# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Ammonium and nitrate article



## Shane A smith (Jun 15, 2003)

Diana,
When you say that you have found it necessary to only have water pumps in the aquarium because the surface area is present within the aquarium. Do you not have any mechanical filtration?

Also would is be possibly advisable to pack your canister filters with filter floss so you are mostly getting mechanical filtration? Do you think the tank environment would improve if the surface area was not present in the filter?

A very informative article thats making me think a lot about what i am currently doing.

50gal 161watts PC 6500k/8800k Clay Substrate.


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## Shane A smith (Jun 15, 2003)

Diana,
When you say that you have found it necessary to only have water pumps in the aquarium because the surface area is present within the aquarium. Do you not have any mechanical filtration?

Also would is be possibly advisable to pack your canister filters with filter floss so you are mostly getting mechanical filtration? Do you think the tank environment would improve if the surface area was not present in the filter?

A very informative article thats making me think a lot about what i am currently doing.

50gal 161watts PC 6500k/8800k Clay Substrate.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Hello SAS,

In two of my tanks, I just have a pump to circulate water. There's no mechnical filtration.

I don't understand what I would need to filter out. The water is clear and solid particles eventually go to the bottom.

In terms of fish safety, I do not recommend filling canister filters with packing. I just keep some ceramic noodles in them; the interior is virtually empty. The canister then just basically circulates water in the tank.

When I first bought my canister filters, I filled them with packing as recommended. Like everyone else, I just assumed that the more surface area and more nitrifying bacteria, the better.

However, if the power went out for a few hours and the filter came back on, I began to notice the fish weren't happy and sometimes I would lose a fish or two.

The power doesn't even have to go out for it to hurt fish. Sometimes the mulm builds up, and just like a clogged artery, the filter will go anaerobic. You have to appreciate the fact that once bacteria go anaerobic and die, they begin to release toxins. I believe this happened several times for many years without my really understanding what was going on.

Canister filters filled with packing eventually fill up with mulm. Because the canister is a sealed, enclosed unit, it can become anaerobic if it is not cleaned out regularly.

Just the other day I came home to see that the Rainbowfish in my 45 gal were huddled in the center-- acting wierd. I immediately cleaned the filter and ran fresh water through it to clean it out. The filter turned out to be filled with packing and mulm (sometimes I forget to take my own advice







).

I've done many bottle tests that proved to me that soil alone and mulm alone removes ammonia and nitrite very efficiently. Nitrifying bacteria are in all soils and sediments, not just in filters.

It wasn't until after I did the experiments that I decided to remove the filters in two of my tanks.

I'm glad I did. There's no reason to worry about clogged canister filters or cleaning filters out. The mulm collects on top of the gravel where it stays aerobic even if the power goes out. I do more mulm removal from top of gravel now that there's no filter in my 50 gal, but I really don't mind. Also, I don't have to worry about hosing or bad connections that might leak water.

Canister filters are nice and the Eheim that I bought over 10 years ago still works beautifully. If you have a canister filter, don't fill it with packing!

Diana Walstad


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

I can second at least some of Diana experience. I started taking filters off from my tanks about 10 years ago. For several years all of my tanks ran without filters. I just kept the circulation going with power heads. Fish were mostly fine and the plants were healthy.

The unfiltered tanks worked very well as long as you didn't mess around in the tank and then expect it to look good right away. I eventually went back to using mechanical filters for entirely aesthetic reasons. The tanks took 24-48 hours after even a minor disturbance before the water cleared. I wanted them to look better than that.

If you do run mechanical filters then you need to be careful to keep them clean. I let one get clogged last summer and almost half the fish in the tank suffocated overnight. I thought that was odd because I knew from experience that if I just turned the filter off that the fish would be just fine.

There's a double wammy when you let a filter clog. First you lose circulation and the aeration that the circulation provides. Second, the water coming out of the filter is oxygen depleted.

The gunk that clogs a mechanical filter is a mixture of mulm and detritus out of the tank along with a huge microfauna population and the slime that they surround themselves in. That big population consumes oxygen. If the filter reaches the point where it consumes more oxygen than the tank itself then bad things can happen. The flow rate drops because of clogging and the filter spews water with little or no oxygen in it. At night there is no photosynthesis to add oxygen and with a clogged filter there isn't enough circulation to reaerate the water from the filter. The oxygen level in the tank can drop even lower than it would if there were no filter at all. Fish die. It's tragic.

Filters aren't always good things.

Roger Miller

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_"The indispensible first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want" -- Ben Stein_


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

i hear talk about using powerheads and canister filters.. my question is, how about power filters that hang on the back? or will that cause too much co2 loss? i was planning on using a whisper power filter for a 20 G acrylic tank.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

I used Whispers on my smaller tanks for many years and they worked fine. I'd use the minimum size required for your tank. Remember that your plants and soil are the biofilters in your tank, so you don't need that much filtration.

Take measure to prevent excessive air/water mixing. For example, I wouldn't let the tank water level get so low that the filter becomes a 3 inch "waterfall".

Diana Walstad


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## Shane A smith (Jun 15, 2003)

Since i do keep my fluval packed with filter floss, should i check it weekly to just make sure its not clogging? Its not a big deal and on sundays i can barely keep my hands out of the tank. I just like the filter floss and the filter pads because they clear up the water. I was never too worried about it clogging but after i killed my favourite fish *Farrowella* and it had been with me for a year i do kind of question if it could be because i never think to clean the filter. I think i am going to set up another smaller tank (20 gallon high) and i am going to just run a power head on each end to get the tank water to turn in a circular fashion. Should the water just clear on its own slower or will it be about the same?

50gal 161watts PC 6500k/8800k Clay Substrate.


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## Mario Velez (Feb 20, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Diana Walstad:
> Hello SAS,
> ...


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## Mario Velez (Feb 20, 2004)

Dear Ms D. Walstad

I have just replaced the bio-balls of my wet & dry filter with a bunch of open cell foam in order to avoid the gas exchange and get around losing CO2 though the process. My guess was to let said, transform the W&D in a simple mechanical canister filter. However, now Im not sure if the above is the right thing to do base on you post? 2nd question: Prior to return water back in to the tank it goes through an ultraviolet light. Let us know your thought about that? 

For your easy reference what I keep in that tank are six Discus and about 40 Cardinals tetras

Your comments/advise as always will be very much appreciated.

Best Regards
Mario Velez


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

I think it's good you've converted W/D to canister filter. Canisters are fine if you just don't let them go like I did for over a year. See Roger's letter. I'd just put them on a schedule where they get cleaned out every 3-6 months.

Critical is always noting fish behavior. If they're not eating, something is wrong!

I think the UV sterilizer is fine. It is the ULTIMATE in preventing and curing green water algae!

Diana Walstad


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