Hey everyone, Yesterday when I was changing the water in my 26g planted freshwater tank, I unplugged my Hagen 70, so I could swish out the sponge and rinse off stuff. I got everything cleaned up, in the old water and drained then put back on the aquarium but it wouldn't start back up. After messing with it for over an hour, and getting the old filter out and running as a back up, I had given up with it. I decide it was less than 2mos old I'd take it back. For whatever reason I pulled off the motor to see if the propeller was frozen, it wasn't, but when I plugged just that in, it worked. Go figure. So I put it all back together and it worked. BUT what the heck happened?? And now I'm wondering as I was looking at other filters, if I changed this one, what is the better one to go to? Do I spned the money for a canister? Which one would be better? I do have a big bioload, I do water changes twice weekly and keep Nitrates below 40, I carefully vacuum around all the plants, to help keep things as clean as possible. Everywhere I read about filters it seems like each plalce recommends something different. So what do I do??
Filter questions
- Thread starter LadyR
- Start date
Sometimes these parts get a little bit of wear and will hang up. Sometimes a little wiggle up and down to the suction tube makes it start. There are little bushings on the top and bottom of these motors that can be replaced on most models. I like the HOB filters myself, I have canisters but they are more work IMO. I really like the bio wheel marineland product personally.
Thanks KC. It appears that the canisters are either totally loved or hated, I guess it depends on your set-up. If I could cut water changes to once a week, for me it would totally be worth it. I have 2 5gal buckets filled for the next water change and then while I'm changing it, I fill a 2.5g from our RO water. So it seems like a lot sometimes. I don't mind, i'm just saying.....
Ok both of you, now I'm still confused I think. My tank is planted I guess heavily, and then yeah I've got a lot of fish (32 smaller ones), hence twice weekly water changes. But it still seems like there's always pieces of plants floating. I try very hard to be carefull how much I feed, but I also need to make sure the head light Tetra's get something. It seems like the sponge on my Hagen is really dirty when I clean it out, which I do weekly. But no matter what after 3-4 days my Nitrates are back to <30. I'm worried that when I leave for more than 4 or 5 days, I'm going to be in trouble. I do have some macro nutrients for the plants coming, they are growing very good, but I don't think they are sending out the roots that they should. Or at least the taller ferns aren't. I am dosing Flourish and Flourish Excel already, so I'm hoping the iron and potassium help. I hope that makes sense. I really appreciate all the help!!
I am no plant expert but I do know that you want to keep the dead leaves trimmed and removed if they fall off. OC on here is very familiar with plants and ferts maybe she will lend some advice. I would bet most of your problem is the overstocking as its about double what I would call safe for a 26G.
If I added a canister filter to the HOB one would that help? I try to get the plants cleaned up as quick as I can. I've got one of the battery vacuums that filters the water and puts it back in the aquarium. It does a great job. That's how I figured out the root systems weren't as good as I think they should be, it was to easy to have the tall stuff floating. But stuff like the wisteris and bacopa are doing really good. Guess we'll see if adding the macro elements helps. And we found a couple babies this morning!! Not exactly sure who had them, I think the swordtails, but not sure! Guess we'll see who makes it.
I will post pics as soon as I can. I had to email them to my work address from my cell phone. I had a fairly new one up a week or so ago. I do know I have some anubis, wisteria, java fern, dwarf hairgrass, a grass I think is a dwarf saggitaria, ludwigia, moneywort, a moss ball, water sprite and a couple of banana plants. I've got the lights on timers for a min of 10hrs, some days a little more just to brak it up. I've got an LED light bar up (that's where the pic would be) that is I think 36watts of white and blue lights. And then dosing carbon every other day and Flourish twice weekly. Ive got some iron and potassium coming by the end of the week. I was trying to figure out my taller feather looking stuff, but I'm not sure about what it is. I have 2 varieties of it and it's the one that makes the most messes. It grows tall, but doesn't seem to root down well. And it does drop a lot of leaves at the bottom. I may need to take it out to help things. I know I've got a heavy load of fish, but was hoping to counter act that with the plants. I still think it will work when I get the ferts figured out better. It's just taking some time. And now with at least 2 babies in the tank, I'm afraid to vacuum for a few days. Just what I needed!! LOL
The 'feathery' plant you mentioned (shows as the tallest plant, just right of center in the 1st pic best) is one of the Myriophyllum species I believe, Myriophyllum verticillatum possibly. See lower right photo of this webpage: http://www.q-bank.eu/Plants/lookalikes/Myriophyllum/Myriophyllum.HTML
It is illegal in my area of the USA to have as its an invasive plant. It does not 'root' in the conventional sense of plants and is best left floating. It looks like it was grown floating and some of the branches are struggling to grow submerged. Also, this plant is known to 'melt' with the use of Seachem's Excel. Either would account for the shedding you mentioned.
The 'wisteria' (shows best in the lower right of the 1st picture) is the emerged growth form. Hygrophilia difformis has a distictive submerged growth, floating growth, and emerged growth. Some of its existing leaves may decay as it puts out submerged growth.
It is illegal in my area of the USA to have as its an invasive plant. It does not 'root' in the conventional sense of plants and is best left floating. It looks like it was grown floating and some of the branches are struggling to grow submerged. Also, this plant is known to 'melt' with the use of Seachem's Excel. Either would account for the shedding you mentioned.
The 'wisteria' (shows best in the lower right of the 1st picture) is the emerged growth form. Hygrophilia difformis has a distictive submerged growth, floating growth, and emerged growth. Some of its existing leaves may decay as it puts out submerged growth.
I see the pics, but I think one right next to it, looks like it. So I guess that this one should come out. I could then maybe spread the taller moneywort along the back or add another tall grass like or even some more ludwigia. It's growing like gang busters. I was checking a couple other plant sites and both the wisteria and the watersprite are supposed to take up Nitrates, so maybe if I take out the ones dropping all the leaves, it would help my overall levels of nitrates?? Thoughts?
You could try leaving some pieces of it floating and see if it helps lower nitrates. If it grows well floating, it may shade the rest of the plants too much, so you will need to keep trimming it (which removes the STORED nitrogen in its leaves).
Be responsible with any plants you have though. If its not a native species to your local waterways, either give it to another aquarium keeper, or put the trimmings in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. After a week or so, you can then throw it out in the trash, or empty the bag's contents into a compost pile.
All plants (not just wisteria and watersprite), when growing properly, will take in nitrogen. If all forms of nitrogen are present, plants will first take in ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrate. It takes the least amount of energy to take in ammonia, and the most amount of energy to take in nitrates.
Taking out plants that are dropping leaves will lower your nitrates by default, as the leaves will not be there to decay. Keep in mind that plants cannot repair leaves, so if you see a leaf is damanged, remove it. If plants are growing well, they will take in whatever form of nitrogen they can get, which will lower nitrates eventually.
Get to know how the plants you have reproduce though. Many will trim off leaves from a Java Fern when they see black spots on older leaves. This is its way to grow plantlets, so removing the leaves with spots will not let you get more plantlets.
Be responsible with any plants you have though. If its not a native species to your local waterways, either give it to another aquarium keeper, or put the trimmings in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. After a week or so, you can then throw it out in the trash, or empty the bag's contents into a compost pile.
All plants (not just wisteria and watersprite), when growing properly, will take in nitrogen. If all forms of nitrogen are present, plants will first take in ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrate. It takes the least amount of energy to take in ammonia, and the most amount of energy to take in nitrates.
Taking out plants that are dropping leaves will lower your nitrates by default, as the leaves will not be there to decay. Keep in mind that plants cannot repair leaves, so if you see a leaf is damanged, remove it. If plants are growing well, they will take in whatever form of nitrogen they can get, which will lower nitrates eventually.
Get to know how the plants you have reproduce though. Many will trim off leaves from a Java Fern when they see black spots on older leaves. This is its way to grow plantlets, so removing the leaves with spots will not let you get more plantlets.
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Ok OC, I took out all the feather like stuff and today got a few new ones to put in. I cleaned up around where I took stuff out with the vacuum. I've got to se a little careful as there are a couple of babies in the tank. I've gotten the iron and potassium to be able to add with the other ferts. I think the wisteria has already improved (it's been 3 days with the 2 new ferts). So anyway I'm hoping to get this worked out better. Thanks for all the help!!
Thanks Kc! It's one of those things that I think will always be changing a little. I even forgot to plant the bulbs we got, so those got done Sunday and we'll see what they turn out like. We sat and discussed a bigger tank and what plants would go in it! LOL! But yeah I see another one in our future!