# Eheim pro3 2080 eats up fertilizer ? Can it be true..



## Rasmusm (Jun 20, 2010)

Hey

I have a question..
For about 7 months now I have been fighting algaes.. I have a 250l / 66 gal aquarium, special fertilizer for my water parameters.. good Co2 with ph controller tester shows light green / yellow. I have enough light on aswell 120watt. Everything should be good..
But i still fight those algaes .. No hair algaes but staghorn.. 

Then i began to think I've had algaes ever since i bought this big filter 7 month ago :/ Can it be true it eats up the fertilizer for my plants ?
This is whats inside the filter: 









Also my Blyxa Japonica acts weird these days









Its kinda twisting? What can that be a sign of?
But main question is about the filter, can it be to big?

Thanks alot  And have a good weekend

Kind regards Rasmus Mikkelsen
Denmark


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

It's pretty unlikely that biomedia is eating up all your fertilizer. If you're adding ammonium, it could eat that I suppose, but aerobic bacteria usually aren't big consumers of nitrate, etc.


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## ibanezfrelon (May 23, 2010)

*Good co2.. ..for sure?*

How much ferts are you dosing (in ppm)?
What lights do you have (t5 , t8 , reflectors)?
How far from the surface are they (lights)?
How do you disolve and distribute that co2?


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## Rasmusm (Jun 20, 2010)

ibanezfrelon:
About the fertilizer Im asking the guy whos mixing my ferts, waiting for answer.
I have t8 lights 4x30w with reflectors light code is 2x827 and 2x865 from osram dunno if you know those lights but they are pretty good. Atm I have coveret 70% of the 2 x 865 lights with aluminum folio, to decrease the light some..

The lights are around 10cm above the surface.
And I disolve the CO2 with this one
http://www.niersbachtal.de/products/CO2-Zubehoer/Aussenreaktor-mit-Bypass-bis-ca-3000L-komplett.html 

Atm I fight some brown stuff on my surface, helped a lot when I installed an extra power head to break the surface film.. I guess its some cyano something
I have a Kh on 10 and my PH controller is taking the ph down to 6.7 then up to 6.9 then starts co2 again its the Milwakuee sms122 controller


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## Rasmusm (Jun 20, 2010)

nitrate 20 ppm
kalium 30
fosfat 3
magnesium 11,6
calcium 54,1
Fe 0.5

I dont know it its spelled like this on english  I hope you understand it


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## hitechboy (Jul 27, 2010)

Where are potassium and phosphorus? Do you use root tab and have lots of live stocks?

What media do you have in your filter. I only see EHEIM Mech that provide very little bio filtration. And it should be placed in the bottom layer of most Eheim filter.


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## ibanezfrelon (May 23, 2010)

> Where are potassium and phosphorus


Kalium= K
Fosfat= PO4

So, you can rule out macro's..

Now , try to rule out CO2 , now that's a tough one..
Adjust the surface ripple so it doesnt break the surface too much , you loose too much co2 like that..
It's good to have some agitation so that fish can get more o2 , but no splashing..
Tweak the co2 slowly , turn it up little by little every couple of days and watch the fish closely.
Don't be impatient and turn it up too much.
Make sure the water flow is good , not too strong or too weak.

If you give the plants enough of what they need they will grow nicely and algae will stop.
So, focus on the good plant growth and not on algae , algae wil stop as plants start growing.
Remove manualy as much algae as you can , keep the filter clean , keep the tank clean , 
dose ferts regularly , change water regularly and most important - good co2.


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## Rasmusm (Jun 20, 2010)

hitechboy said:


> What media do you have in your filter. I only see EHEIM Mech that provide very little bio filtration. And it should be placed in the bottom layer of most Eheim filter.


Thats the only things i have in the 3 baskets inside the filter. And a blue filter layer thingie and a fine white one.
Never had any diseases or anything, so i guess it works pretty good. Thing is to have big area where the bacterias can be on.

Co2 yes. As mentioned I have a KH 10 and ph on 6.7 that should be more than enough co2 way over 30ppm and my tester is constantly very light green / yellow?

I drilled extra holes in this one  I dont have the word hehe so a picture will do.









I drilled 2 holes that points directly down 90degrees from the normal ones, then 3 holes in 45degrees. The filter does ~450gallons / hour on my 66 gal aquarium. All the leaf's around the tank is moving. I did the extra holes because the flow was just way to much in the other end of the tank.









I've always learned a good surface flow is good. Ill try to adjust it down some  thanks

Also this is my Egeria densa:
http://akvariefreaks.dk/vandpest.JPG 
whats wrong with it.. I know it can grow without any fertz co2 and low light ?


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## hitechboy (Jul 27, 2010)

Rasmusm said:


> Thats the only things i have in the 3 baskets inside the filter. And a blue filter layer thingie and a fine white one.
> Never had any diseases or anything, so i guess it works pretty good. Thing is to have big area where the bacterias can be on.


There is one problem with that. Those Ehfimech filter media will trap large dirts particle in them. So you suppose to clean out the dirts each time you clean your filter. And that will kill most of the bacteria on it. If you never clean them, then dirts will accumulate in there and you will have problem.

Try replace them with Eheim Substrat Pro on the top two baskets. (Wait a few weeks, and then clean you Ehfimech out.) and see what happen.


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## Rasmusm (Jun 20, 2010)

hitechboy said:


> There is one problem with that. Those Ehfimech filter media will trap large dirts particle in them. So you suppose to clean out the dirts each time you clean your filter. And that will kill most of the bacteria on it. If you never clean them, then dirts will accumulate in there and you will have problem.
> 
> Try replace them with Eheim Substrat Pro on the top two baskets. (Wait a few weeks, and then clean you Ehfimech out.) and see what happen.



Ill think about it, I did clean my filter this weekend. But what kind of problem will I have? this was first time cleaning the ehfimech media since I got the filter back in February, wasnt that dirty.. And didnt clean it 100% I have changed the white filter layer before though.

But strange the filter came whit these ? Nothing else


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## hitechboy (Jul 27, 2010)

Rasmusm said:


> Ill think about it, I did clean my filter this weekend. But what kind of problem will I have? this was first time cleaning the ehfimech media since I got the filter back in February, wasnt that dirty.. And didnt clean it 100% I have changed the white filter layer before though.
> 
> But strange the filter came whit these ? Nothing else


Bacteria cannot consume the larger dirt particles that were trapped in the ehfimech. If you let them built up, they will degrade your water quality.

This is the standard media set for the pro3

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18405/si1382765/cl0/eheimmediasetforpro32080filter

They must have packed the wrong media in your filter!


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## Rasmusm (Jun 20, 2010)

aight thanks for that answer  I think I might email eheim and ask


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