removing biological filtration




On Tue, 11 Apr 2000, Stephen Boulet wrote:
 
> I'm thinking about removing the biowheels. I have some concerns about this:
> 
> 1) will the plants be able to keep the ammonia at a level safe for the fish?

Your plants probably will keep the ammonia level safe for fish.  In my
tanks they keep ammonia levels unreadable with a Tetra kit.  Your results
will depend on your fish load and on your feeding habits.  In most of our
tanks the CO2 added for the plants also has the nice side effect of
lowering pH so that ammonia is non-toxic even at fairly high levels.
 
> 2) is there a potential for ammonia swings during the 14 hours or so that the
> lights are off?

In what I've read of nitrogen uptake in plants I don't see any reason to
think that ammonia uptake will be related to the lighting cycle.  It
happens in the dark as well as in the light.

Roger Miller