[Wet Thumb Forum]-Filters, ich, and turbidity

[dwalstad]

Last month I purchased a filter that seemed to help out very much in curing a nasty case of resistant ich.... without medications. I used the filter to help remove the ich cysts and swarmers in my hospital tanks.

Now I've bought a couple more filters, and they are also doing a fabulous job of cleaning up the turbidity after I move plants around.

Filter is the Aquaclear Power Head (Model 301) with it's matching Aqua Clear "Quick Filter". The PowerHeads are designed for undergravel filters, but the "Quick Filter" cartridge makes them an excellent mechanical filter. The cartridge cylinders, which are 7' high and 2.5 inches wide are advertised as removing particles down to 1 micron, which is really small.

As to ich treatment and how the filter cartridge helped. The ich cysts are 1,000 microns, the pimples of which you can see on an infected fish. The ich swarmers, which infect the fish, are 30 microns. If the cartridge is filtering out 1 micron particles, you can see how it might help with ich in the treatment tank. For 6 days until all spots were gone, I moved fish to a chloroxed tank every 24 hours and sterilized the filter pad every 12 hours to keep fish from being re-infected. Then I moved fish back to original tank; swarmers die in 3 days if they don't have fish host and you keep temp at 80F.

As to routine filtration, the 301 model filter with cartridge in my new 55 gal is doing great.

I've also just replaced the canister filter in my 45 gal with the 402 model, which has a little stronger flow (270 gal/h). Filter cleaned up the turbidity in about an hour after I messed up the tank digging around in the soil. Usually, tank doesn't clear up until next day.


Note: The 301 and 402 models, either of which I think is fine for a 50 to 55 gal, take different cartridges. I had to use a 3 inch section of 3/4 inch diameter vinyl tubing (Home Depot) to attach the 301 model cartridge to the 402 model power head. Cartridge designed to fit the 402 may be harder to find.

Why I already like the powerhead cartridge filters better than my canisters:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>Much cheaper

No hoses, cut-off valves, leaky connections to mess with

No possibility of leaking water onto floor

Better removal of small particles (cartridge design is lovely)

No downside of bacteria in the canister going anaerobic and killing fish (I discussed this potential problem in an earlier folder)

Easy to clean. Just remove the cartridge from the powerhead....very easy. I've found that I can reuse the polyester pad by just squeezing it under the faucett several times.[/list]

My experience has been that a planted tank with a soil substrate doesn't need a filter for biological filtration. However, its very nice to have good mechanical filtration. I'd recommend these filters for larger tanks (40 gals and up). The cartridge is a little big to be aestheticaly pleasing for the smaller tanks.

[dwalstad]

Last month I purchased a filter that seemed to help out very much in curing a nasty case of resistant ich.... without medications. I used the filter to help remove the ich cysts and swarmers in my hospital tanks.

Now I've bought a couple more filters, and they are also doing a fabulous job of cleaning up the turbidity after I move plants around.

Filter is the Aquaclear Power Head (Model 301) with it's matching Aqua Clear "Quick Filter". The PowerHeads are designed for undergravel filters, but the "Quick Filter" cartridge makes them an excellent mechanical filter. The cartridge cylinders, which are 7' high and 2.5 inches wide are advertised as removing particles down to 1 micron, which is really small.

As to ich treatment and how the filter cartridge helped. The ich cysts are 1,000 microns, the pimples of which you can see on an infected fish. The ich swarmers, which infect the fish, are 30 microns. If the cartridge is filtering out 1 micron particles, you can see how it might help with ich in the treatment tank. For 6 days until all spots were gone, I moved fish to a chloroxed tank every 24 hours and sterilized the filter pad every 12 hours to keep fish from being re-infected. Then I moved fish back to original tank; swarmers die in 3 days if they don't have fish host and you keep temp at 80F.

As to routine filtration, the 301 model filter with cartridge in my new 55 gal is doing great.

I've also just replaced the canister filter in my 45 gal with the 402 model, which has a little stronger flow (270 gal/h). Filter cleaned up the turbidity in about an hour after I messed up the tank digging around in the soil. Usually, tank doesn't clear up until next day.


Note: The 301 and 402 models, either of which I think is fine for a 50 to 55 gal, take different cartridges. I had to use a 3 inch section of 3/4 inch diameter vinyl tubing (Home Depot) to attach the 301 model cartridge to the 402 model power head. Cartridge designed to fit the 402 may be harder to find.

Why I already like the powerhead cartridge filters better than my canisters:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>Much cheaper

No hoses, cut-off valves, leaky connections to mess with

No possibility of leaking water onto floor

Better removal of small particles (cartridge design is lovely)

No downside of bacteria in the canister going anaerobic and killing fish (I discussed this potential problem in an earlier folder)

Easy to clean. Just remove the cartridge from the powerhead....very easy. I've found that I can reuse the polyester pad by just squeezing it under the faucett several times.[/list]

My experience has been that a planted tank with a soil substrate doesn't need a filter for biological filtration. However, its very nice to have good mechanical filtration. I'd recommend these filters for larger tanks (40 gals and up). The cartridge is a little big to be aestheticaly pleasing for the smaller tanks.

[Roger Miller]

They are my favorite filter, too. I have them on 6 of my 7 tanks. They're useful even in a tank that already has a filter; they're great at polishing the water.

Hagen used to make a 5" inch model that would fit into a 10 gallon tank. You can still get the filters the smaller cartridge, but I understand that they stopped making the cartridge itself.

To clean the filters I wash them under running water, beat them against the side of the sink to dislodge gunk and wash them some more. Then I boil them, which returns the filter to its original "fluffy" state. After boiling I wash them again and then bleach them. The life expectancy of the filter treated this way is at least a year.

Recently some of the filters have plugged very quickly so I'm starting to wonder if something might eventually build up in them that clogs the inner felt layer of the filter.


Roger Miller

[nativeplanter]

If only I had tried this recently during an ich outbreak! There is always the debate regarding which medication won't damage plants, and I wound up loosing many fish.

The powerhead/pre-filter is now on my shopping list so that I have it on hand in the future.

Roger - I wonder if soaking those clogged filters in a super-strong solution of oxyclean (or similar) would help get out the remaining gunk. People in the wine hobby use a similar (perhaps food grade?) product for removing sludge from the bottom of wine bottles before re-using them. I used the oxy-clean for that purpose once, and it worked like a charm.

-Laura

[Roger Miller]

Thanks Laura. I think we even have Oxy-clean. It came along with the need to get my teenage daughters' red and purple hair dyes out of the carpet.

I was thinking back trying to remember just how long the filter inserts have lasted. If memory serves (Which it often doesn't. That's something else I can try to blame on teenage daughters) I added the first 5" filters to my 10-gallon tanks in 2001. I think I'm still using some of those original filters. The 7" filters are a little newer. I've probably had them since late in 2001. I've bought a few since then so that I can have extras.

I can remember throwing away only 3 filters; one because the outer floss covering separated from the inner felt layer and the other two because I left them in a pot of boiling water so long that the water boiled dry. The filters burned; it smelled terrible and damaged the pan -- the French-made, porcelain-coated cast iron pan. Ouch.


Roger Miller

[Wally]

Roger,

I would be a dead man if I did that to my wife's pans

but then again, I still get blamed for every bug in the house because I raised wingless fruit flies 4 years ago, and that was in another house, in another state.

[Roger Miller]

Wally, it sounds to me like you're getting a raw deal. You need someone you can divert the blame to. In my house with 3 teenagers and 4 cats I get to spread the blame around a lot


Roger Miller

[kazador]

regarding the use of the "quick filter" about how many would be required to filter a 75 gal fish and plant tank? i'm thinking about putting 2 "power sweep" power heads with auto rotating output nozzles in the back corners of the tank to create ever changing currents, with "quick filter" filters attached.



75 gal, 220 PC lights, rainbows and plants, potting soil substrata

[dwalstad]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by native planter:
If only I had tried this recently during an ich outbreak! There is always the debate regarding which medication won't damage plants, and I wound up loosing many fish.
-Laura <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As to ich, a few more details. Ich blossomed suddenly on all Rainbowfish two weeks after I introduced a newly purchased fish into my 50 gal tank (I should have taken my own advice about quarantining fish for at least two weeks).

I'm sure that the newly purchased fish brought it into the tank. The new fish could have been carrying one little cyst in her gills where I couldn't see it. She probably was a lot more resistant to ich than my fish, which have never had it.

I wasted a precious week treating the tank with quinine HCl, malachit green, formalin, high temp. None of this stuff prevented re-infestation with new swarmers.

My "elbow grease" method was a modification of the "transfer treatment" method described in Tetra's little book "Fish Diseases". The hospital tanks I moved fish into every 24 hours for 6 days were totally bare except for the cartridge filter and a heater. The high current (generated by the powerhead) probably also helped, because the cysts apparently must settle and attach to a solid object before they can develop and release their little bundle (300-1000 infective swarmers) 8- 12 hours later.

[Wally]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Roger Miller:
Wally, it sounds to me like you're getting a raw deal. You need someone you can divert the blame to. In my house with 3 teenagers and 4 cats I get to spread the blame around a lot


Roger Miller <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Roger,

I have two kids a boy 7 and a girl 5 yet when I try and blame them I just get blamed more

but hey I have been on a business trip for the last few days and will not be home until Sat. Night so at least we can skip the blame game for a few days