Ribbed Tubing = Nitrates?

[Bill Stock]

I'm wondering how much the ribbed tubing on my filters is contributing to my
Nitrates woes?

It takes two 50% water changes per week to keep the Nitrates down to 5-10
ppm. So the boys are generating about 80 ppm of Nitrates per week. I clean
the filters and replace the filter floss every two weeks. The Nitrates are
not any better in the new tank (75g) without gravel, vs. the old tank (55g)
with gravel. The old tank has an AquaClear HOT. The Algae in the new tank is
fairly wild. I've cut the boys (5 Goldfish) down to 1.5 tsps of pellets once
a day, but they just eat more Algae if you don't feed them.

Every time I restart the filters I get a load of crap in the water, that is
flushed out of the tubing by the increased water flow. I got bright this
week and put a net over the output of the filter before I restarted it. The
one filter put out more than two tbsps of crap. There must be a lot more
stuck in the ribbing, that never comes out. So how big a deal is the stuff
stuck in the tubing and why is it getting past the filter in the first
place?

[CanadianCray]

That is just bacteria and crap. It shouldn't cause any problems... also the
only way to get rid of Nitrates is to do water changes. Your filters will
never get rid of them no matter how clean they are. Bacteria in filters only
convert Ammonia & Nitrites.

--
Craig
________________________________
www.CanadianCray.tk
www.Bluecrayfish.com

"Bill Stock" > wrote in message
...
> I'm wondering how much the ribbed tubing on my filters is contributing to
> my Nitrates woes?
>
> It takes two 50% water changes per week to keep the Nitrates down to 5-10
> ppm. So the boys are generating about 80 ppm of Nitrates per week. I clean
> the filters and replace the filter floss every two weeks. The Nitrates are
> not any better in the new tank (75g) without gravel, vs. the old tank
> (55g) with gravel. The old tank has an AquaClear HOT. The Algae in the new
> tank is fairly wild. I've cut the boys (5 Goldfish) down to 1.5 tsps of
> pellets once a day, but they just eat more Algae if you don't feed them.
>
> Every time I restart the filters I get a load of crap in the water, that
> is flushed out of the tubing by the increased water flow. I got bright
> this week and put a net over the output of the filter before I restarted
> it. The one filter put out more than two tbsps of crap. There must be a
> lot more stuck in the ribbing, that never comes out. So how big a deal is
> the stuff stuck in the tubing and why is it getting past the filter in the
> first place?
>
>
>