Originally Posted by Mad_Hatter
Originally Posted by spasm3
I dont have one now. But when i did, i ran a penguin bio wheel. Turns the water over and aerates it well.Holds beneficial bacterial on the wheel. I did not use an undergravel filter, but i did use a hand held siphon vacuum to clean the gravel, and do a water change at the same time. Never had a algae problem. Dont' run the lights at night, dont have the tank in bright daylight.
$20 amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Marineland-P...+bio+wheel&qid=1571090406&sr=8-4
That's similiar to the filter i have although the bio wheel is garbage..it gets loaded up with that slime and stops spinning. I got tired of replacing it so I ditched it.
I have one of those exact filters on one of my tanks. IMHO, it's a very good filter, but you're right about the bio-wheel. On that filter, and my others, I have done some modifications.. some call it "hot rodding" the filter. I toss the cartridge that comes with it and instead load it up with a combination of:
Ceramic bio-rings. I use two types:
Fluval External Power Filter Hex rings and
Fluval 'U' Biomax. These bio-rings house a huge amount of beneficial bacteria.
Reticulated filter foam. I am using
Aquaclear 30 and
Aquaclear 20 foam inserts, which come in 3-packs for a great price.. but there are lots of other options. Also houses a ton of beneficial bacteria.
and some finer bonded filter material to finish/polish the water. Marineland makes the
MarineLand PA0100 -312-square inch- Bonded Pad which can be cut to fit.
I also have an older Walmart "Regent" filter on my 27 gallon Hex tank.. both that tank and the Regent filter were bought used... i had my doubts about the filter, but after hot-rodding it, it works amazingly well and holds a TON of beneficial bacteria, which is what you really want. Heck, a properly hot-rodded filter will easily hold 5 to 10 times the amount of beneficial bacteria that the bio-wheel can.
On both of them, I have also put a filter pre-sponge on the intake to further boost both filtering efficiency and biological filtration. I got them in
this 8-pack for $4.
Something else to consider is a quality air driven sponge filter. I use
these AquaPapa filters which also include additional biological filtration ceramic balls. I buy them in 2-packs, but they are also available individually. Just a little air flow from an air pump moves lots of water, and also provides aeration.
Originally Posted by Mad_Hatter
I need to invest in the siphon. I used to just stir things up before using a pitcher to change the water. The tanks nowhere near a window so it only gets the light from the hood (a CFL) and diffused ambient light.
Can light spectrum (a CFL for energy savings) contribute to the algae growth? Never thought of that until now...
It can.. different wavelengths definitely can trigger different behaviors and growth rates in plants, etc.. but in this case, I'd say it's more the AMOUNT and DURATION of light.