Dissident
06-18-2006, 03:40 PM
This is for all of us planted tank and discus keepers, but is just as effective with any tank. This is something I like doing to help keep water quality higher and was particularly helpful while growing out 2" Discus in a heavily planted tank.
This is a nice ‘trick’/system for FBH/FBS/FBW/etc.
I mostly used it for BH since there tends to be a lot of small particles that the discus never got to and allows you to chop up FBH cubes or sheets of FBH and minimize waste that goes into your tank.
1: Chop up FBH to acceptable bite size chunks for your juvies/whatver.
2: Put Chopped BH into a pint glass (2cup glass) thaw with warm water.
3: Cut a piece of window screen large enough to fit over the top of the glass and so you can hold the screen tightly around the cup (or use a rubber band).
4: Pour water from glass into sink/waste/wherever. While holding screen over the cup.
5: Some BH will stick to the screen, pour new water over the screen back into cup and repeat steps 4 and 5 until the discarded water looks clear (it will never be 100% clear but will have a dramatic improvement by the 2nd/3rd time you do this).
6: Feed your guys/gals..
I have been wanting to test and see if there is a dramatic improvement in Nitrates but haven’t taken the time to do it. But by the looks of how much crud is rinsed away after the 1st/2nd/3rd rinse I would have to assume that there would be a considerable change in the quality of the water in the tank. This is especially nice if you are not doing large daily water changes.
If I were to test this I would do it 2 different ways;
1: Daily 50% WC (cleaned and not cleaned BH). And then test every day for a week for NO3 for a week and compare the 2 weeks of NO3 buildup.
2: Do not do a WC for a week and feed BH (cleaned) for a week. Then reset tank to same NO3 levels as day1. Then feed for another week with the un-cleaned BH and see how NO3 levels compare day to day and by the end of the week.
Either way it would take a month of daily records and I just don’t have the time to make it work with reliable results. Perhaps someone has tried this already? What are all of your thoughts?
This is a nice ‘trick’/system for FBH/FBS/FBW/etc.
I mostly used it for BH since there tends to be a lot of small particles that the discus never got to and allows you to chop up FBH cubes or sheets of FBH and minimize waste that goes into your tank.
1: Chop up FBH to acceptable bite size chunks for your juvies/whatver.
2: Put Chopped BH into a pint glass (2cup glass) thaw with warm water.
3: Cut a piece of window screen large enough to fit over the top of the glass and so you can hold the screen tightly around the cup (or use a rubber band).
4: Pour water from glass into sink/waste/wherever. While holding screen over the cup.
5: Some BH will stick to the screen, pour new water over the screen back into cup and repeat steps 4 and 5 until the discarded water looks clear (it will never be 100% clear but will have a dramatic improvement by the 2nd/3rd time you do this).
6: Feed your guys/gals..
I have been wanting to test and see if there is a dramatic improvement in Nitrates but haven’t taken the time to do it. But by the looks of how much crud is rinsed away after the 1st/2nd/3rd rinse I would have to assume that there would be a considerable change in the quality of the water in the tank. This is especially nice if you are not doing large daily water changes.
If I were to test this I would do it 2 different ways;
1: Daily 50% WC (cleaned and not cleaned BH). And then test every day for a week for NO3 for a week and compare the 2 weeks of NO3 buildup.
2: Do not do a WC for a week and feed BH (cleaned) for a week. Then reset tank to same NO3 levels as day1. Then feed for another week with the un-cleaned BH and see how NO3 levels compare day to day and by the end of the week.
Either way it would take a month of daily records and I just don’t have the time to make it work with reliable results. Perhaps someone has tried this already? What are all of your thoughts?