Straight to the point Kevin. "you'll grow a brand new kind of bacteria" Setting up the AFS is the best move I've made in my 30 plus year fish keeping hobby. I have the best looking Discus, plant growth and water clarity and a bag of trusty old cat litter and your research made this possible. The Oscar tank is now going through the process and i've deliberately left the cyano / algae in the tank so I can document its demise over the coming weeks. I also now have plans in place to convert the new 6ft Plecostomus tank and add a BCB / AFS sump system. If there were a Nobel prize in the aquatic hobby, you Sir have earned it.
For many years I have learned that denitrification occurs in low oxygen. But I have always thought that the end product is nitrogen gas, not going back to ammonia and nitrite, as Dr. Novak indicates. I read that NO3 is the oxidizing agent in denitrification; hence, some food has to be oxidized to liberate N2 gas. Often the food is a sugar or alcohol or some other hydrocarbon. For many years I had attempted an anoxic filter (a term I now realize as applicable). I had devised slow flow and deep substrate or thick medium to achieve anaerobic condition and yet prohibit protein, as fish waste and excess food, from entering (otherwise H2S). I am excited about using natural cat clay liter and a source of iron; both new concepts to me. I sure will try this method.
Have you heard of turface. It's 18$ for a 50lbs bag. It's clay based. My professor and I use it with great success. How does this compare with kitty litter. Does it attract ions too?
In South America the least there is in water courses is nitrogen, high levels of nitrogen are related to the dry season - hence vegetation inactivity and degradation - and when the rains come the new water input from the mountains is colder and cleans rivers and lagoons from nitrates, nitrites and ammonia. This also determines the migration patterns - yes, caracids and cichlids migrate in the Orinoco and Amazon basins - to areas with high vegetation so arguably many of these fish live in areas with low nitrogen in dry season and move to more protected areas to breed, areas full of vegetation that because of their location upstream or around the main water courses can't possibly have too much nitrogen.
Is it possible to build one for these for a canister filter? I have a Fluval 406, getting ready to add a Fluval FX6 to my 75-gallon freshwater aquarium. I have 80 ppm of nitrates due to over stock and a bit of over feeding.
Hi Dr Novak! Question...I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. During a power outage lasting longer than say 15-20 minutes or greater, it’s a fact that all the bacteria in my biological filter will die off and turn to a poisonous sludge. Once the power is restored, the filter pump will then distribute this poisionous sludge into the display tank, and poison my fish. Im assuming the same thing happen to my BCB? What will I need to do then, or what process should you recommend? Btw...the BCB and plenum combination is working like manic! My Red Scribbled Discus are happy, happy, and very healthy! Thank you for your expertise in this subject.
Hello Dr. Novak Thank you for all your research and new information you've contributed to the aquarium community. Since you've started creating videos on UA-cam I've been intrigued and have started searching for more information on this kitty litter and laterite mixture of yours, using the aquarium fourms and the internet. And have found out that this is actually a popular substate and that the fired clay kitty litter is made mostly of Montmorillonite clay which has a very high CEC level which is what makes it such a great substrate, but has low iron content hence the added laterite. Although, it's also known to drop PH, KH, and GH drastically since it attacts in those minerals from the water atleast for a while until saturated. Have you ever noticed a drop in PH, KH, and GH while using the anoxi filter?
I'm very simple aquarium owner and have been for a long time. A 25 gallon planted tank (because it seemed like the right thing to do) with some Gourami, some Pleco (good-bye algae), a Buenos Aires Tetra with a nasty attitude (used to be 3) and some other little guys (used to be more). It's filtered by a Eheim Liberty 150 and I change half the water once a month. Now I want to go bigger and I want to get into this deeper after viewing yours and Jay's videos. But I don't get what a complete balanced aquarium of this size should include. Do I still need a filter with a plenum? Do I need to circulate the water somehow? How long should I keep it lit? I think a lot of people would benefit from an aggregation of all your knowledge into one video showing how an entry level guy like me should assemble one. Thanks for all your work, it is inspiring!
@Dr Novak this is amazing stuff you have on your channel. it truly deserves more subs :). Can you please tell me how to use kitty litter as a plant substrate? What kind of of kitty litter should be used? do we need to mix laterite or perlite in it? does it have to be clumping or the non clumping type? I have also tried getting your ebook on anoxic filtration on itunes but wasn't able to. It would be really nice if you could point me your eBook please? Please keep up the amazing work you are doing sir. Cheers!
Question : Do you just put kitty litter on the bottom? Can you put sand or gravel on top of kitty litter? Do you need to put philum on the bottom of tank? I don't have a pond only tanks.
This is amazing information. I'm going to try the cat litter +iron in a 5 gallon tank and document the vegetation growth. Thank you, for all your posts and information.
Cause the bacteria is Anaerobic. It thrives is lower oxygen and unless you do a really deep substrate you will not be able to get it to grow in the tank itself. It is much simpler to build the basket and have it in the sump. The kitty litter and the iron based substrate helps it to grow and the way the kitty litter is made attracts the positive ions in the water and keeps the ammonia in a state plants love to take in.
just dropping by to mention that i use fertilizers from JBL (a european brand) and they have an entire line that does not have nitrogen or phosphates in them. i do test my water and it never shows any amount of phosphates, do i have to add it in this case if i want to achieve more plant growth?
Hi, No water change for 5 months? How about pheromones build up for 5 months? Pheromones hinder fish growth right? Does anoxic filtration filter pheromones too?
3:40 "plants do not use nitrogen" This is just flat out wrong. How else will they grow? To make proteins they need nitrogen. The kois are fed enough food so that the nitrogen need of the plants is met. If your fish food does not provide enough nitrogen, you need to use fertilizers. Simple as that. If there are hobbyists with 40+ ppm nitrogen, they either 1. overfeed their fish or have too many fish for the plants and biological filter to handle their waste or 2. add too much nitrogen fertilizer. The companies tell you what is in their fertilizers so that you can decide how much you need. It's not some conspiracy theory or scam. You are feeding into a narrative that just breeds paranoia and you try to put yourself on a pedestal as a beacon of knowledge that will enlighten everybody. I'm writing this comment because I don't want people to think that just because someone calls himself a doctor they should blindly believe what they say. Just like they shouldn't believe me on my word; find out for yourself.
I could be wrong but I think he meant that they don't need any extra nitrogen coming from the tabs. Would be kind of absurd to say they don't use nitrogen?
I think he's referring to the Law of Minimums and how nitrogen isn't typically a limiting factor, and how Ammonia is primarily used as energy because it takes less energy, aside maybe from Peak Photosynthesis that would be like 3 hours after the lights go on
If you watched the entire video and learn how to listen, he mentioned plants use ammonia and u just need to add a bit of trace elements. He mentions that you dont need root tabs for the extra nitrogen and phosphate because there is enough phosphate coming from fish food and the ammonia is a source of nitrogen. I dont think you should js quite "plants do not use nitrogen" and leave it at that without watching the video or hate this man for trying to explain his 30+ years of research on anoxic filtration just because he has a PhD and a different idea of approaching this hobby. Maybe he said some things that are kinda arrogant like "companies are tricking you" or something like that, but his style of filtration is legit.
Nice video and good info. Not all water across the states are the same . Your plant mass is very low compared to people who need "fertilizer" . Your tank is what's called low tech . Looks nice .
I’m a little confused you said 7 oo something tds but the video showed conductivity microsemens mesurement which are two completely different things ??? Right ?? 700 divided by 2 would give the correct total dissolved solids , right your pen Is set to microsemens tds would be measured in pp right ? Sorry I have a thing called assbergers and it’s confusing me really bad ...
I recommend the channel Mikolji which is superb material about freshwater biota and about Venezuelan freshwater fish, it's in Spanish though but you will see what is the reality of tropical fish and why they have the colors they have.
Being a researcher and product developer in the pond and aquarium industry for 30 years, I can assure everyone that there is no conspiracy to keep hobbyists in the dark about filtration. This type of filtration has been known and discussed in the industry forever. It's just the consumer's resistance to view a water garden as a biological treatment plant. When retailers discuss such concepts you can watch the customer's eye roll back in their head. Cool story, but it is nothing the industry didn't know about.
Can you do Anoxic filter with Canister? I have a canister with black blasting sand and stocked with fish and plants. Is there anything I can do to curb my fert addiction?
Dr. Novak, When the Heterotrophic bacteria steals oxygen from nitrates and phosphate, what happens to the nitrates and phosphates? Are they reduced or transformed into something else?
It is better to say plants do not need any more nitrogen than the livestock provides; plants certainly need nitrogen. The fact that in most tanks the livestock provides far more nitrogen than the plants need is well known amount knowledgeable aquarists, who seek to reduce the nitrate in the water.
A plenum will add in the movement of water into and out of the substrate so Nitrogen is more easily available to the root system. a BCB will aid in the reduction of Nitrates in the system to N2.
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9miVG2xT5jY/mqdefault.jpg)
Straight to the point Kevin. "you'll grow a brand new kind of bacteria" Setting up the AFS is the best move I've made in my 30 plus year fish keeping hobby. I have the best looking Discus, plant growth and water clarity and a bag of trusty old cat litter and your research made this possible. The Oscar tank is now going through the process and i've deliberately left the cyano / algae in the tank so I can document its demise over the coming weeks. I also now have plans in place to convert the new 6ft Plecostomus tank and add a BCB / AFS sump system.
If there were a Nobel prize in the aquatic hobby, you Sir have earned it.
Can you please define AFS? Thanks!
@@Tindomul1of9 anoxic filtration system
For many years I have learned that denitrification occurs in low oxygen. But I have always thought that the end product is nitrogen gas, not going back to ammonia and nitrite, as Dr. Novak indicates.
I read that NO3 is the oxidizing agent in denitrification; hence, some food has to be oxidized to liberate N2 gas. Often the food is a sugar or alcohol or some other hydrocarbon.
For many years I had attempted an anoxic filter (a term I now realize as applicable). I had devised slow flow and deep substrate or thick medium to achieve anaerobic condition and yet prohibit protein, as fish waste and excess food, from entering (otherwise H2S). I am excited about using natural cat clay liter and a source of iron; both new concepts to me. I sure will try this method.
That's your 10 years of research free for the hobbyist - Many thanks! 👏👌
Dr Novak, could I mix cat litter and laterite and use it as my substrate and put it over a plenum?
Have you heard of turface. It's 18$ for a 50lbs bag. It's clay based. My professor and I use it with great success. How does this compare with kitty litter. Does it attract ions too?
Having the substrate as kitty litter ... Hmm ... I might try that in another aquarium of mine
The kitty litter should only be an additive in small amounts to a Plenum but not the entire substrate.
In South America the least there is in water courses is nitrogen, high levels of nitrogen are related to the dry season - hence vegetation inactivity and degradation - and when the rains come the new water input from the mountains is colder and cleans rivers and lagoons from nitrates, nitrites and ammonia. This also determines the migration patterns - yes, caracids and cichlids migrate in the Orinoco and Amazon basins - to areas with high vegetation so arguably many of these fish live in areas with low nitrogen in dry season and move to more protected areas to breed, areas full of vegetation that because of their location upstream or around the main water courses can't possibly have too much nitrogen.
Is it possible to build one for these for a canister filter? I have a Fluval 406, getting ready to add a Fluval FX6 to my 75-gallon freshwater aquarium. I have 80 ppm of nitrates due to over stock and a bit of over feeding.
Hi Dr Novak! Question...I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. During a power outage lasting longer than say 15-20 minutes or greater, it’s a fact that all the bacteria in my biological filter will die off and turn to a poisonous sludge. Once the power is restored, the filter pump will then distribute this poisionous sludge into the display tank, and poison my fish. Im assuming the same thing happen to my BCB? What will I need to do then, or what process should you recommend? Btw...the BCB and plenum combination is working like manic! My Red Scribbled Discus are happy, happy, and very healthy! Thank you for your expertise in this subject.
You might get your message clearer if you answered questions. Its not that hard Prof.
Hello Dr. Novak
Thank you for all your research and new information you've contributed to the aquarium community. Since you've started creating videos on UA-cam I've been intrigued and have started searching for more information on this kitty litter and laterite mixture of yours, using the aquarium fourms and the internet. And have found out that this is actually a popular substate and that the fired clay kitty litter is made mostly of Montmorillonite clay which has a very high CEC level which is what makes it such a great substrate, but has low iron content hence the added laterite. Although, it's also known to drop PH, KH, and GH drastically since it attacts in those minerals from the water atleast for a while until saturated.
Have you ever noticed a drop in PH, KH, and GH while using the anoxi filter?
I'm very simple aquarium owner and have been for a long time. A 25 gallon planted tank (because it seemed like the right thing to do) with some Gourami, some Pleco (good-bye algae), a Buenos Aires Tetra with a nasty attitude (used to be 3) and some other little guys (used to be more). It's filtered by a Eheim Liberty 150 and I change half the water once a month. Now I want to go bigger and I want to get into this deeper after viewing yours and Jay's videos.
But I don't get what a complete balanced aquarium of this size should include.
Do I still need a filter with a plenum?
Do I need to circulate the water somehow?
How long should I keep it lit?
I think a lot of people would benefit from an aggregation of all your knowledge into one video showing how an entry level guy like me should assemble one.
Thanks for all your work, it is inspiring!
What's your opinion of Tom barr?
Holy Crap! My mind is officially blown. Do you offer classes on this?
@Dr Novak this is amazing stuff you have on your channel. it truly deserves more subs :). Can you please tell me how to use kitty litter as a plant substrate? What kind of of kitty litter should be used? do we need to mix laterite or perlite in it? does it have to be clumping or the non clumping type? I have also tried getting your ebook on anoxic filtration on itunes but wasn't able to. It would be really nice if you could point me your eBook please? Please keep up the amazing work you are doing sir. Cheers!
Question : Do you just put kitty litter on the bottom? Can you put sand or gravel on top of kitty litter? Do you need to put philum on the bottom of tank? I don't have a pond only tanks.
I dont understand the kois produce nitrates so the plants take this ... or not?
The koi produce ammonia, any nitrate is from the work of aerobic bacteria turning ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate.
I thought the plants took nitrates out that's why I put them in there
This is amazing information. I'm going to try the cat litter +iron in a 5 gallon tank and document the vegetation growth. Thank you, for all your posts and information.
Glad it was helpful!
What horrible for me is my water out my tap had 40 ppm of Nitrate out the tap here in San Antonio texas
That is really bad> sorry to hear that.
Kevin, why didn't you put kitty litter and some laterite in your substrate above the undergravel filter if it is so great at the ammonium attraction?
Cause the bacteria is Anaerobic. It thrives is lower oxygen and unless you do a really deep substrate you will not be able to get it to grow in the tank itself. It is much simpler to build the basket and have it in the sump. The kitty litter and the iron based substrate helps it to grow and the way the kitty litter is made attracts the positive ions in the water and keeps the ammonia in a state plants love to take in.
Thanks for posting I can’t wait to try this. Do you cycle this type of bacteria the same way?
Great information. Will anoxic filter reduce the diatom and cyanobacteria in a fresh water tank?
Are heterotrophic facultative anaerobic bacteria found naturally such as in soil or in most aquariums? Do they have to be introduced deliberately?
All tanks have them but just no in the number that really benefit the hobbiest.
just dropping by to mention that i use fertilizers from JBL (a european brand) and they have an entire line that does not have nitrogen or phosphates in them.
i do test my water and it never shows any amount of phosphates, do i have to add it in this case if i want to achieve more plant growth?
So how do you do the filter?
hi
in my country (Chile) people use something call bentonita or sanitary sand thar is the same with different name, its the same that kitty litter??
If it is non-clumping you may want to give it a try.
Hi,
No water change for 5 months? How about pheromones build up for 5 months? Pheromones hinder fish growth right? Does anoxic filtration filter pheromones too?
Running activated carbon MAY do something for that, but I have no way of testing water for pheromone buildup haha
3:40 "plants do not use nitrogen"
This is just flat out wrong. How else will they grow? To make proteins they need nitrogen. The kois are fed enough food so that the nitrogen need of the plants is met. If your fish food does not provide enough nitrogen, you need to use fertilizers. Simple as that. If there are hobbyists with 40+ ppm nitrogen, they either 1. overfeed their fish or have too many fish for the plants and biological filter to handle their waste or 2. add too much nitrogen fertilizer.
The companies tell you what is in their fertilizers so that you can decide how much you need. It's not some conspiracy theory or scam.
You are feeding into a narrative that just breeds paranoia and you try to put yourself on a pedestal as a beacon of knowledge that will enlighten everybody. I'm writing this comment because I don't want people to think that just because someone calls himself a doctor they should blindly believe what they say. Just like they shouldn't believe me on my word; find out for yourself.
I could be wrong but I think he meant that they don't need any extra nitrogen coming from the tabs. Would be kind of absurd to say they don't use nitrogen?
I think he's referring to the Law of Minimums and how nitrogen isn't typically a limiting factor, and how Ammonia is primarily used as energy because it takes less energy, aside maybe from Peak Photosynthesis that would be like 3 hours after the lights go on
If you watched the entire video and learn how to listen, he mentioned plants use ammonia and u just need to add a bit of trace elements. He mentions that you dont need root tabs for the extra nitrogen and phosphate because there is enough phosphate coming from fish food and the ammonia is a source of nitrogen. I dont think you should js quite "plants do not use nitrogen" and leave it at that without watching the video or hate this man for trying to explain his 30+ years of research on anoxic filtration just because he has a PhD and a different idea of approaching this hobby. Maybe he said some things that are kinda arrogant like "companies are tricking you" or something like that, but his style of filtration is legit.
Can this be used in a saltwater tank
Nice video and good info. Not all water across the states are the same . Your plant mass is very low compared to people who need "fertilizer" . Your tank is what's called low tech . Looks nice .
I’m a little confused you said 7 oo something tds but the video showed conductivity microsemens mesurement which are two completely different things ??? Right ?? 700 divided by 2 would give the correct total dissolved solids , right your pen Is set to microsemens tds would be measured in pp right ? Sorry I have a thing called assbergers and it’s confusing me really bad ...
It was 200 something not 700
Got Asperger's too mate, often comes with dyslexia.
I recommend the channel Mikolji which is superb material about freshwater biota and about Venezuelan freshwater fish, it's in Spanish though but you will see what is the reality of tropical fish and why they have the colors they have.
I would like to try this out
Does kitty litter work in saltwater aquariums
I always found it weird. There are so many people on UA-cam about the nitrogen cycle & I'm like you are forgetting about the anaerobic bacteria.
insane
love it
Being a researcher and product developer in the pond and aquarium industry for 30 years, I can assure everyone that there is no conspiracy to keep hobbyists in the dark about filtration. This type of filtration has been known and discussed in the industry forever. It's just the consumer's resistance to view a water garden as a biological treatment plant. When retailers discuss such concepts you can watch the customer's eye roll back in their head. Cool story, but it is nothing the industry didn't know about.
Can you do Anoxic filter with Canister?
I have a canister with black blasting sand and stocked with fish and plants. Is there anything I can do to curb my fert addiction?
As it is right now if my nktrates drop under 10 and phosphates < .5 then plants get messed up.
Dr. Novak, When the Heterotrophic bacteria steals oxygen from nitrates and phosphate, what happens to the nitrates and phosphates? Are they reduced or transformed into something else?
yes, NO3 and NO2 become Nitrogen and PO3-4 become phosphorus which don't harm your fish. CMIIW
Denitrification N2
It is better to say plants do not need any more nitrogen than the livestock provides; plants certainly need nitrogen.
The fact that in most tanks the livestock provides far more nitrogen than the plants need is well known amount knowledgeable aquarists, who seek to reduce the nitrate in the water.
A plenum will add in the movement of water into and out of the substrate so Nitrogen is more easily available to the root system. a BCB will aid in the reduction of Nitrates in the system to N2.
All this conflicting information from different videos is mind spinning. And how in the heck does kitty litter not cloud the water? Sounds messy.
Are your serious?
You need to ramble less and get to the point. Basically use kitty litter