Low Maintenance Fishkeeping

[JamesG]

So I want to give my opinion on fishkeeping. I have been doing it for
about 10 years so I am sure that there are a lot of people out there
who have been doing it longer. I am an Environmental Engineer and have
taken numerous classes on water and wastewater treatment, so I use some
of that knowledge in fishkeeping.

The tank is the home for the fish and it is also their wastewater
treatment plant. The most common method used to treat municipal
wastewater is aerobic treatment, the microorganisms that degrade the
wastes are very efficient given the proper temperature and aeration.
Temperature is not a problem since most fish tanks are at tropical
temperatures or at least are sitting in rooms that are comfortable to
people. AERATION is very important, putting aeration devices in a tank
is a great way to help keep it healthy. I haven't done this yet but I
would say that given enough aeration you wouldn't even need a filter.
I also believe that in addition to keeping the fish healthier and more
resistant to disease, the aeration also promotes high levels of
biological activity that would further reduce disease causing
microorganisms due to predation (predator "bugs" eating the disease
causing "bugs").
My opinion on filters is that people generally change them too much.
As long as water is still flowing well through mine I don't bother
them. Colonies of microorganisms grow on them and treat the wastes.
If the media gets really clogged up I will take it outside and wash it
out with a hose and then put it back in the filter. I am very
reluctant to throw out the old media and would never change both pads
at once if I had a dual media filter. You might be wondering about how
I change the activated carbon, generally I don't. My opinion on carbon
is that its importance to the tank is limited. It will remove some of
the smelly organic compounds at first, but it doesn't really remove bad
stuff like ammonia well. A well aerated tank should smell earthy but
nice. One good use of carbon is that it has a lot of surface area for
microorganisms to live on.
I don't do water changes very regularly (every couple months or
longer), I am not against them but do feel like taking a large
percentage out (more than 25%) is probably a little much. My water has
a little color to it, but some of the color is from useful
microorganisms. To worry too much about having a crystal clear
colorless tank is a little extreme given that this is a living system.
As a finishing note, I am a fan of rotating biological filters
(biowheels) you get some removal of the ammonia in these.
I follow these guidelines and have healthy and very hassle-free
tanks.

I am curious if anyone out there has any opinions on this low hassle
idea.

[Dick]

On 13 Apr 2005 12:42:16 -0700, "JamesG" > wrote:

>So I want to give my opinion on fishkeeping. I have been doing it for
>about 10 years so I am sure that there are a lot of people out there
>who have been doing it longer. I am an Environmental Engineer and have
>taken numerous classes on water and wastewater treatment, so I use some
>of that knowledge in fishkeeping.
>
>The tank is the home for the fish and it is also their wastewater
>treatment plant. The most common method used to treat municipal
>wastewater is aerobic treatment, the microorganisms that degrade the
>wastes are very efficient given the proper temperature and aeration.
>Temperature is not a problem since most fish tanks are at tropical
>temperatures or at least are sitting in rooms that are comfortable to
>people. AERATION is very important, putting aeration devices in a tank
>is a great way to help keep it healthy. I haven't done this yet but I
>would say that given enough aeration you wouldn't even need a filter.
>I also believe that in addition to keeping the fish healthier and more
>resistant to disease, the aeration also promotes high levels of
>biological activity that would further reduce disease causing
>microorganisms due to predation (predator "bugs" eating the disease
>causing "bugs").
> My opinion on filters is that people generally change them too much.
>As long as water is still flowing well through mine I don't bother
>them. Colonies of microorganisms grow on them and treat the wastes.
>If the media gets really clogged up I will take it outside and wash it
>out with a hose and then put it back in the filter. I am very
>reluctant to throw out the old media and would never change both pads
>at once if I had a dual media filter. You might be wondering about how
>I change the activated carbon, generally I don't. My opinion on carbon
>is that its importance to the tank is limited. It will remove some of
>the smelly organic compounds at first, but it doesn't really remove bad
>stuff like ammonia well. A well aerated tank should smell earthy but
>nice. One good use of carbon is that it has a lot of surface area for
>microorganisms to live on.
> I don't do water changes very regularly (every couple months or
>longer), I am not against them but do feel like taking a large
>percentage out (more than 25%) is probably a little much. My water has
>a little color to it, but some of the color is from useful
>microorganisms. To worry too much about having a crystal clear
>colorless tank is a little extreme given that this is a living system.
> As a finishing note, I am a fan of rotating biological filters
>(biowheels) you get some removal of the ammonia in these.
> I follow these guidelines and have healthy and very hassle-free
>tanks.
>
>I am curious if anyone out there has any opinions on this low hassle
>idea.

I follow similar procedures, except I do 20% twice weekly water
changes. I don't want to end up down the road of time and find "Old
tank syndrome" due an accumulation of solids in the water.

I quit using charcoal in my tanks 6 months ago and see no problem
there. I also removed the bio wheels from my 75 gallon tank. The
other four didn't have bio wheels and were doing fine and the4 wheels
were routinely needing to be cleaned to keep them turning, so I just
took them out.

All of my tanks have aireation. I like to see the bubbles, but on a
practical side, they flow up and around the heater distributing the
heat more evenly. The bubbles keep the water mixed and move the flake
food around the surface so the little fish have a chance to get some.
One down side, the bubbles keep the glass above them wet and I have to
clean algae off every month or two.

While I understand that crystal clear water is not the same as healthy
water, it is more attractive to my eyes, so I do clean the filter
media when the flow out of the filters slows, but also if the water is
not crystal clear. I like the sharpness clear water gives to the fish
and plants.

dick

[JamesG]

Doing 20% water changes twice weekly is impressive, you are a diligent
owner. I should probably change mine more since I agree that when the
water is clearer the fish look prettier. Has anyone ever noticed a
jump in nitrogen compounds after cleaning the rocks? It would seem
like if you aren't that careful in siphoning the material that a lot of
muck could be released back in the tank from its final resting place in
the rocks.
I also think that the bubbles look nice in the tank. Another
practical benefit of having a lot of bubbles in the water (aside from
the aeration and circulation benefit) there is some chemical mass
transfer that occurs from the water to the air bubbles. Some of the
ammonia in the water can strip out in the bubbles (as an example see
http://www.epa.gov/owm/mtb/ammonia_stripping.pdf )
In wastewater treatment they raise the pH up to increase NH3 levels for
stripping, in a fish tank we don't do this but some of the ammonia that
is present as NH3 at the lower pH would still be stripped. Other
organic chemicals would be stripped from the water as well.
That is too bad about your biowheels, mine used to do that too,
eventually they started not having problems. I think it coincided with
trading in my two plecostomuses, they are crap machines.

James