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

[Dan Resler <resler at liberty_egr.vcu.edu>]

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). 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).

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. This gets most
of the wood detritus out of the tank but the effect only lasts a few days.

dan
-- 
Dan Resler                            email: dresler at vcu_edu
Computer Science Dept.
Virginia Commonwealth University           
Richmond, VA 23284-3068 USA
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