# My new 20g-L. Can one have TOO much biological filtration?



## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

I hear that the bio organisms in the system will balance out to the size of the load made in the tank over time.
You can have a huge system set up that will match a small tank load which only wastes system space.
You can have it the other way too, where the system does not have the correct room and the tank's load is too much for the little system you set up.

See if that sounds correct.
Let the gurus chime in.


----------



## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

@theDCpump - I belive that you are absolutely right. All living, including biological filtration (bacteria and plants), are food limited. No food and everybody starves out.
@Rossurf - nitrate is a food source for the biological filtration. In a planted tank, 5 to 40 ppm is a good range.
Small swords tend to become very large swords. The good exceptions that I know off are Amazon Sword mini / Compact at ~10" tall and SWORD ROSETTE (PARVIFLORUS PARVIFLORUS 'TROPICA') at about 4".


----------



## AbbeysDad (Apr 13, 2016)

I'm a fan of the Aquaclear HOB's and have two AC70's (same as AC300) on my 60g (and another on my 37g) but both have AC50 impellers. Impellers are interchangeable for the AC20, AC30, AC50. AC70. You might wish to step down the impeller to an AC50 or even an AC30. They are relatively inexpensive on Amazon.

The beneficial bacteria colony(ies) in any tank is always relative to the available food and O2...regardless of how much bio-media is in play. Speaking of which, I have found over the years that sponge material is the very best platform for both mechanical AND biological filtration. Oh I 'played the game' with bio-max, Matrix, DeNitrate... for a long, long time and finally settled on bio-sponge (so all my AC70's are filled with sponge material.

Good luck with the biohome media - I tried to culture anaerobic bacteria to convert nitrates into N2 gas....w/o success. _(That's why I originally added the second AC70 then w/an AC20 impeller filled with a mix of Matrix and DeNitrate)...I could never get a measurable decrease in tank nitrates.)_

I have the 48" Finnex Planted+ 24/7 running in 24/7 mode from 6a to midnight. I think it's great and works fine for my low tech (and I have a 24" depth). If you get the newer SE model, You might not need a timer as I believe that it shuts down at 3am. The CC looks way cool, but I dunno if it also shuts down at 3am.


----------



## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

AbbeysDad said:


> I'm a fan of the Aquaclear HOB's... I have found over the years that sponge material is the very best platform for both mechanical AND biological filtration. Oh I 'played the game' with bio-max, Matrix, DeNitrate... for a long, long time and finally settled on bio-sponge (so all my AC70's are filled with sponge material).
> 
> - I tried to culture anaerobic bacteria to convert nitrates into N2 gas....w/o success. _(That's why I originally added the second AC70 then w/an AC20 impeller filled with a mix of Matrix and DeNitrate)...I could never get a measurable decrease in tank nitrates.)_


I still have lots of new bags of bio media from all the Sicce Tidal filters and AquaClear AC110 laying in the junk drawer due to all the foam I use.
Thanks, I'm oddly happy to hear that they did not decrease anything in your experiment.

I like layering foam porosity in filters. I use really open pore foam for the start and then some foam porosity that matches the blue Tidal series foam for the most of the filter system (that may be a 20ppi).
The last part of the filter may get a tighter porosity for a clean-up if the water does not look good that month.

Ok, now we're starting to agree that a sufficient media space is matched by fish load, I have a question on the bags of ceramic rings and all those white bio-media bags.
*I can slap out a foam sponge after dipping it in tank water, but how the heck do you clean the Bio-media in the bags with all the tight pores?*
Bacteria is tiny, but we all can get mulm and garbage all over the bags over time, so how effective can they be vs the sponges?

*Is it a diminishing return?*
Sponges seem like the right way to go for my personal systems.


Added note.
*AbbeysDad*

*After deeming the bio bags weak as for converting any better, do you think you tested them too early?
- Were the bio media not seeded yet?
- Would a second test a month later been a good idea for a final answer on the ineffective media results?*


----------



## AbbeysDad (Apr 13, 2016)

theDCpump said:


> Added note.
> *AbbeysDad*
> 
> *After deeming the bio bags weak as for converting any better, do you think you tested them too early?
> ...


I tried for the better part of 3+ years to seed anaerobic bacteria in the added AC70 HOB filled with the mix of Seachem Matrix and DeNitrate. I went through a few bottles of Seachem Stability and a couple of rounds of Aquabella. I later added a 4L container filled with Matrix/DeNitrate using a Tom Aqualifter pump. I was never able to reduce tank generated nitrates. (Note that this was before I upgraded the lighting and planted the tank.) The challenge is achieving low O2 in the highly oxygenated FW tank. Coil denitrators and filters like the Aquaripure work, but I think the flow rates are insufficient to deal with typical volume of tank generated nitrates.

I'm convinced now that along with routine partial water changes, our best approach to lower tank nitrates and improved water purity is with fast growing plants, especially fast growing floating plants that convert ammonia and nitrates into plant mass that we later remove as trimmings.


----------



## rosssurf (Mar 14, 2018)

Thank you everyone for the helpful insights!


----------

