Hello, I have a DIY UAS on my 75 gal freshwater aquarium. I seem to have established the grow screen based on the instructions here, but haven't yet gotten much in terms of output yet.... I have 2 goldfish and a Pleco in the tank and chemicals I have been testing for are ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I've heard much about phosphate tests, but I'm not sure if that is applicable to a freshwater setup or not. Should I be testing the levels of other things in the tank?
You can test for phosphate in freshwater but it isn't harmful to fish. It does retard coral growth so it's more of concern in reef tanks. I kept FW tanks for 20 odd years off & on before switching to marine and never once tested for phosphate. That said, it will encourage growth of nuisance algae in FW so it's as well to keep it down, but I wouldn't bother buying a test for it. I tried a FW scrubber too once (my first effort) and it did work although probably not as well as in saltwater imo.
Have you tried De-nitrate from Seachem? Works very well in FW, not really needed in SW as liverock performs the same function more or less. http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/denitrate.html
Incidentally, if you get levels down too low your pleco will starve. You'll need to feed him some algae wafers if the tank doesn't grow enough food for him
Yeah, I don't like to put any chemicals in the tank unless I need to (like prime, when I do water changes) I've been managing the nitrate levels with water changes. They got up over 150 according to the API test kit. Everything was green and the pleco loved it. About a month ago, the water started getting pretty cloudy. I figured out that the family was over feeding ("but they looked hungry Dad") The water clarity slowly returned after a friendly chat. The pleco (bubbles) is loving the algae growing on the glass when I move the uas (3x5 inch) every other day. I'm trying to localize the algae growth and hoping he cleans everything else up as well.
The de-nitrate stuff isn't a chemical, it's a filter media. I think it's just a type of pumice stone crushed and graded. It's very very porous so it allows aerobic bacteria to populate the outer regions and use up all the oxygen creating anaerobic conditions for detritrifying bacteria deeper inside (which is the same thing that live rock does in marine systems) As I said it works a treat. 150 is very high. What is it now? Overfeeding is one of the worst things you can do, particularly with things like goldfish who will eat pretty much whatever you put in there. One of my kids once tipped most of a tub of flakes into a tank of African cichlids we had. That was fun sorting out.
