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Re: Filters and O2 levels
on 01:48 PM 10/7/99 , Aquatic Plants Digest wrote:
>I have a high (for planted tank) fish stock and had problems overnight with
>O2 levels and for a time resorted to an airstone overnight to cure these
>problems. Now however after dumping my filter and airpump I have no problems
>at night. I just use a small powerhead to drive my CO2 reactor and for
>circulation, no surface agitation. Filter bacteria are probably the largest
>consumers of O2 in the aquarium and remove ammonia which plants can easily
>use and as a by-product produce nitrate which is not so helpful to plants.
>My filterless tank has been running for about 8 weeks now and test kits show
>zero ammonia, nitrite and nitrates and my fish and plants are doing well, if
>you have a tank full of plants let them do the work, why bother with a
>filter?
In all this talk about oxygen levels before, I completely forgot about the
nitrifying bacteria. This is probably an issue in my tank, since I have
some biomedia in my Fluval filter. This was extremely helpful when I was
starting with the tank, but probably is doing more harm than good now...
--
michael moncur mgm at starlingtech_com http://www.starlingtech.com/
"I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific."
-- Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner