DIY "Anoxic Filtration System" eliminates nitrates? Anyone tried this?

[sayid]

Hi discusnow;
I only used bentonite which obviously did not work because of sticking together but to ans ware your question it probably easier to remove your baskets before medicating you can always give them a PP treatment afterwards or put the baskets in 80 c water for an hour , i personally have done Andrew soh's method of getting rid of gill fluke sometime ago and so far so good but i understand your concern.

[sayid]

Putting the baskets in 80 c for an hour might be a bit harsh for the good bacteria so i would be careful with feeding for a week or so afterwards in case of some losses of the good bacteria.

[lastflea]

so may be other form of cat litter clay that's not zeolite based might not have this problem.

I think the whole point of using non clumping cat litter is that basically it IS zeolite, which is what draws the ammonia from the water. I'm not sure there is a different type of litter that would work.

A QT would resolve this, and deworming anything before it goes in the main tank?

[lastflea]

By the way, just tested my water parameters. Ammonia topped up to about 3ppm, nitrites off the chart and nitrates....... Drum roll please.......... Dropped from 20ppm yesterday to about 2.5ppm today. Zero water changes!!

[hogall]

Hello everyone, new to the site. Currently I have a 180 gallons BB with a Eshopps sump, and running two fluidize reactor with k1 media. Glad I find this thread, thanks for sharing.

I am new to discus, been a reefer for years. I want to try a BCB for my tank. Interestingly, it is getting more and more difficult finding kitty litter that is none clumping and scent free.

I have two questions

1) Is Kitty Litter a cheap substitute or is it a main ingredient?

2) Can I use Zeolite or Akadama soil instead?

TIA

BTW, the tank has no stock in it. It been cycling with hh ammonia for about 2 weeks..

180.jpg

Hogall

[lastflea]

I asked Dr Novak about zeolite, and he advised it was being used in Thailand with good results. You'd think they would have non clumping cat litter over there with all that humidity, but hey..... I don't know about akadama, but there's a link in the OP of this thread that tells you in detail about BCB's, and alternatives you can use. Cat litter is the main ingredient, and works. It's a lot cheaper than zeolite. If you skim through this thread from the beginning you'll find everything you need to know. There's also youtube videos if you search "anoxic filtration"

[hogall]

I asked Dr Novak about zeolite, and he advised it was being used in Thailand with good results. You'd think they would have non clumping cat litter over there with all that humidity, but hey..... I don't know about akadama, but there's a link in the OP of this thread that tells you in detail about BCB's, and alternatives you can use. Cat litter is the main ingredient, and works. It's a lot cheaper than zeolite. If you skim through this thread from the beginning you'll find everything you need to know. There's also youtube videos if you search "anoxic filtration"

Thank you very much. Walmart doesn't carry the Special Kitty brand (scent free and non clumping) anymore, I went directly to the manufacturer's website (Cat's Pride) and find that Jonny Cat Fragrance Free are the same product. Still can't get this locally.. I have ton of Zeolite left over from my reef days... Gonna give it a try.

Luv this low tech approach. I am going to re-read this whole thread.

Hogall

[lastflea]

No problem at all Hogal. I bought a different brand of cat litter, and I'm pretty sure others have too. Kitty Litter is £50 here in the UK, compared to £4 for what I bought... Mine is working just fine.

Something I didn't bother doing is put the BCB's into a container, like flower baskets or something. I still used number 7 craft mesh, but wanted to make more room for bigger BCB's and it worked out no problem. Here's a picture of mine. Craft mesh with cable ties.

Rob

[farebox]

I'm back in game again, just finished off making three BCB's for my sump. This time around I made the baskets lined with weed blocker and used the center core method used by Luke and Salty Sphynx with Flourite Red. Also have an plenum made like the one Salty Sphynx used for her tank. The clock is ticking and will update as things progress in the future. Thanks to everyone doing the Anoxic Flitration System. Note: This time I rinsed the heck out of the Walmart Special Kitty Litter before placing in the baskets this time.

[Pices]

I’ve been treating my discus with metronidazole for 14 days and just read the post from Sayid. Now I’m worried. They may not have gotten the full treatment and I am just hitting the 40 day mark on my baskets. I had read that metronidazole doesn’t harm good bacteria but hadn’t considered the absorption of the baskets! Thinking about my options.
I don’t want to put my fish through another treatment right away.
I’m thinking of letting the baskets finish cooking for another 2 weeks, then moving them to a twenty gallon that I’m currently cycling with ammonia. I’m going to keep an eye on my fish the next couple weeks and see how they do. In short, I’m going to do nothing right now, but if I need to another round of metronidazole on the main tank, I can keep feeding the baskets in my cycling tank. Can the parasites live for 2 weeks in a B.B. tank with no fish to infect? Hex to be exact. The stringy poop parasite, which I haven’t seen at all since treatment began. I’m in new territory here and would love your input Discus Now. Thanks Sayid for opening my eyes to potential problem!
Patty

[sayid]

Hi Patty;
Hex is present in most tanks and live in the intestine of most fish and generally does not harm any discus ,when a discus immune system becomes weak the number of parasite multiples and it overtakes the intestine ,the stringy poop that you mention is the reaction mucus that comes out of the fish, what metro does is to reduce the parasite to help the fish to strengthen its immune system and give time to discus to get healthy , metro does not destroy all the hex parasite it only get the balance right but there always hex present in the intestine waiting for opportunity to multiply and take over .

[Pices]

Thanks for your reply Sayid.
My orange lollipop was a prolific egg layer and while small, she was a scrappy one! She ruled until she started hanging in the corner. She is eating more and coming out more so I guess I’ll take a wait and see approach?

[lastflea]

I'm back in game again, just finished off making three BCB's for my sump. This time around I made the baskets lined with weed blocker and used the center core method used by Luke and Salty Sphynx with Flourite Red. Also have an plenum made like the one Salty Sphynx used for her tank. The clock is ticking and will update as things progress in the future. Thanks to everyone doing the Anoxic Flitration System. Note: This time I rinsed the heck out of the Walmart Special Kitty Litter before placing in the baskets this time.

Hope things work out better Roland. Do keep the thread updated, as with information about treatments above. This is all helping everyone who's trying out this method, and is gold for people new to discus, like me. I only have about 2 years fish keeping experience in total anyway...

[Luke in Phoenix]

Here's an update on the BCB basket inside of a canister filter.

https://youtu.be/WnEg6ByCzYs

If I did it again, I would probably due a larger DIY 5 gallon canister filter with the sunsun inline prefilter. Just because it would be easy to fit a large basket and way cheaper.

Cheers, Luke

[discusnow]

Thx sayid for the great advice. by nuking the bcb with pp will basically wipe everything clean and restart the cycle again but I guess it’s the only viable option if bcb indeed interfere with the medication.
Hey pices, please update us with ur progress but the fact that u stop seeing stringy white poop is a good indicator that the metro somehow work.

Regards
George