First water change
Posted 11/09/2012 at 10:47 PM by ACBlinky
Today I did what my husband calls 'playing with the aquarium'. Pulled stubborn bits of algae off the rocks, turkey basted the rockwork, re-adjusted the powerheads to remove detritus more effectively, and when the dust settled I decided to do a water change.
I wouldn't normally vacuum the sand, but last week I made one hell of a mess with my diatom filter -- I wanted to polish the water, but ended up accomplishing the opposite by accidentally spewing diatomaceous earth all over the tank. It's been hellish trying to recover (day after day of repeated turkey basting, fine media filtering, washing, and replacing...) Anyway this, plus the cycling process, has left the sand pretty grungy. I used my Python water changer with very low pressure to gently remove the fine dust from the sand, without disturbing it too much. It seemed to work very well.
The water is somewhat cloudy from all the recent disturbance, and I can see that the powerheads are doing a very good job circulating the water -- crap keeps blowing off the rocks and into the water, which I suppose is good since this way it will be removed by the filter media in the sump (soon to be replaced by filter socks, come on post office, bring my delivery!) It might be healthier for the tank, but I'd like to see clear water and I'm not sure it's ever going to be as clean as I want.
I changed about 20g of water, and made another 20g which I have on standby in case I need it -- at worst, it will sit until the next water change.
Oh, and today I sorted out what happened with the diatom filter. I've had it forever, and it looks like the bag on the inside has developed some cracks. I didn't notice them last time, and the powder must have escaped through these small holes into the tank. I ordered a new bag, so hopefully next time I need the filter it will work much better.
That's all for now, my eyes are heavy and I'm going to go to bed. If tonight is anything like last night, maybe I'll dream about buying fancy corals and 'play with my aquarium' while I'm sleeping!
I wouldn't normally vacuum the sand, but last week I made one hell of a mess with my diatom filter -- I wanted to polish the water, but ended up accomplishing the opposite by accidentally spewing diatomaceous earth all over the tank. It's been hellish trying to recover (day after day of repeated turkey basting, fine media filtering, washing, and replacing...) Anyway this, plus the cycling process, has left the sand pretty grungy. I used my Python water changer with very low pressure to gently remove the fine dust from the sand, without disturbing it too much. It seemed to work very well.
The water is somewhat cloudy from all the recent disturbance, and I can see that the powerheads are doing a very good job circulating the water -- crap keeps blowing off the rocks and into the water, which I suppose is good since this way it will be removed by the filter media in the sump (soon to be replaced by filter socks, come on post office, bring my delivery!) It might be healthier for the tank, but I'd like to see clear water and I'm not sure it's ever going to be as clean as I want.
I changed about 20g of water, and made another 20g which I have on standby in case I need it -- at worst, it will sit until the next water change.
Oh, and today I sorted out what happened with the diatom filter. I've had it forever, and it looks like the bag on the inside has developed some cracks. I didn't notice them last time, and the powder must have escaped through these small holes into the tank. I ordered a new bag, so hopefully next time I need the filter it will work much better.
That's all for now, my eyes are heavy and I'm going to go to bed. If tonight is anything like last night, maybe I'll dream about buying fancy corals and 'play with my aquarium' while I'm sleeping!
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