Gigaah
Reefing newb
As far as aquarium keepers go I'm pretty anti mechanical filtration. I know diamond clear particle free water isn't the optimum condition for aquarium health. After running 6 months ..even for me..I felt there was just a bit too much stuff floating around in my water. So I began debate what sort of method I would use to clean things up a bit.
With the way my algae scrubber is set up running a filter sock on the overlfow wasn't really an option due to how the water exits over the screen. So as usual I took a trip to home depot. I found a cheap, faucet filter that would plumb in pretty well. The type you plumb in and they have a screw off container for the cartridge. In place of the cartridge(wich are too resitrctive) I put a piece of PVC pipe. I drilled holes in the pipe in one end and stuff some filter floss in the container to filter out the bulk particles.
My plan was to run the filter for a day or two here and there but leave it out most of the time. Only swapping it in when the particles in my tank got out of hand. Every couple months
So I cut into my pipe that pumped water into my tank and installed the device. When the filter was installed it reduced my flow some..as I expected, thats fine. I still had enough flow to properly run the algae scrubber.
So after 24hrs the particles in the tank had been greatly reduced. I was quite pleased. Tested the water. Everything was fine. I checked the filter media..it wasn't all that gross. So I cleaned it out and let the system run another 24hrs un-filtered.
I put the filter floss back in and this time I let it run 2 days. At the end of the two days The water looked fantastic. Just as crystal clean as all tank shots i've seen. So I was happy. I removed the filter floss and it was NASTY. It was all brown, it was also choked with isopods, amphipods, and copepods, mini stars..you name it..it was in there. I checked my water this morning. Nitrates zero, nitrites zero, ammonia 1.0 WOAH!! Hold the boat!!
So i obviously decided to keep the floss out at this point. I cleaned off my screens even though its only been 3 days since I cleaned them..this should help fix the water in short order I figured.
So I think the moral of this story..for me and my anti mechanical filtration ways is. Use mechanical filtration to keep the particles out. But only do it part time. Clean the filter media once per day no matter what. The media is obviously a massive catch of organic matter that will decay in the filter instead of being consumed.
At this point as well I could see employing part time use of a skimmer as well. Skimmers are handy at removing organic particles(food) from the water. However at this point I think I'll just run filter media occasionally.
This will probably be the only time or specific case you will ever hear me say I'd consider a skimmer but only on a very part time basis. I know I probably have the bulk of marine reef keepers in disagreement with me but I'm used to that:). Skimmers in a standard set up are quite obviously a crucial part of controlling water parameters, I just feel its just a very unnatural way of doing things.
I'll check my water again tonight and hopefully things will be back in check soon. Its been probably 10hrs since I checked so I'll check soon.
With the way my algae scrubber is set up running a filter sock on the overlfow wasn't really an option due to how the water exits over the screen. So as usual I took a trip to home depot. I found a cheap, faucet filter that would plumb in pretty well. The type you plumb in and they have a screw off container for the cartridge. In place of the cartridge(wich are too resitrctive) I put a piece of PVC pipe. I drilled holes in the pipe in one end and stuff some filter floss in the container to filter out the bulk particles.
My plan was to run the filter for a day or two here and there but leave it out most of the time. Only swapping it in when the particles in my tank got out of hand. Every couple months
So I cut into my pipe that pumped water into my tank and installed the device. When the filter was installed it reduced my flow some..as I expected, thats fine. I still had enough flow to properly run the algae scrubber.
So after 24hrs the particles in the tank had been greatly reduced. I was quite pleased. Tested the water. Everything was fine. I checked the filter media..it wasn't all that gross. So I cleaned it out and let the system run another 24hrs un-filtered.
I put the filter floss back in and this time I let it run 2 days. At the end of the two days The water looked fantastic. Just as crystal clean as all tank shots i've seen. So I was happy. I removed the filter floss and it was NASTY. It was all brown, it was also choked with isopods, amphipods, and copepods, mini stars..you name it..it was in there. I checked my water this morning. Nitrates zero, nitrites zero, ammonia 1.0 WOAH!! Hold the boat!!
So i obviously decided to keep the floss out at this point. I cleaned off my screens even though its only been 3 days since I cleaned them..this should help fix the water in short order I figured.
So I think the moral of this story..for me and my anti mechanical filtration ways is. Use mechanical filtration to keep the particles out. But only do it part time. Clean the filter media once per day no matter what. The media is obviously a massive catch of organic matter that will decay in the filter instead of being consumed.
At this point as well I could see employing part time use of a skimmer as well. Skimmers are handy at removing organic particles(food) from the water. However at this point I think I'll just run filter media occasionally.
This will probably be the only time or specific case you will ever hear me say I'd consider a skimmer but only on a very part time basis. I know I probably have the bulk of marine reef keepers in disagreement with me but I'm used to that:). Skimmers in a standard set up are quite obviously a crucial part of controlling water parameters, I just feel its just a very unnatural way of doing things.
I'll check my water again tonight and hopefully things will be back in check soon. Its been probably 10hrs since I checked so I'll check soon.
