- Joined
- 19 Oct 2008
- Messages
- 60
Hi George,
some of us use Koralias too. They are very nice, especially the nanos. Flow is very essential and I think Tom Barr made it clear with his tests and his CO2 probe how essential flow is.
When having a near empty canister you get alot more flow out of it. That's the reason why only some use additional powerheads. But you can always improve the situation with a little bit more flow.
Normally biofiltermedia should only convert NH4 to NO2 and than to NO3. But when a filter is working "better and better" those hightechfiltermedia tend to consume nitrates too. They go anaerobic inside the filtermedia and tend to suck all NO3 up too. This of course can happen, but often isn't a problem. Eheim, Sera etc. are marketing their filtermedia especially regarding those effects of consuming nitrates, due to the reason that most of the aquarium industry is still thinking of the "bad nitrates".
You can often compensate those circumstances with adding a little bit more ferts. So the majority will be fine.
Some people in Germany like to dose less ferts (=> cheaper 😉 even when dosing from powders ) and for them it's a conveniant way to use less fertilizer and having the same effects regarding effectiveness. The nitrifying bacteria settle down on everything in your tank and due to that you can think of a big filter when having a planted aquarium.
The people who want not to go totally filterless use blue medium to big sized sponge filter in their canisters. I think the majority does. Only some go totally filterless. JBL for example has good filtermedia delivered with their canisters. Just blue sponge and a little bit ceramic at the bottom. No hightech filtermedia like Ehfimech, Sinterglass or whatever else.
Regarding Fe and PO4 you can observe (and measure) and explain that Fe can react with PO4 and this both elements
tend to precipitate in the filter. If you measure the filter mud who will get ridiculous high amounts of Fe and PO4. With a little bit less filtrations you can reduce the amounts of Fe and PO4 need to be dosed.
Of course this whole "filter less approach" is widely discussed in Germany too. Their are many sceptics and I belief that the normal EI recipe works very good with big filtration. With nearly no filtration you will end up without enough nitrogen but with ALOT PO4 and way to high Fe amounts in your tank. With "normal filtration" everything is fine.
So this "less filtration" approach is also another option but has to be considered when adding nutrients. Many things will not be the same as when compared to a person "normally" filtering. It has upside but also downside effects 😉.
With very good chelated micronutrientmixtures less filtration can be a problem too. As plants cannot uptake the whole complex of micronutrient + chelate they maybe get the needed micronutrient to late. You often have to dose a little bit more of those heavily stabilized micronutrient mixtures. With higher filterload your filter will split up the chelate + micronutrient complex leaving the micronutrients available for a short period before going into the "filter nirvana".
When using "organic stabilized" or weak stabilzed mixtures like flourish or my mixture "Flowgrow" you get way better results with the less filter approach and can dose only a small amount of those ferts. The plants will get enough Fe and micronutrients under those circumstances.
I think many of you will have those topics at APC in mind where people used to dose HIGH amounts of Seachem Iron and Flourish and the plants always loved it. Those guys were of course filtering "normally". You can reduce those high amounts of fertilzer when reducing your filtermedia.
Best regards
Tobi
some of us use Koralias too. They are very nice, especially the nanos. Flow is very essential and I think Tom Barr made it clear with his tests and his CO2 probe how essential flow is.
When having a near empty canister you get alot more flow out of it. That's the reason why only some use additional powerheads. But you can always improve the situation with a little bit more flow.
Normally biofiltermedia should only convert NH4 to NO2 and than to NO3. But when a filter is working "better and better" those hightechfiltermedia tend to consume nitrates too. They go anaerobic inside the filtermedia and tend to suck all NO3 up too. This of course can happen, but often isn't a problem. Eheim, Sera etc. are marketing their filtermedia especially regarding those effects of consuming nitrates, due to the reason that most of the aquarium industry is still thinking of the "bad nitrates".
You can often compensate those circumstances with adding a little bit more ferts. So the majority will be fine.
Some people in Germany like to dose less ferts (=> cheaper 😉 even when dosing from powders ) and for them it's a conveniant way to use less fertilizer and having the same effects regarding effectiveness. The nitrifying bacteria settle down on everything in your tank and due to that you can think of a big filter when having a planted aquarium.
The people who want not to go totally filterless use blue medium to big sized sponge filter in their canisters. I think the majority does. Only some go totally filterless. JBL for example has good filtermedia delivered with their canisters. Just blue sponge and a little bit ceramic at the bottom. No hightech filtermedia like Ehfimech, Sinterglass or whatever else.
Regarding Fe and PO4 you can observe (and measure) and explain that Fe can react with PO4 and this both elements
tend to precipitate in the filter. If you measure the filter mud who will get ridiculous high amounts of Fe and PO4. With a little bit less filtrations you can reduce the amounts of Fe and PO4 need to be dosed.
Of course this whole "filter less approach" is widely discussed in Germany too. Their are many sceptics and I belief that the normal EI recipe works very good with big filtration. With nearly no filtration you will end up without enough nitrogen but with ALOT PO4 and way to high Fe amounts in your tank. With "normal filtration" everything is fine.
So this "less filtration" approach is also another option but has to be considered when adding nutrients. Many things will not be the same as when compared to a person "normally" filtering. It has upside but also downside effects 😉.
With very good chelated micronutrientmixtures less filtration can be a problem too. As plants cannot uptake the whole complex of micronutrient + chelate they maybe get the needed micronutrient to late. You often have to dose a little bit more of those heavily stabilized micronutrient mixtures. With higher filterload your filter will split up the chelate + micronutrient complex leaving the micronutrients available for a short period before going into the "filter nirvana".
When using "organic stabilized" or weak stabilzed mixtures like flourish or my mixture "Flowgrow" you get way better results with the less filter approach and can dose only a small amount of those ferts. The plants will get enough Fe and micronutrients under those circumstances.
I think many of you will have those topics at APC in mind where people used to dose HIGH amounts of Seachem Iron and Flourish and the plants always loved it. Those guys were of course filtering "normally". You can reduce those high amounts of fertilzer when reducing your filtermedia.
Best regards
Tobi