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

[Pices]

Thanks for your reply George. Not sure what I will do yet. Part of me wants to follow your lead and nuke. The other part says if parasites are always there, I could try and starve them in my other tank if my fish need another treatment. I’ll keep you posted either way as I know my problem is something we all have to deal with eventually.
Thanks again,
Patty

[discusnow]

hey Pices,
when treating with metro (to rid hex, internal bacteria) I wouldn't worry about nuking the media because hex is present inside all fishes. it's the weaker fish with weak immune system that will suffer, so nuking the media will not be required. but prazi is different, it's required to get rid of all external parasites so it's best that we rid them all(even from the media)to prevent future infestation.
so in your case as long as your fish regain their appetite then you are good as gold. alternatively try to use heat treatment(not a good option for planted tank), i find that sometimes more effective than metro itself and is my prefer way to treat hex or fish that lost appetite.

but I will be doing some more research about the effect of BCB and prazi, because BCB is used in koi pond which quite often suffer from worm/fluke so will see how they handle this situation.

Regards
George

[Pices]

George,
Now I get it! Thank you so much. That simple explanation just explained so clearly what’s been going on in my tank. Why only 1 lost it’s appetite for example. Raising the temp is easy and proven. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and solving my problem! Lightbulb over my head moment just happened here!
Patty

[Pices]

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
Why didn’t I think of that? Now I’m seeing all this wasted space. Great idea Rob!

[sayid]

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

Great idea the craft mesh with cable ties ( no need for the flower baskets ) the only other think which i would suggest is to put something under the craft mesh to encourage water flow and also let say an inch between each baskets for the same reason other wise ammonia can not get to the kitty litter .

[lastflea]

Thanks guys. Occasionally I come up with an idea...

Great idea the craft mesh with cable ties ( no need for the flower baskets ) the only other think which i would suggest is to put something under the craft mesh to encourage water flow and also let say an inch between each baskets for the same reason other wise ammonia can not get to the kitty litter .

Ah yes, I missed that bit out, and actually it was Luke that prompted me to sort that out. I cut some pvc pipe in half on my table saw, and have a piece at each side running all the way across. Surprisingly, I didn't need a length running down the middle for support. Once the sump is filled the baskets become rigid and don't sag in the middle.

Luke, that's great news with the cannister method. Wigglers with only monthly water changes. Wowzers!!! Lets hope they make it To cast a note of positive criticism though. Would you be able to run the cannister without the algae scrubber operating? As the scrubber also removes nitrate, it's not clear how effective a cannister would be on it's own. I'm setting up a 60l shrimp tank, and will try an anoxic cannister for that, so if turning off the scrubber for a while isn't desirable, we could see how my shrimp tank goes instead.

[Luke in Phoenix]

Agreed, it would be nice to see the results of the BCB without the algae scrubber. I think the BCB is the superior method however, the BCB has been a great compliment to the algae scrubber system. Water looks great. The two combined could be the "ultimate" filtration system. Or maybe it's not as good... I like the idea of the combined plant filtration with the bacterial BCB filtration. Could be even closer to a "natural" eco system.

PS. I highly recommend a slow try and see approach to decreasing water changes if that is the route you take. I still have a couple of discuss improving from an extreme water change test (100% water changes every 5-8 months) I did with the algae scrubber to test it's limits. The pair with the wigglers in my last update video was actually in this test and I think you can notice they are not back to 100% yet. Wigglers are attached to parents though as of today. Many were sucked into the overflow but I would estimate there are still about 40-50. Super hard to count them!

[lastflea]

I will use a cannister only for the small tank, but maybe one size above the recommendation, due to flow rates being calculated with no media. We'll see how that turns out.

Not taking any chances with my first discus attempt. They're growing out in a separate tank with a sponge filter and 50% daily water changes till they're 6". The display tank will have fish in soon enough though. I might put some Bolivian and German Rams in (among others) and slowly reduce water changes. The Germans, especially, will be a good indicator as to the quality of the water with less changes.

Every 5 to 8 months?? I did notice the peppering was pretty heavy, but they're breeding, so.....

[sayid]

Agreed, it would be nice to see the results of the BCB without the algae scrubber. I think the BCB is the superior method however, the BCB has been a great compliment to the algae scrubber system. Water looks great. The two combined could be the "ultimate" filtration system. Or maybe it's not as good... I like the idea of the combined plant filtration with the bacterial BCB filtration. Could be even closer to a "natural" eco system.

PS. I highly recommend a slow try and see approach to decreasing water changes if that is the route you take. I still have a couple of discuss improving from an extreme water change test (100% water changes every 5-8 months) I did with the algae scrubber to test it's limits. The pair with the wigglers in my last update video was actually in this test and I think you can notice they are not back to 100% yet. Wigglers are attached to parents though as of today. Many were sucked into the overflow but I would estimate there are still about 40-50. Super hard to count them!

Congratulation Luke on the wigglers ,I admire your slow but consistent approach to your experiment ,it is very methodical and one step at a time .
Luke how are you going with beef heart as the main food for the baby discus another word do you think using beef heart is going to interfere with the anoxic filtration .
I also agree with you regarding the complementary approach of anoxic and scrubber ,keep up the good work and let us know regularly how you progress .

[Tshethar]

Hi everyone,

Enjoyed reading this thread beginning to end yesterday (along with some links and vids); I admit that when I have time (important caveat--not that often), I'm the sort of person who always feels a certain amount of excitement and curiosity over the latest aquarium gadgetry and DIY mods (though building stuff typically isn't my strong suit), along with the science that goes with it (at least as much as a layperson can follow). At the same time, I've also learned that simple setups often do better for me over time than more complex ones. (So I can appreciate the BB sponge filter approach more than I once did.) Sometimes this is about design flaws (my Eheim wet/dry canister was more likely to leak than the classic 2217s), execution problems (my Phosban purigen reactor was hard to reach, hard to take apart and a pain to recharge), or laziness/deferred maintenance (do they really need a water change today/does that filter really need to be cleaned?), and like many people, I rarely test my water enough to assess the effects of what I'm doing (or not doing) as long as everything seems fine. Like most people, I want to have healthy and happy fish with the least amount of labor required, along with low risk to my fish as well as to house and home (after all, you're not a real fishkeeper until you've had water on the floor!) Right now my collection doesn't include discus, though I hope to have another go at them in the future.

So, here's the question. I have a 90 gal tank with (only) one species of African cichlids (Red-fin borleyi, 1m/3f) and lots of java fern, and I've been running it with 2 Eheim 2217s. I prefilter these, previously with hydro sponges that I've just switched out for blocks of poret foam. I run them with standard Eheim media, but over the years have thought about lots of options for alternative canister contents. When this was going to be a discus tank I hooked one up to the purigen reactor and a UV sterilizer and put some extra mechanical floss in that filter, while running the other primarily with bio-media. Realizing that a lot of detritus and possible pathogens could build up in the canister, I hoped the prefiltering would be sufficient while also thinking about poret in both of them, or possibly some kind of fluidized/moving media mod. With the Africans I've just kept it simple and run them with standard media, albeit with prefilters, and I break down one or the other of them only very rarely. Otherwise these get weekly WCs and I squeeze out the sponges.

Now I find myself with a little free time and I'm wondering about whether it would be worth it to try the cylinder-style BCB in one of them. I think it would be a pretty low-risk proposition given the fish I'm working with, the bio-load, etc., and also not too expensive or time-consuming to set up (nor does it increase the odds of water on my floor), but... I'm curious whether others who have been trying the canister method since January or so are happy with their decision several months in. Are you managing to prefilter well enough to keep the baskets from getting gunked up? (And would I need more than 25 PPI poret cubes to accomplish this?) Do the flow rates seem to be working enough to a) allow the filter to work anoxically; b) make any appreciable difference in the behavior/health of the fish or in your stocking levels or maintenance schedule/husbandry? How long do you imagine these are "set and forget," and what will/does it look like to service them?

All in all, I could think of worse things to deal with than some kitty mush blowing around in the tank , but I wonder about more subtle issues later on. (E.g., Could you treat with salt at some point if you had zeolite clay?) So, what say you, SD? Leave well enough alone, or try yet one more experiment in the name of better fishkeeping?

And by the way, I do really appreciate the ingenuity and creativity of all of you who've been experimenting, whatever the final verdict might turn out to be (presumably at some future time). Thanks to some of you on the cutting edge, those of us trying to hang around in the mainstream might actually advance a little. Hope you keep having fun and your fish stay healthy.

[sayid]

Update to put anoxic filtration in my canister .
I have taken a slow try and see approach to add BCB baskets to my 500 l tank as advised by Luke .
Currently i have ;
. 7 small baskets in my over tank sump .
. 1 basket in a small sun sun helper .
. 1 basket in another small sun sun helper.
And today i put another 4 baskets in my main canister filter that leaves only one other main canister filter to do which if every things goes well will be done in one month time.
20180528_122728_resized.jpg
20180528_121909_resized.jpg
I have made sure that there is at least 1 inch clearance on each side of the baskets i also have put each baskets horizontal follow by next basket in perpendicular direction so that there is maximum flow with minimum restriction .
I have 12 adult discus discus most above 5 inch plus 4 sterbai and my nitrate is less than 5 ppm .
20171109_215608_1527505141218_resized.jpg
I am still doing 50% w/c twice a week and my fish are very happy .
I will report the progress with photos soon .

[farebox]

Nice, seems like things are going great for you. Please keep us informed, amazing looking fish my mate....

[lastflea]

Very healthy looking fish, and tank. Crystal.....

[Paul Sabucchi]

New small scale trial.
Today a breeder in Malta has shipped 4 pairs of Aphanius mento "Kirkgoz", they are Killifish originally from southern Turkey. I am putting 2 pairs in a tub pond and one pair in a 10 gal with just calcium rich grit, moss and floating Eleodea. For the last pair I have put a thin layer of grit on the bottom covered by a fair bit of cat litter (with a bit of Aquabasis) and planted it with Ceratopteris, Rotala and Ludwigia -will it work as a BCB I wonder. The little internal filter for now is just loaded with floss to clear the slight haze from the (pre-wrinsed) cat litter. Now just keeping my fingers crossed the fish arrive ok. Ciao

[sayid]

Nice, seems like things are going great for you. Please keep us informed, amazing looking fish my mate....

Very healthy looking fish, and tank. Crystal.....

Trust me when i say i have had my fare share of failure as much as any one else but thanks for kind words .