New build: 60x30x18 courtesy of CADlight
- Thread starter Usingthejohn
- Start date
***DISCLAIMER: THIS IS ONLY MY EXPERIENCE; NOT BY ANY MEANS HARD EVIDENCE, THE WORD OF ANY HIGHER UPS, OR WRITTEN IN STONE.
OK, so it's Saturday, and I realized I failed to mention i removed my biopellets reactor last Wednesday. All in all, I would estimate my reactor was up for 3 weeks or so.
Why? Well, I noticed all my fish were acting lethargic, not swimming around, not feeding as aggressively as they used to. Furthermore, I noticed a significant difference in my purple tang: it was very pale; almost white in color. I also noticed that one of my leopards was constantly pacing along the side panel. On all my fish (alive or the ones that recently died) did not show any sign of ich, velvet, brook, or black ich.
In researching my biopellets, one thing that was mentioned was to keep surface agitation maintained, along with a big skimmer. The skimmer is meant to not only remove the bacteria from the BP reactor effluent, but as another means of agitation. What I found during more research was related to sump flow-apparently it requires a moderate turnover as well, to offset any drop in oxygen. And as we all know, the bacteria colonized within the reactor consumes oxygen; another reason for good surface agitation, and the big draw skimmer.
My return pump is a DC6000, running at only 2 bars. I really dont know how many GPH that translates into; but given it maxes out at 1585gph, I'm assuming I'm running at 500gph or so. (I simply divided 1585gph by the 6 bars on the DC6000 controller, LOL). I can't run any higher DT turnover because the teeth on my overflow were cut too narrow; anything faster and the DT backs up faster than what can drain into the overflow). I positioned the returns to agitate the surface; however being that the returns were split to 2 and only running at approx. 500gph, agitation was minimal, at best.
That being said, I took the BP offline this past Tuesday. Today, I noticed that my fish are all a lot more active; they're swimming about; the tangs are picking at the rocks again, and the color on the purple has drastically improved: it is now a very deep purple. The leopard stopped pacing the panel; in general, all my fish are acting like, well, fish.
Now, can I correlate the increased activity and improved purple tang color to an increased oxygen content within the tank? No. I'm simply stating my opinion, and my anecdotal evidence and observation.
OK, so it's Saturday, and I realized I failed to mention i removed my biopellets reactor last Wednesday. All in all, I would estimate my reactor was up for 3 weeks or so.
Why? Well, I noticed all my fish were acting lethargic, not swimming around, not feeding as aggressively as they used to. Furthermore, I noticed a significant difference in my purple tang: it was very pale; almost white in color. I also noticed that one of my leopards was constantly pacing along the side panel. On all my fish (alive or the ones that recently died) did not show any sign of ich, velvet, brook, or black ich.
In researching my biopellets, one thing that was mentioned was to keep surface agitation maintained, along with a big skimmer. The skimmer is meant to not only remove the bacteria from the BP reactor effluent, but as another means of agitation. What I found during more research was related to sump flow-apparently it requires a moderate turnover as well, to offset any drop in oxygen. And as we all know, the bacteria colonized within the reactor consumes oxygen; another reason for good surface agitation, and the big draw skimmer.
My return pump is a DC6000, running at only 2 bars. I really dont know how many GPH that translates into; but given it maxes out at 1585gph, I'm assuming I'm running at 500gph or so. (I simply divided 1585gph by the 6 bars on the DC6000 controller, LOL). I can't run any higher DT turnover because the teeth on my overflow were cut too narrow; anything faster and the DT backs up faster than what can drain into the overflow). I positioned the returns to agitate the surface; however being that the returns were split to 2 and only running at approx. 500gph, agitation was minimal, at best.
That being said, I took the BP offline this past Tuesday. Today, I noticed that my fish are all a lot more active; they're swimming about; the tangs are picking at the rocks again, and the color on the purple has drastically improved: it is now a very deep purple. The leopard stopped pacing the panel; in general, all my fish are acting like, well, fish.
Now, can I correlate the increased activity and improved purple tang color to an increased oxygen content within the tank? No. I'm simply stating my opinion, and my anecdotal evidence and observation.
