poop problem :(

[duanes]

I use PFS and never had that problem, I believe the best solution is to vacuum every other day or so. Besides getting rid of debris it dilutes the nitrates with fresh water you replace the old water with, and makes the tank healthier. The more you get metabolism by-products out of the water column all together) instead of sweeping it under the rug (in a filter) the better.

 

[smjack]

I use PFS and never had that problem, I believe the best solution is to vacuum every other day or so. Besides getting rid of debris it dilutes the nitrates with fresh water you replace the old water with, and makes the tank healthier. The more you get metabolism by-products out of the water column all together) instead of sweeping it under the rug (in a filter) the better.

Sorry what is PFS? Anyway I do 50 percent waterchange every week. But what I don't like to see is the poop.

 

[markstrimaran]

Pool filter sand.

 

[duanes]

I vacuumed every other day, removing about 30% water with it. Kept nitrates down between 2-5ppm.
And yes pool filter snd.

 

[smjack]

Hence I am going to try a wavemaker on the tank. It has to be clean and I will just have to do waterchanges. Just have to eliminate remove dead spots

 

[markstrimaran]

I use fine beach sand, 450 gph flow thru a 48" discharge pipe. That's mounted along the top trim.
I have 2" air lift that dumps poop and excess food, in the overflow. That goes into filter floss for removal.

I don't vacuum the sand, as it is very thin, I do bull doze it once a month.


I water change 55 gallons from 155 gallons every 6 days. Harvest 2 Oz of green hair algae every week, from a scrubber.
My nitrates stay with in 10 ppm of my tap water.

With a population of 45 African Cichlids, averaging 2.5"

 

[smjack]

If you have a picture of your tanks with a wavemaker or pumps please to send it here. And airlift pump? Don't know how it would work. But those algae scrubber are magnificent

 

[markstrimaran]

In the front of the corner overflow. Their is poop, and food bits. It took a while to get it resolved.
The air lift is the clear pipe next to the black overflow. One problem was the bottom holes on the overflow are 2" off the bottom. To allow for old school gravel beds.

The air lift cured the need to siphon out waste. For a while I used a turkey baste to push the waste out of dead spots and towards the air lift.


In the early set up, I had to move the cichlid habitat to clean the tank. This my older fish to become terrified of me, and would always hide. If they seen me coming.
The problem was pushing water though the tank with an even flow. My spray bar was a black articulated snake like with 450 gph nozzle and focused on one point.
I took a 48" 1/2" pvc. Drilled 1/8" holes every 5 inches. Then tested it in the bath tub,
The hole pattern is 5" for the first half, then 2.5" spacing farther down
.
This pushes my sand dunes, food, poop towards the air lift, overflow. Completely eliminating most in tank cleaning maintenance. The sand gets bull dozed once a week.

 

[markstrimaran]

A similar return bar, on my upper tank. It is sumpless. With a built in sump pump in the back corner. This tank has some heavy pleco poop.

 

[duanes]