I feel like I'm tempting fate. Once again I have removed the power filter from the tank. I feel, though, that I can breathe a little easier this time around. I'll have a solid 4 hours to keep an eye on water conditions before I need to leave, and my wife will be home to do anything necessary soon after that.
In my mind, I KNOW that the power filter is doing more harm than good. It provides large particle filtration (so less items on the substrate) and it provides some flow in the tank. But with the cost of those two "good" things cause a big bad thing...
Power filters are great environments for aerobic bacteria - the bacteria needed to convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. However due to the flow contained within them, they are absolutely inhospitable to the bacteria that is necessary to complete the nitrogen cycle. Those bacteria need an anaerobic environment to live - like inside rock and such - out of the way of the flow. So the power filter continuously pumps out nitrates and due to a lack of anaerobic bacteria, that nitrate never gets converted to nitrogen.
I'll be keeping an eye on it. I may, just for my sanity's sake, perform a water change today or tomorrow. The water's OK, it's just that it helps me mentally :)
I have one concern: Since adding the new inhabitants, the ammonia levels are just now beginning to decrease. A necessary amount of the bacteria that allows that to happen reside in the power filter. With the filter removed, the levels of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates are going to rise until "replacement" bacteria grows to fill demand. I should plan on doing every-other-day water changes to avoid repeating my last tribulation, if indeed that is what caused out.
Guess I'll get one going now. I'll be able to work without worrying about it all day. I'll re-run the tests to have a baseline when I do.
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