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I have a couple of Loricariidae in a â??Catfish tankâ?

Hi!

Well actually you have a bit more than a couple...
Anyway, how big is your tank?
You are right in assuming that it is mainly the wood eater that are producing the most waste...
Cheers
Yann

Yeah, plecos produce a lot of waste. That's just what they do. You might even say that it's their job!

Fish waste isn't exactly good for a tank's water. It contains ammonia, which as you probably know, is not a good thing. To get rid of my pleco waste, I just do a quick gravel vacuum. It sucks the bad stuff right up, and is accompanied with a water change. Clean water will never hurt a fish, so this may well be the best method for getting rid of excess fish waste. At least, it seems like the best way to me.

sirbooks wrote:
Fish waste isn't exactly good for a tank's water. It contains ammonia,

Yes but in my mind this waste must produce less ammonia than regular fish waste since it's "just wood". Or am I wrong?

which as you probably know, is not a good thing. To get rid of my pl*co waste, I just do a quick gravel vacuum. It sucks the bad stuff right up, and is accompanied with a water change.

Yes I do my vacuum cleaning and water changes but I do not want to do that every other day. I filter over peat and trying to keep at least close to "blackwater" in the tank. That ain't easy when I have to do to many water changes.

Maybe you could add a powerhead with a quick filter to your tank... it would stir up the waste and allow the ehiem to pick it up and also do some of its own filtering. You would of course need to clean both during water changes. Or you could move the wood eaters into there own tank that has better filtration. What size is your tank?

I use large aquaclear hanging box filters as a prefilter and have a hole drilled for the intake for the canister filter "in" the box filter.The box filter is the mechanical filter and is easier to clean every few days and the media in the canister filter is for biological only and I only take this apart every 4-6 months.
Works for me!

Birger

whitepine wrote:Maybe you could add a powerhead with a quick filter to your tank... it would stir up the waste and allow the ehiem to pick it up and also do some of its own filtering. You would of course need to clean both during water changes. Or you could move the wood eaters into there own tank that has better filtration. What size is your tank?

Itâ??s a 150 litre tank. Some of the cats will grow out of it. Actually I was a bit fooled when bought them. But now I have thoughts of using my 450 l Malawi tank a SA tank instead. Weâ??ll see.

Birger wrote:I use large aquaclear hanging box filters as a prefilter and have a hole drilled for the intake for the canister filter "in" the box filter.The box filter is the mechanical filter and is easier to clean every few days and the media in the canister filter is for biological only and I only take this apart every 4-6 months.
Works for me!

Birger

Interesting solution. Do you have a picture of it?

Christer C

Hi!

I think you have answered the problem yourself...

Your tank is simply overstocked...and most of the L present fon't have their place in such small tank

What the size of the L you have so far...

Using the 450l Malawi tank is certainly the best idea you had... get rid of these Yellow/blue Rabbits ( ) and get into the real world... SA/Catfish...well catfish alone is the real deal...

Cheers
Yann

Definately agree with going to the bigger tank with the potential sizes some of the fish you have can get.
About the filter I will take a picture and PM you when I get a chance

Birger

Don't just PM the picture please. I am sure the rest of us would like to see.

Here is what I was talking about, this is on a 75 gal.
Quite simple really, just the way I like it,



Aquaclear 500 with a hole cut into the lid to fit the intake for a fluval 303, the outflow goes directly into the tank.
I only use the foam inserts in the Aquaclear but I use two of them which are easily cleaned.When I clean the filter I shut everything off just flip the intake over the lip of the tank do what I have to do then place the intake back into place start the Aquaclear "then" start the canister again. I use the Aquaclear because it is just a basic filter,no fancywheels no special media to buy,etc.
I could use any canister filter and put whatever bio-media I would like into it without taking it apart very often.

Like I said works for me, Birger

Thanks Birger, smart solution. The only negative thing I can think of is the visual about having it hanging there.

I think the new Eheim Prof III 2080 will work about the same way but with a built in prefilter. Someone have one of those?

One last thought,you could probably incorporate an overflow box(you can get them with a prefilter) as used on reeftanks that are not drilled out for plumbing, but again it would not be totally hidden. Usually once the lights are in place, unless someone knows to look for them, most people would not notice the boxes at the back, they are to busy looking at the fish.

Birger

Much simpler to just put a good, cheap pre-filter (e.g, Hydro-sponge III) on the canister intake.

But enough woodchips from big Panaques will clog almost anything. We had this problem before. It solved itself when we went away for a week, the Panaque poop clogged the filter and the Panaque -- together with all the other fish in the tank -- died. Years later, every time I rinse out the sponges from those old filters, I still see wood dust.