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

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

--- 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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