PlanetCatfish.com

Okay so for a long time I have been doing my routine stuff and stuck to my schedule without any major issues.

This week I tested my nitrates before a water change and it registered at 20 so decided to see what happens as my tanks are relatively low stock and have plants/peat in them. Now some may consider this bad but am wondering if I am simply making work for myself. Nitrates measure up about 20 from the tap most of the time around here. So that is my first experiment.

My second and third soon to start is swapping over to HMF have found a UK supplier of some of swiss tropicals parts.

My third is I am wondering how to combine HMF with peat plates and gravel if I need to dig down or just sit the HMF on top of the gravel tidy? Has anyone done this before? I know everyone's experience is different and so many variables but would be grateful for any input.

Re nitrate testing two things- The hobby kits for nitrate tend to be most inaccurate between 0 and 20 ppm. But I am curious, if you are using peat, doesn't it stain the water? If so how are you testing for nitrates?

I do a stained water and I do Matten filters, but not in the same tank. I have one Matten in a tank with a sand bottom but it is not planted. I used an L shaped, clear plastic corner guard from Home Depot at the bottom of the foam. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Trimaco-1-1 ... /100118843 The foam sits on the bottom glass atop the L shaped guard which holds it in place.

I do have a Poret foam cube in my Altum tank which is stained and has a sand bottom, but no live plants. I use alder cones, catappa leaves and rooibos tea. Normally, I do not use peat (too messy), but will occasionally add it into the alder cone bag.

It does tint the water. First few months were murder for it. Also reading that over should have provided a better description.

Top layer rounded quartz about 2-3 cm thick. Deeper at the front of the tank and sides to prevent the peat from showing.

Next a fine plastic mesh membrane with small holes for roots but fine enough to keep the peat under it and the gravel on top. This wraps down and under the plates at the front and up a little at the back but tight against the glass.

Bottom is the peat plates.

I'm using a NT labs liquid test kit.

When I gravel clean I do get bubbles come up from under the gravel in small amounts.

It has 2mm holes in the plastic and is suitable for pond pot liners so shouldn't break down anytime soon. If my memory is right. The water is currently pretty much clear but it normally gets a 50% water change every month and a bucket or so every 2 weeks as I clean the filter. I try to avoid cleaning the filter same week as a gravel clean.

OK- I tint my water directly and to a decent level of darkening. As a result, I do not plant as the tinting filters the light. I also tend to run lower TDS which means less stuff in the water and that means no ferts are being added. All my plant tanks get weekly ferts and Excel which I am pretty sure would raise the tds initially.

I can also report that the staining means I need to clean the probes on my digital monitor regularly. I cannot test using the typical hobby kits.

I think the plastic corner bead would work as long as it is large enough to be a barrier between the bottom of the tank and the top of the substrate. It not, consider a custom barrier strip from plastic or glass. You could use a bit of silicone to "glue it to the bottom glass and to the front and back glass. It would be a short clear wall. Also, I would cut the peat plate so it does not extend under the Matten. I would want the end of the peat plate to butt up against the barrier in from of the Matten.

What I wonder about is the need for both plants and a Matten. A fair amount of the filtration work is handled by plants and a planted substrate. The major benefit to a Matten is many of the processes, but not all, of the ones in a planted substrate can establish in the Matten.

Thanks will sort out a clear strip to go down.

Will start the mesh under it and then silicone it down together so the mesh can't shift over time.

Thanks for the advice.

The reason for wanting to switch is a much lower cleaning frequency. The bacteria benefit I am hoping will still exist in both Peat and Hmf so it still reduces nitrates with anaerobic areas.

I did consider towers but the value of a sheet just seems better.

Also now reading about people putting ceramic rings just behind the hmf sheet but can't find out why. Yes they provide a great home for bacteria but normal ceramic media has been an early stage of any external I have used not the end.

Doing allot of digging on this as only want to do it once.

Honestly, unless the ceramic rings provide a home for a different variety of microbes compared to the Matten, I can't imagine really benefiting from the rings if you have a thick enough and full sized Matten filter (covering the entire end of the tank, not just a corner model or a cube). Those things have a ton of surface area.

Regards, Eric

I agree those rings would serve no purpose at all, maybe they are doing this for peace of mind ???
-Tony

Sounds like a lot of extra thinking going on for a simple HMF system.

Keep it simple
Birger

Well I went with complete over kill. The tanks have running a while and seem stable.

Foam filters cleaned as needed. Water change 50% once a month and the white bags are JBL bionitratex packets.

Fish seem happy colours are good. The big black blob on the smaller tank is a visible fish mate F14 auto feeder changed them to feed twice a day.

Need to do a water kit test when I get time but so far looking okay. Glass needs a clean and bit of an algae problem but I have come to accept that unless I want to go heavily into controling it more.

The tank stocks are low lights are on a timers.

Posting just so people can see even if it's complete over kill it works.

Hi - can I ask where you got the HMF mats in the UK?


Thank you
Ruud

Hi I ordered them from greenpike on eBay along with uplifts as I found the ones with small holes in better than air stones in the pipe

Thank you James, added him to my saved sellers on Ebay.

Once i have my space confirmed for my breeding tanks, and can start building I will check him out and see if he still has stock, and most importantly will ship to Spain.

I am guessing you took the 5cm 30ppi mats? Those are the ones I would be most interested in.

Ruud

Swiss tropicals also do them. Yes is 30ppi and it is the jet uplifts that I like.

The 30ppi are good I use them in my smaller tanks, for messier or larger fish I tend to use 20ppi.

hi ruud, if you are after jet lifters i got mine from this german company, they shipped to uk., and i believe they are what swiss tropicals use. very good product.
https://www.luftheber-shop.de/
cheers ron.

No matter what is in a tank, no matter if there are plants or not, substrate or not, the one thing I have always done and will always continue to do is regular 50% water changes every week. These serve multiple purposes which include preventing the build up of undesirable things. Not all plants use all the nutrients in the ferts we use. Those not used will tend to build up over time. The ones they do use will often need to be replenished regularly. One of the greatest causes of algae in tanks is a nutrient imbalance the algae can use. And then there is this, I have never heard of fish getting sick or dying because their water was to clean.

While we tend to think of the bacteria in terms of things like the nitrogen complex and oxygen demand, they also need other things such as iron, carbonates etc. The nitrogen cycle will naturally result is the tendency for the pH to drop. Water changes minimize any risk from this.

Just my two cents here as always.