[Wet Thumb Forum]-filter or bubble wand for fish and plants - El Natural

javalee · 02-21-2005, 09:28 AM

Hi, I've always loved the idea of an ecosystem in a tank and I'm attempting my first planted, natural tank. I'm so glad to find this site. I would like to ask which is better for my 10g set-up with 2 small fish (one betta) and lo-light plants, a mini power filter adjusted to low surface disturbance, or just a simple bubble wand? I'm not of course, injecting CO2, but my fish are.

After removing the filter there has been no rise in ammonia or nitrite so I don't seem to need it for that. I thought it would be better to let the plants remove ammonia instead of the filter. Is this a good idea or a poor one?

javalee · 02-21-2005, 09:28 AM

Hi, I've always loved the idea of an ecosystem in a tank and I'm attempting my first planted, natural tank. I'm so glad to find this site. I would like to ask which is better for my 10g set-up with 2 small fish (one betta) and lo-light plants, a mini power filter adjusted to low surface disturbance, or just a simple bubble wand? I'm not of course, injecting CO2, but my fish are.

After removing the filter there has been no rise in ammonia or nitrite so I don't seem to need it for that. I thought it would be better to let the plants remove ammonia instead of the filter. Is this a good idea or a poor one?

dwalstad · 02-21-2005, 10:53 AM

Ideally, I'd let the plants remove it. That way, you should have less nitrates.

javalee · 02-21-2005, 11:09 AM

Thanks. Am I right about the CO2 as well? The bubblewand shouldn't be releasing it if I'm not adding it, but I wonder if just two fish repirating in there could diffuse nice higher levels that the bubblewand would release.

Also, you say "ideally." In your experience, will slow-growing plants keep these ammonia and nitrite levels down long-term? Any pitfalls I should look out for, with the fish, for example?

dwalstad · 02-23-2005, 03:41 AM

The bubble wand, which bubbles in air, will remove CO2 not add it. So if you want to use it, use it sparingly... just enough to keep the fish happy.

Make sure your fish aren't gasping for air early in the morning before lights come on (before photosynthesis and oxygen production kicks in).

You don't say what you used for a substrate?

javalee · 02-27-2005, 09:59 AM

Thanks for the reply. I have just started with plants and wish I had found your information before I set up this tank! I already set up with a plain pea gravel. I have been letting lots of plant detritus and fish waste build up on the substrate in hopes that it would enrich the gravel.

I'm disabled so I'm hesitant to re-do the whole tank in order to enrich the substrate since I would have to recruit some helpers who don't like aquariums, but I was thinking of getting some of our ample supply of red clay, drying it in balls and then burying it quickly in the substrate.

I need to do something cause I think I'm getting the toxic gas build up because I had a pH crash when I last disturbed the gravel. Looking at the posts here about adding blackworms to the gravel too.

imported_BobB · 02-27-2005, 03:33 PM

I've tried just dumping the dirt in over the pea gravel. Yeah, the water looks muddy for a while, but it didn't harm the fish or plants and those two are my over riding concerns. Took 2-8 weeks for the water to totaly clear up.

dwalstad · 03-02-2005, 02:32 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by javalee:

I need to do something cause I think I'm getting the toxic gas build up because I had a pH crash when I last disturbed the gravel. Looking at the posts here about adding blackworms to the gravel too. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'd be careful about letting organic matter accumulate in a pure gravel substrate. While your goal is to increase nutrient levels in the substrate, it sounds like you are doing it too quickly and therefore making your substrate toxic. All the decaying organic matter will release toxic H2S which will kill plants, worms, and possibly fish.

You could try clay balls or just adding soil onto the gravel as suggested in previous letter. I don't see any easy solutions. First thing, though, is I would ease up on the organic matter input.

littleguy · 03-02-2005, 04:01 PM

Tom Barr had an interesting suggestion on another forum

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Use the ice cube method.
Freeze some soupy pre soaked soil in ice cube trays, insert deep under the
gravel.
Do about 1/8 to 1/4 of a section in the tank at time each two weeks. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The whole article is here

Just an idea for adding soil after-the-fact. Can't say I've ever tried it though....

javalee · 03-05-2005, 07:31 AM

Thanks Littleguy! I hadn't thought of that. Sounds like that will reduce a lot of the mess, and allow me to take care of this task in an easy manner. My rooted plants are sparse so I think I'll just add soil cubes at their bases. I'm going to start a new topic about this since we're no longer talking about aeration...