Fish Waste Removal

[issacyeo]

Originally Posted by scottelfy

Will the gravel be another place that bb can cultivate and inturn be a filter media itself? Heard ppl say before but not sure myself

yes its possible. check out dr ong's sump tank. he has a layer of substrate at the bottom, if i remember correctly.

[issacyeo]

Originally Posted by GiantGourami

Hi guys i was wondering, is it necessary to remove all the fish waste present in at the bottom of the tank? I have a take with some mid-sized guppy fries with a sponge filter, and it is simply not enough to suck up the fish waste. I was thinking of putting a thin layer of gravel across the base of the tank to at least hide the fish waste. Will the fish waste decompose and disappear by itself? What kinds of dangers will there be if they are left unremoved? Thanks in advance guys.

putting gravel only serves to hide the fish poo from sight. fish poo will not disintegrate into nothing and "disappear by itself". if u have soil/substrate, u can plant some plants which would help to breakdown most of ur fish waste.
if left unremoved, water becomes dirty, not nice to look at. in the long run, water parameters will go haywire and ur guppies will RIP.
i've done an experiment to see if i can sustain a nanotank setup without WC. at the bottom i had a layer of black quartz. i could see all the fish poo sink into the black quartz and remain there forever...

[xiaoqiang75]

Suck out the fish waste n do WC every week. This help to maintain clear water n prevent the build of ammonia (:

Originally Posted by issacyeo

putting gravel only serves to hide the fish poo from sight. fish poo will not disintegrate into nothing and "disappear by itself". if u have soil/substrate, u can plant some plants which would help to breakdown most of ur fish waste.
if left unremoved, water becomes dirty, not nice to look at. in the long run, water parameters will go haywire and ur guppies will RIP.
i've done an experiment to see if i can sustain a nanotank setup without WC. at the bottom i had a layer of black quartz. i could see all the fish poo sink into the black quartz and remain there forever...

hey bro just a tip on ur experiment, ur layer of quartz has to be at least 4 inches thick for the bacteria that is able to successfully decompose the poo and perform nitrification (nitrates to no2)

i personally do not remove my poo cause i think its more natural la, where got ecosystem no poo one. LOL. one thing i always advocate is to have more filtration than u really think u need. im not being kiasu just that the more filtration u have the higher bioloads u can keep safely, and well u all know urself ah, fish are like women, one is never enough HAHAHAA (shhhh dont tell my fiance)

Originally Posted by vic

The fish waste will not disappear by itself it's broken down into small particles u can't see.

If we take a few mins of our time to suck out the physical waste we see everyday it can save us alot of issue.. 1st n most impt we minimize the problem of nitrite n nitrate.

It's either u spend on good filters if u wan to change less water or
U change more water if u wan to save on filters

Good advice indeed, bro. I am doing so everyday too. If we clean everyday then pour back the aged water, our canister filter will also has less waste to clear.