"Mr Paul Goodhew" wrote in message
...

"NetMax" wrote in message
. ..

"jk" wrote in message
t...
I'm curious about your cleaning routines. What do you all do
with
your
large tanks, with large fish, that tend to get very dirty quickly?
Big
fish
require more food, create more waste, and stir up the bottom more.
Do
you
simply do a major cleaning as often as once a week?

--
JK Sinrod NY

Arrange your filtration so that you have more pick-up power.
Powerfilters are good for this because they typically run about 5x
the
tank volume. Add an extension to the intake pipe to get it lower
into
deep tanks. Sand substrate can be useful. Arrange the sand and
filtration inlet/outlet so any detritus slides from the back of the
tank
to the front, and then along the front to one side (where the intake
is
located). Bare bottom tanks also work. You best solution will
probably
be a combination of filters, such as canister -or- powerfilter (for
good
intake) and a powerhead -or- canister (to direct horizontal
currents).

Another method is piping your filter system inlet (typically a
canister)
to UGF plates and covering the plates with medium-large river stones.
Any detritus will fall through the river stones and into your filter.
This system is application specific, as it does not work with bottom
feeders well, however it does work with large fish whose food does
not
reach the substrate often. It also eliminates the need to gravel
vacuum,
and if you add a T valve at the canister intake, you have a
convenient
'bib' to drain water for your weekly water changes. With a couple of
valves, you can fix it so that your water changes backwash the
filter,
reducing your filter maintenance, and more efficiently getting rid of
unwanted DOCs piling up in your filter media. If you want to be more
certain that uneaten food is not getting 'vacuumed' then shut the
filter
off while feeding. I have one of my tanks on this type of a system
and I
use a timer which holds my filters off for 5 minutes.

that timer is a good idea max. I tend to feed my fish while I'm racing
out
the door to go to work, I turn off the filter while I feed. 3 times in
2
months I have gone out all day with the filter off!!

If memory serves, you need a timer with double throw relay, usually
marked as a SPDT or DPDT. Timers usually turn something ON for a set
time. As you want the reverse, you need to take your power from the
relay contact which is normally ON, so the timer turns something OFF for
the set time.

I shopped around for such a timer and couldn't find it, but the hardware
available here is limited. I probably could have found it in some
on-line catalogue, but instead, I went into an industrial supply store
and bought a DPDT 120Vac relay and connected the relay driver coil
contacts to the output of the timer. I then connected my house current
to the relay, so the relay output is always ON, except for the time I set
the timer. It's essentially a negative logic relay ;~). I then put the
relay into a standard electrical box near my aquarium set-up. It's a
very simple construction, but I'm leery of giving electrical advice over
the newsgroup. Don't attempt this unless you are qualified.
hth
NetMax