Video: A Clean Tank is Not Always a Healthy Tank - General Aquarium Plants Discussions

BradleysTanks · 05-18-2012, 02:45 PM

This mostly refers to plants. Enjoy! Feel free to subscribe if you like the channel.
This information came from research and books and has evidence to support.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSOO_TqHTuE

Tex Gal · 05-18-2012, 08:26 PM

Bradley I agree that you should not vacuum your gravel except perhaps only what debris is actually sitting right on top. Ther are some things that are in your video that can be wrong depending on the tank set-up

Water changes- in order to change water chemistry you need to change at least 50% of the water. If you have a high tech tank and are dosing EI weekly water changes are a must! If you have a large bio load you may need to change water more frequently than what you recommended. If you are depending on your tap water to supply nutrients because you may be using an inert substrate you may need to do frequent water changes. If you have a new tank and it's cycling you may need to do frequent water changes.

Bacteria in your tank - the vitrifying bacteria colonizes every surface of your tank, including plants, rocks, wood, glass, as well as the substrate. The most numerous place they are found is in your filter (unless you have a tank working without a filter). This bacteria is found in the mulm as it feeds off the ammonia in the rotting debris changing it into nutrients your plants can use. If however you end up with too much crud from over feeding, too many fauna, dead fish , dying plants, you can end up needing to remove some of the debris, or do frequent water changes, etc. Frequent water changes does not remove the bacteria since it doesn't live in the water column but on the surfaces in the tank.

A clean tank should be defined as one in balance with little or no algae, some mu;m in the soil, clear, crisp water and healthy growing plants. Balance means you have the right amounts of nutrition, light, co2 or carbon source and water movement for the amount of fauna for the size of tank.

BradleysTanks · 05-19-2012, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tex Gal

Bradley I agree that you should not vacuum your gravel except perhaps only what debris is actually sitting right on top. Ther are some things that are in your video that can be wrong depending on the tank set-up

Water changes- in order to change water chemistry you need to change at least 50% of the water. If you have a high tech tank and are dosing EI weekly water changes are a must! If you have a large bio load you may need to change water more frequently than what you recommended. If you are depending on your tap water to supply nutrients because you may be using an inert substrate you may need to do frequent water changes. If you have a new tank and it's cycling you may need to do frequent water changes.

Bacteria in your tank - the vitrifying bacteria colonizes every surface of your tank, including plants, rocks, wood, glass, as well as the substrate. The most numerous place they are found is in your filter (unless you have a tank working without a filter). This bacteria is found in the mulm as it feeds off the ammonia in the rotting debris changing it into nutrients your plants can use. If however you end up with too much crud from over feeding, too many fauna, dead fish , dying plants, you can end up needing to remove some of the debris, or do frequent water changes, etc. Frequent water changes does not remove the bacteria since it doesn't live in the water column but on the surfaces in the tank.

A clean tank should be defined as one in balance with little or no algae, some mu;m in the soil, clear, crisp water and healthy growing plants. Balance means you have the right amounts of nutrition, light, co2 or carbon source and water movement for the amount of fauna for the size of tank.

Thanks for the advice. I should of mentioned I was focused on low tech as well. Also, in my example I only have one fish, so I suppose the video would only fit my standards in some parts. For future videos I'll be sure to focus on all tanks and be more specific. Thanks.