Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!
- Thread starter SantaMonica
- Start date
I noticed lately the water has been quite cloudy in my setup... I attributed this to the removal of the mechanical filter socks (replaced by the scrubber) until I tested the water and found the ammonia and nitrite levels quite high. I'm not sure what's causing the tank to re-cycle... I guess maybe I increased the bio load too quickly, and I have been power feeding my tinfoil barbs lately. Maybe I'll back off on the feeding a bit and wait for the water to sort itself out. I couldn't get an accurate nitrate reading due to the nitrite presence... so hopefully once the BB settles in properly I'll be able to observe a nice taper off in nitrates. The algae growth in my tank does seem to have slowed down.
Remember that ammonia and nitrite are invisible in the water. Sounds like something died, or just too much food. Don't feed for a few hours... should all clear up. Fortunately your scrubber eats ammonia and nitrite directly.
Did you scrape a screen off recently?SantaMonica;2432256; said:Remember that ammonia and nitrite are invisible in the water. Sounds like something died, or just too much food. Don't feed for a few hours... should all clear up. Fortunately your scrubber eats ammonia and nitrite directly.
When I first scraped my screen and restarted I was not really cloudy but more like "murky"?
But that cleared up by this AM...
I would try to just add the scrubber and put your socks back on...
I know they are invisible, but a cycling tank often exhibits bacterial bloom in the water column. It's been like this for several days. As for it removing the ammonia and nitrite directly... that remains to be proven with FW algae. If this turns out to be the case I'll happily remove my bioballs and put polishing media in there.SantaMonica;2432256; said:Remember that ammonia and nitrite are invisible in the water. Sounds like something died, or just too much food. Don't feed for a few hours... should all clear up. Fortunately your scrubber eats ammonia and nitrite directly.
I cleaned the mechanical media yesterday and it did indeed make the water murky as hell, but the water was cloudy before that. It's not murky anymore, just lightly cloudy. I might try putting the socks back into the w/d if it doesn't clear up, but I'd like to see if it goes away when the tank is finished it's mini-cycle.zennzzo;2432282; said:Did you scrape a screen off recently?
When I first scraped my screen and restarted I was not really cloudy but more like "murky"?
But that cleared up by this AM...
I would try to just add the scrubber and put your socks back on...
Fortunately it is indeed proven. I'm on the FW expert site too, and he's gone through the explanation of how it's the same. He even built one. He does think that FW plants are just as good, if you like having them in your tank.As for it removing the ammonia and nitrite directly... that remains to be proven with FW algae. If this turns out to be the case I'll happily remove my bioballs and put polishing media in there.
Well then clearly my scrubber is not up to the capacity demanded by my bio load... it is now thickly covered in algae on both sides, but I still am undergoing a large ammonia spike.SantaMonica;2432959; said:Fortunately it is indeed proven. I'm on the FW expert site too, and he's gone through the explanation of how it's the same. He even built one. He does think that FW plants are just as good, if you like having them in your tank.
Maybe if this trial is reasonably successful, I'll just re-jig my sump entirely... double the flow and build a nice contained acrylic scrubber that feeds into the sump.
Can you post the current specs of your setup? All the details are helpful.
Also, how often, and how, are you cleaning the screen?
Also, how often, and how, are you cleaning the screen?
