[macclellan]

I'm never gonna hear the end of it though, if I finally cave and get a UV, am I?! :help:

Just get a UV filter and tell us it's to eliminate livestock pathogens...ich prevention etc. We'll believe you!
And then, hey wait, the green water disappeared!
Good old Principle of Double Effect! :fish:

 

[Church]

I've never fully understood why people are so "purist" that they are against the idea of using UV filters as a treatment for GW. They're always like "That's just putting a band-aid on the situation, you should find the source of the problem, bla bla bla..."

And I don't disagree with that sentiment, but come on, what's the big deal? UV filters make the GW go away in a matter of HOURS, so why not use it? What if you have a condition where the GW will always come back? Like if you're tank is in a bright, south facing room with a huge sliding glass door or something? BIG DEAL! The tank looks good there, right? So why move it? Just leave a UV filter running all the time, you don't get GW, and you get to have a crystal clear tank!

I just don't understand why it's such a taboo to use treatments in places where preventive measures are either not desirable or not possible.

Laura, I think you should use a UV filter, and you should be PROUD of it!

 

[lauraleellbp]

I'm just one of those people that don't like UVs... I don't like the idea of all the other things in the water column that it's killing that maybe I don't want dead... All the nifty little microorganisms that are in our tanks...

I actually think it's cool when a filter gets colonized with worms, and when you clean it and the worms come shooting out, the fish all get a little feast... a UV sterilizer would kill them. (I'd have to set one up on the output of my canister since my Hydor is on the input tubing.)

It's a last resort. I don't feel like wasting $50-100 on a piece of equipment I don't really want. I can think of 100 other things I'd rather spend that $ on! LOL

 

[lescarpentier]

(I'd have to set one up on the output of my canister since my Hydor is on the input tubing.)

An inline heater should always be installed on the output line of your filter.This is explained in the instructions.

 

[monkeyruler90]

i agree with laura
you have to find the cause not just try and cover it up

 

[BiscuitSlayer]

i agree with laura
you have to find the cause not just try and cover it up

I agree with finding the root cause to any algae issue other than GW. There are two things that it comes from:

Amonia spike
New tank syndrome


I can see not using the UV sterilizer because it is not what you want to spend money on. I own one and I have pretty much no use for it (at the moment). If I were LL though, I would have a use for it.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Actually, I've never even plugged the Hydor in, and probably won't ever plug it in if I don't ever put discus in this tank... so that's not so much an issue ATM. I was about to say that the Hydor came installed in the intake tubing with my XP2, but then realized that when I put it together I supposed I could have put the tubing on either side, intake or output... DUH :hihi: So I guess if I ever plan to plug the durn thing in I should switch the tubing around... I'll have to remember that. Thanks, Les.

 

[BiscuitSlayer]

Actually, I've never even plugged the Hydor in, and probably won't ever plug it in if I don't ever put discus in this tank... so that's not so much an issue ATM. I was about to say that the Hydor came installed in the intake tubing with my XP2, but then realized that when I put it together I supposed I could have put the tubing on either side, intake or output... DUH :hihi: So I guess if I ever plan to plug the durn thing in I should switch the tubing around... I'll have to remember that. Thanks, Les.

Actually, you might want to switch it anyway. The point of putting it on the outflow is to keep the water flow from getting restricted by filling up with debris and gunk. On or off, it could have the same impact.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Ugh.

That sucks. Makes sense though, I suppose. The things you don't think about when you don't use heaters for years and years... LOL

Oh well, guess I gotta do what I gotta do...

 

[BiscuitSlayer]

How long have you had the Hydor on the wrong side?

It would be interesting to see just how clogged up it really gets on the inflow side. I am thinking it would be somewhat negligable as long as you kept up tank maintenace. It would be an interesting thing to report on though.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Ever since I set the tank up... so April?

I'll let you know what it looks like (if I can see anything?) when I take it all apart.

I so don't want to take this all apart... *sigh*

 

[lescarpentier]

The point of putting it on the outflow is to keep the water flow from getting restricted by filling up with debris and gunk. On or off, it could have the same impact.

I really don't think that this is what the folks at Hydor were concerned with.
When it is correctly installed in the vertical position there is no possibility for any debris to accumulate with this design,so restriction is not the issue.The issue is with the protein deposits which accumulate in the intake hose which would be difficult to remove from the inside of the heater,and could damage it in the process.

I so don't want to take this all apart... *sigh*

No problem...Have your husband do it.:icon_wink

 

[rasetsu]

I've never fully understood why people are so "purist" that they are against the idea of using UV filters as a treatment for GW. They're always like "That's just putting a band-aid on the situation, you should find the source of the problem, bla bla bla..."

And I don't disagree with that sentiment, but come on, what's the big deal? UV filters make the GW go away in a matter of HOURS, so why not use it? What if you have a condition where the GW will always come back? Like if you're tank is in a bright, south facing room with a huge sliding glass door or something? BIG DEAL! The tank looks good there, right? So why move it? Just leave a UV filter running all the time, you don't get GW, and you get to have a crystal clear tank!

I just don't understand why it's such a taboo to use treatments in places where preventive measures are either not desirable or not possible.

Laura, I think you should use a UV filter, and you should be PROUD of it!

I feel the same way. We are all totally playing God already anyways. Zapping the water with UV isn't any more unnatural than overdosing with Excel. Get a removable in-tank UV like the Submariner so you can zap for 24 hours and remove it or just switch it off. The UV isn't going to kill all the critters you want unless they actually pass through the sterilizer which they won't all do.

 

[wearsbunnyslippers]

I agree with finding the root cause to any algae issue other than GW. There are two things that it comes from:

Amonia spike
New tank syndrome

anyone ever seen a swimming pool that was blue one day, turn green the next, normally after a thunderstorm? i dont know if this is from acid rain that alters the ph to somewhere that algae really like, or if it is nutrients being washed into the pool, but it is amazing how quickly so much water can turn green.

green water in an aquarium normally clears up on its own, after the algal bloom has used up more of the available nutrients than can sustain it, so if you have had green water for a while there are probably excess nutrients that are still sustaining the algae, are you overfeeding?

adding excel or a uv filter will solve your problem as long as you keep up to using them, but the bloom is likely to come back as soon as you stop, like the people say, find the cause and treat that, but if you are tired of looking at pea soup then try the uv or excel...

 

[lauraleellbp]

Soooo Over on my "original" journal thread at TFH, we got to discussing what is different about this tank versus my other tanks, since I've never had GW or the fish death issues during water changes on any of them like on this tank... and other than the placement of the tank (which is still a possibility, being that close to the bay window even though I keep the blinds down) the only thing different is that I used peat in the substrate on this one, and that I'm using WonderGro fert tabs that probably got stirred up when I moved the kleiner bar a while ago (though I had the GW before that).

I read through the indgredients of the peat pretty carefully before I bought it. The bag ONLY said 100% Canadian sphagnum moss, and nothing about ANY additives... but I'm wondering, now. There has to be a source of nutrients in this tank, somewhere, that keeps feeding the GW...

My ammonia and nitrItes have never read anything other than 0 ppm since tank setup. My nitrAtes have fluctuated between 0ppm and 10ppm depending on how recent the last water change was (as of yesterday are at 0ppm). pH ranges between 7.0 - 7.4 depending on how recent the last water change was as well, and yesterday was 7.2. I shot off an email a while back to API to see if their test kits read ammonium, but never got a reply.

I had to regenerate my Purigen after only 2 weeks. I'd assumed that this was due to the massive tannins that have kept coming off this batch of Manzanita, but now I'm wondering... If there were additives in this peat that weren't listed on the bag, this would explain quite a bit.

 

[BiscuitSlayer]

The issue is with the protein deposits which accumulate in the intake hose which would be difficult to remove from the inside of the heater,and could damage it in the process.

Close enough.

 

[NstyN8]

What have you been doing for water changes? Anything massive?

 

[lauraleellbp]

What have you been doing for water changes? Anything massive?

Not since the last drain/refill, before the fish were added. I haven't done any PWC at all since adding the fish, so none in the past 2 weeks.

Haven't taken down the XP2 yet, either... I may just wait till I get the new Eheim set up and simply do that all at once.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Well, I won't be ordering any more fish through BoxLot. They rather abruptly decided that they weren't going to offer me any sort of store credit after all (said it wasn't worth their time), and also said they were too busy to work with me to coordinate what day to mail out the next fish shipment so that I would be able to make plans to receive them. Apparently they'd prefer to do business only with businesses placing larger orders than the average hobbyist. A pity, and I'm rather miffed on them going back on what they'd originally said, but I suppose understandable as a whole. I do, however, need someplace that will be able to work with me on shipping- no way I'm risking leaving fish sitting on my front porch during Florida summer heat!

On the good news front, however, my Kleiner bar flower has reached the surface of the tank!

And the girls were "posing" so here they are as well:

 

[mizu-chan]

Sucks that you couldn't work things out with them. Best of luck finding a new source!

btw -- Your dogs are adorable