I'm going to set up a 10 gallon tank with plenum. For the bubbler i'm using the CO2 line. One bubble per second. I think it will do the job, after all i just want to move a tiny bit thru the plenum.
Just go to this website and read my blog. It basically has everything in it that the book has and it's for free off the Internet.. anoxicfiltrationsystem.blogspot.com
When I first cut down my intake tube I had it cut down as low as I could get it, barely bubbling. After 2 weeks I developed a black scum on the bottom sides and gravel around the ugf. I figured there was not enough water being pulled thru the UGF. I increased the bubbler flow twice until the scum started disappearing. It is gone now but I keep my eyes on it. Thanks for more detailed info it helps a lot.
I'm using an airstone bubbler placed at the mouth of the penn plax riser covered with 1/2" fluval stratum, 1/2" kitty litter, 1/4" seachem flourite, then 3" of fluval stratum, 1/2" coarse gravel to keep the plants from dislodging. My best guess is that the air pump is lifting around 5-10 gal/hr based on specs and positioning. The new 20 gallon tall tank took around 3 weeks to cycle. Nitrates dropped down from 35ppm to 0ppm a week later. My friends are still surprised that I only needed to top off the tank with DI water. Now I have to figure out what to do with the 20lbs of leftover kitty litter. Thank you for such an economical and maintenance free method of tank keeping.
Also with the power head. I'd use the little air tube that it pulls in air to make bubbles. Run that line to the plenum and you could adjust the flow with the little plastic flow control you'd use for a bubbler. Last the hard the motor has to work pulls more amps. The easier the pump runs the less power it uses.
I originally thought that the size of the tube 3'' dictates the amount of water it moves regardless of the pressure of the pump. On my goldfish tank i was running a 3/L minute pump at full power and my nitrates were 10ppm they haven't increased nor decreased below 10ppm so I've turned the pump down to see what happens. I will say though 10ppm for a goldfish tank is still low, so no complaints here. :)
Thanks for sharing this and also the tip on slowing down the powerhead and clarification that it will not hurt the pump. I've used a thin uplift tube on my plenum going up slightly above the water surface. However, I've kept the aerator slow so it keeps the flow to a slow trickle dripping back into the tank onto the water surface creating a slight agitation of the water surface. I hope that should be adequate. Its only about a month since installing the plenum so still waiting for the plenum to mature. For the plenum, I used a plastic egg crate with open ended slitted cups and filled the cups with kitty litter, placed a net screen over it and covered it with gravel/sand mix to about 1½ inches.
I am glad that you made this video, I always had this doubt about how fast should we moving the water I know you said slow but this is more detailed, thank you. 👍
Hi Kevin, It is also correct to say that the plenum will work with no bubbles, once the substrate size is 2-5mm and at least 100mm deep, the water gap underneath the substrate is enough to prevent oxygen levels dropping too low. The nitrate will be drawn into the plenum regardless. This plenum principle has been used in some marine aquarium for years. Great video, keep up the good work!
this answer has definitely helped my process, i disconnected the air pump to see how it would work and what do you know now i'm under 5 ppm of nitrates consistently thank you!
I had to replace my old filter pump recently so I went with one of those more powerful internal power head filters with the sponge inside a casing attached to the bottom. It pulls water from the bottom as well as the sides so I placed it directly over the top of my uplift tube so a little water gets pulled through it as well. Ever since I switched to the bigger pump it I've noticed my plants are putting on huge new leaves now and shooting up more stalks from the base indicating that their roots are growing a massive healthy root structure for these types of plants. Maybe it wasn't moving enough water through before with my old pump because I have a very fine mesh cloth over my plenum so I would need a bit more pull to move water down through the slits of my homemade filter plate (it has more resistance then an open grate with gravel). I will continue to monitor the aquarium's little ecosystem and when I see positive results I know I'm doing something right. 👍🏻😊
My point exactly. Each hobbyist Hass to determine how they set up their Plenum and if the water flow is not fast enough they'll have to increase it little by little just like you did.
I have a 65 gal with two Oscars and one pleco.No plants. A UGF with two power heads, and a cannister for mechanical Filtration, and a second fzone with bcb homemade basket of your design connected to the discharge side of the mechanical cannister. I added the fzone about a month ago. I test the water bi- weekly. I tested this morning. 0Am, 0 No2, 40ppm No3, ph 7.2, temp 83. These readings have remained constant since adding the fish back in early April. About how long does it take to start seeing a reduction in No3? Had I found your channel sooner, I would have built a higher plenum with maybe some biohome balls underneath, only bc I have about 15 kgs of biohome on hand. The gravel drpth WAS a uniform 21/2 inches but the Oscars like to rearrange everything constantly!! They're incredibly strong fish! Thanks for all your info and work you put into your channel.
If you're using the under gravel filter as a Plenum then you need to slow down its output considerably. This is the mistake they made in the 70s by adding too much flow through the under gravel filter when it should've been slow down to 5 to 10 gallons per hour.
I keep cichlids too. To avoid them digging all the way to the ugf, I put most of my substate down, then put a layer of plastic mesh down that covered all of it, then another layer of substrate over that, along with all the rocks and wood. When they dig, they can't get past the mesh and the substrate beneath it gets to stay in place and continue working as filter media. But like Dr. Novak said, the flow should be slow.
@@hardybryan that's a great idea with the screen. I'm getting ready to start another cichlids tank, and I will definitely do that. Too late for the Oscars now. The tank is very clean. I'm patiently waiting for the fzone bcb to start reducing thr nitrate. One thing is for sure in this hobby.... You gotta have patience!! Thanks!!
Just the video I needed! I've set up my 250L (55G) tank last october, but I haven't been able to get the nitrates down. I used one of those USB air pumps, and thought that the flow was too lów. Now I've put in a control valve and roughly halved the flow to see what that does. I've done the same for tanks with the same problem. Obviously now that I think about it, if the flow was too low, I would've smelled it.. I was looking at getting an LA-28 linear piston pump, but with such a low airflow needed, it would be absolutely overkill for my tanks, even though I have 11 tanks (most are 40-80L, 10-20G). I dislike the fact that regular air pumps tend to get noisy and seemingly less effective over time. A linear piston pump would solve that, but the ones I've found are way too powerful, and probably meant for ponds. Does anyone know if there are smaller linear piston pumps out there? Or am I stuck with a bunch of noisy pumps?
I would like to have a go at making a bcb basket but can't find any media to use here in Australia.We can't get the kitty litter you use.I can get seachem flourite.
I use SafeTSorb with great results, but I'm in the US. I looked it up for Australia and it looks like it's very expensive there, about $560A ($390USD) for a bag I can get here for $8. Perhaps a clay oil-dry product from a local auto parts store. As long as the granules don't turn to mud and it doesn't hurt the fish.
I was wondering if flow could be skipped in a higher flow well oxygenated tank? I have just set up a 45 gallon system with a sump following your prescriptions. Good job.
I am going to be setting up a 650 (96x36x44) American cichlid tank. I have about a decade of experience with plenums as described by Jaubert/Goemans in salt. This is my first go with fresh. My question is how many up lift tubes is needed for a given area? For my 8x3’ area is one enough? Thanks so much for all the great info!
Great information, i have a couple of ways to measure and regulate the water flow trough the plenum. I will send you an email when the tank and filter is running to show you. Hope you take your time to look at it. Best regards Jon-A
Good afternoon Dr Novak. I bought a second hand tank it holds 80 litres of water. So about 18 gallons. A fairly small tank. I have made my first ever Plenum. I have put a few plants in the tank along with my substrate. I put an air stone in to the uplift tube and it is creating a lot of bubbles. Can I slow it down by adding a couple of no return valves ,or do I need to buy a new smaller air stone like the one you show us on this video? Also this tank has a small sponge filter with a bar with 5 holes in it which blows out little " rivers " of water. I will let things keep working for a while. Whilst my 6 goldfish are small I am bringing them in for the winter. Do you think my set up sounds OK Dr Novak. I would hate to lose my fish by my own incompetence? Your book looks amazing but I don't have apple unfortunately.
Hi Dr Novak, thank you for this video. I have a question: since Seachem Flourite is already mostly made of clay, is it still necessary or beneficial to mix it with kitty litter? Or can I just use it on its own without kitty litter?
I wish to make a BCB basket but as I am in India, products such as non clumping kitty litter are unavailable, even if they are most are not fragrant free. Laterite is also unavailable. I was wondering instead of the kitty litter could I use the clay balls used in hydroponics and instead of laterite could I use chelated iron powder? Would they work? As the clay balls are inert are they capable of attracting the negatively charged ions?
The only trouble with the clay balls that they use the hydroponics is, they are so big. However, you can place some of them underneath the Plenum to help aid in anoxic conditions. Just use a smaller substrate for your Plenum even if it's not clay and the platinum should work if it's slow enough but yet water, still moving through it.
I have found that it has a wide range. My 20G long turns over approximately 4 times a day (about 6 hours), my 5.5 gallon is about the same speed so it turns over about 20 times a day, and my 1 gallon jar turns over at least 50 times a day. All 3 of these tanks have gone anoxic and are quite heavily stocked, or in the case of my 1 gallon jar it has heavily fed fry. I use SafeTSorb as my only substrate so far.
I have plenums running in all my tanks now. I have no way of calculating the flow rate through them. They are all running on air stones with 1 inch tubes, which I cut down to just an inch or so above the substrate line. I used flow valves on the air lines and turned them down to the point where they didn't push air at all and slowly opened them up until they just started pushing air through. Do I need to find a way to measure the flow? And does it really matter since I'm not sure how I would make them slower?
It sounds to me you were on the right track. Turn up the air valve into you just see the bubbles coming out and start from there to move water through the 1 inch tubes. It sounds like you're doing everything correctly.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thanks. It's only been about 2.5 months since I set them up, so I'm doubtful they're fully 'cycled' with the anoxic bacteria, but 3 of them have BCBs running as well and they've been soaking up all the ammonium anyway. I also have plants growing out of the tanks (pothos and peace lillies) so I haven't actually seen any readings for any nitrogen forms at all. I can't say which are doing the most work, but I'm loving the results regardless. Thanks again for responding and giving out all this help and advice.
This is great but a question I've had is what about tank size? If the bottom of your tank is 72x18 inches one lift tube doesn't seem like it would be enough compared to the smaller tanks you have talked about. I want to do this in my aquariums and this question is all that's stopping me. I've used bcb bags and baskets instead but wild like a plenum.
All you are trying to do is create a zone where the oxygen level is 0.5-2.0 ppm Above this and your bacteria will not break nitrate to nitrogen and oxygen. You can’t be too slow with the flow, the water plenum underneath is sufficient to prevent oxygen dropping below 0.5ppm Too fast and you will not get the right conditions
What I suggest as a role of thumb is preparing the plenum (to avoid turning down later) with an uplift tube every 20" to 30" in the length of a tank, start using the one in the corner and cap (look for tube plastic furniture cap) the others, if you figure it out is too low flow, you open another lift tube.
I'm going to set up a 10 gallon tank with plenum. For the bubbler i'm using the CO2 line. One bubble per second. I think it will do the job, after all i just want to move a tiny bit thru the plenum.
Hi Dr. Kevin, regarding your book is difficult for me to get it, I don't have Apple devices, could you make it available as PDF?
Good suggestion!
Would go to whatever website it is on.
Plz post in Description of this or new videos..
Thx again Doc!
Just go to this website and read my blog. It basically has everything in it that the book has and it's for free off the Internet..
anoxicfiltrationsystem.blogspot.com
When I first cut down my intake tube I had it cut down as low as I could get it, barely bubbling. After 2 weeks I developed a black scum on the bottom sides and gravel around the ugf. I figured there was not enough water being pulled thru the UGF. I increased the bubbler flow twice until the scum started disappearing. It is gone now but I keep my eyes on it. Thanks for more detailed info it helps a lot.
but, but... if they slow down the flow, they won't be able to claim de-nitrification is impossible!?
"They" love setting it up wrong then claiming it doesn't work.
I'm using an airstone bubbler placed at the mouth of the penn plax riser covered with 1/2" fluval stratum, 1/2" kitty litter, 1/4" seachem flourite, then 3" of fluval stratum, 1/2" coarse gravel to keep the plants from dislodging. My best guess is that the air pump is lifting around 5-10 gal/hr based on specs and positioning. The new 20 gallon tall tank took around 3 weeks to cycle. Nitrates dropped down from 35ppm to 0ppm a week later. My friends are still surprised that I only needed to top off the tank with DI water. Now I have to figure out what to do with the 20lbs of leftover kitty litter.
Thank you for such an economical and maintenance free method of tank keeping.
The extra kitty litter is for more tanks of course, lol.
Also with the power head. I'd use the little air tube that it pulls in air to make bubbles. Run that line to the plenum and you could adjust the flow with the little plastic flow control you'd use for a bubbler. Last the hard the motor has to work pulls more amps. The easier the pump runs the less power it uses.
I originally thought that the size of the tube 3'' dictates the amount of water it moves regardless of the pressure of the pump. On my goldfish tank i was running a 3/L minute pump at full power and my nitrates were 10ppm they haven't increased nor decreased below 10ppm so I've turned the pump down to see what happens. I will say though 10ppm for a goldfish tank is still low, so no complaints here. :)
Thanks for sharing this and also the tip on slowing down the powerhead and clarification that it will not hurt the pump.
I've used a thin uplift tube on my plenum going up slightly above the water surface. However, I've kept the aerator slow so it keeps the flow to a slow trickle dripping back into the tank onto the water surface creating a slight agitation of the water surface. I hope that should be adequate. Its only about a month since installing the plenum so still waiting for the plenum to mature.
For the plenum, I used a plastic egg crate with open ended slitted cups and filled the cups with kitty litter, placed a net screen over it and covered it with gravel/sand mix to about 1½ inches.
I am glad that you made this video, I always had this doubt about how fast should we moving the water I know you said slow but this is more detailed, thank you. 👍
You are a wealth of information. Always to the point. Excellent!
I appreciate that!
Thx for improving the video style here.
Half the length with concise info..
Your technology will spread faster this way.
Mahalos!
Great that API sells Laterite, now. 😁🐌🌻
Petco, Amazon and eBay have undergravel plate sets.
Much appreciated!
Much appreciated!
Hi Kevin,
It is also correct to say that the plenum will work with no bubbles, once the substrate size is 2-5mm and at least 100mm deep, the water gap underneath the substrate is enough to prevent oxygen levels dropping too low. The nitrate will be drawn into the plenum regardless. This plenum principle has been used in some marine aquarium for years.
Great video, keep up the good work!
this answer has definitely helped my process, i disconnected the air pump to see how it would work and what do you know now i'm under 5 ppm of nitrates consistently thank you!
I had to replace my old filter pump recently so I went with one of those more powerful internal power head filters with the sponge inside a casing attached to the bottom. It pulls water from the bottom as well as the sides so I placed it directly over the top of my uplift tube so a little water gets pulled through it as well. Ever since I switched to the bigger pump it I've noticed my plants are putting on huge new leaves now and shooting up more stalks from the base indicating that their roots are growing a massive healthy root structure for these types of plants. Maybe it wasn't moving enough water through before with my old pump because I have a very fine mesh cloth over my plenum so I would need a bit more pull to move water down through the slits of my homemade filter plate (it has more resistance then an open grate with gravel). I will continue to monitor the aquarium's little ecosystem and when I see positive results I know I'm doing something right. 👍🏻😊
My point exactly. Each hobbyist Hass to determine how they set up their Plenum and if the water flow is not fast enough they'll have to increase it little by little just like you did.
I have a 65 gal with two Oscars and one pleco.No plants. A UGF with two power heads, and a cannister for mechanical Filtration, and a second fzone with bcb homemade basket of your design connected to the discharge side of the mechanical cannister. I added the fzone about a month ago. I test the water bi- weekly.
I tested this morning. 0Am, 0 No2, 40ppm No3, ph 7.2, temp 83. These readings have remained constant since adding the fish back in early April. About how long does it take to start seeing a reduction in No3? Had I found your channel sooner, I would have built a higher plenum with maybe some biohome balls underneath, only bc I have about 15 kgs of biohome on hand.
The gravel drpth WAS a uniform 21/2 inches but the Oscars like to rearrange everything constantly!! They're incredibly strong fish!
Thanks for all your info and work you put into your channel.
If you're using the under gravel filter as a Plenum then you need to slow down its output considerably. This is the mistake they made in the 70s by adding too much flow through the under gravel filter when it should've been slow down to 5 to 10 gallons per hour.
I keep cichlids too. To avoid them digging all the way to the ugf, I put most of my substate down, then put a layer of plastic mesh down that covered all of it, then another layer of substrate over that, along with all the rocks and wood. When they dig, they can't get past the mesh and the substrate beneath it gets to stay in place and continue working as filter media. But like Dr. Novak said, the flow should be slow.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums
Thanks! I will slow them down. Those fish love the current they create.
@@hardybryan that's a great idea with the screen. I'm getting ready to start another cichlids tank, and I will definitely do that. Too late for the Oscars now. The tank is very clean. I'm patiently waiting for the fzone bcb to start reducing thr nitrate.
One thing is for sure in this hobby....
You gotta have patience!!
Thanks!!
Informative. Thank you
!
You're welcome!
Just the video I needed! I've set up my 250L (55G) tank last october, but I haven't been able to get the nitrates down. I used one of those USB air pumps, and thought that the flow was too lów. Now I've put in a control valve and roughly halved the flow to see what that does. I've done the same for tanks with the same problem. Obviously now that I think about it, if the flow was too low, I would've smelled it..
I was looking at getting an LA-28 linear piston pump, but with such a low airflow needed, it would be absolutely overkill for my tanks, even though I have 11 tanks (most are 40-80L, 10-20G). I dislike the fact that regular air pumps tend to get noisy and seemingly less effective over time. A linear piston pump would solve that, but the ones I've found are way too powerful, and probably meant for ponds. Does anyone know if there are smaller linear piston pumps out there? Or am I stuck with a bunch of noisy pumps?
Plenums need a very small air pump like the smallest tetra pump that is out there and probably will still need a bleeder valve.
Good info thx
Any time!
I would like to have a go at making a bcb basket but can't find any media to use here in Australia.We can't get the kitty litter you use.I can get seachem flourite.
Hi - I found the correct kitty litter at my local Woolies in the ACT. Bright orange package. Hope this helps.
I use SafeTSorb with great results, but I'm in the US. I looked it up for Australia and it looks like it's very expensive there, about $560A ($390USD) for a bag I can get here for $8.
Perhaps a clay oil-dry product from a local auto parts store. As long as the granules don't turn to mud and it doesn't hurt the fish.
❤️thank you doctor for all these absolutely valuable information
My pleasure
I was wondering if flow could be skipped in a higher flow well oxygenated tank? I have just set up a 45 gallon system with a sump following your prescriptions. Good job.
I am going to be setting up a 650 (96x36x44) American cichlid tank. I have about a decade of experience with plenums as described by Jaubert/Goemans in salt. This is my first go with fresh. My question is how many up lift tubes is needed for a given area? For my 8x3’ area is one enough? Thanks so much for all the great info!
Great information, i have a couple of ways to measure and regulate the water flow trough the plenum. I will send you an email when the tank and filter is running to show you. Hope you take your time to look at it.
Best regards
Jon-A
Pretty sure I got roughly 5 to 10 gallons an hour running through my 6ft plenum. Very very slow movement.
Good afternoon Dr Novak. I bought a second hand tank it holds 80 litres of water. So about 18 gallons. A fairly small tank. I have made my first ever Plenum. I have put a few plants in the tank along with my substrate. I put an air stone in to the uplift tube and it is creating a lot of bubbles. Can I slow it down by adding a couple of no return valves ,or do I need to buy a new smaller air stone like the one you show us on this video?
Also this tank has a small sponge filter with a bar with 5 holes in it which blows out little " rivers " of water.
I will let things keep working for a while. Whilst my 6 goldfish are small I am bringing them in for the winter. Do you think my set up sounds OK Dr Novak. I would hate to lose my fish by my own incompetence? Your book looks amazing but I don't have apple unfortunately.
yes that will work.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thank you Dr Novak. I am enjoying your videos. Your goldfish are really lovely. 🧡
Hi Dr Novak, thank you for this video. I have a question: since Seachem Flourite is already mostly made of clay, is it still necessary or beneficial to mix it with kitty litter? Or can I just use it on its own without kitty litter?
I wish to make a BCB basket but as I am in India, products such as non clumping kitty litter are unavailable, even if they are most are not fragrant free. Laterite is also unavailable.
I was wondering instead of the kitty litter could I use the clay balls used in hydroponics and instead of laterite could I use chelated iron powder? Would they work? As the clay balls are inert are they capable of attracting the negatively charged ions?
The only trouble with the clay balls that they use the hydroponics is, they are so big. However, you can place some of them underneath the Plenum to help aid in anoxic conditions. Just use a smaller substrate for your Plenum even if it's not clay and the platinum should work if it's slow enough but yet water, still moving through it.
Just un time! I was thinking about the same issue, which power choose. Thanks
Glad I could help!
Wow just my question!!
How many total volumens of aquarium per hour?
I have found that it has a wide range. My 20G long turns over approximately 4 times a day (about 6 hours), my 5.5 gallon is about the same speed so it turns over about 20 times a day, and my 1 gallon jar turns over at least 50 times a day.
All 3 of these tanks have gone anoxic and are quite heavily stocked, or in the case of my 1 gallon jar it has heavily fed fry.
I use SafeTSorb as my only substrate so far.
I have plenums running in all my tanks now. I have no way of calculating the flow rate through them. They are all running on air stones with 1 inch tubes, which I cut down to just an inch or so above the substrate line. I used flow valves on the air lines and turned them down to the point where they didn't push air at all and slowly opened them up until they just started pushing air through. Do I need to find a way to measure the flow? And does it really matter since I'm not sure how I would make them slower?
It sounds to me you were on the right track. Turn up the air valve into you just see the bubbles coming out and start from there to move water through the 1 inch tubes. It sounds like you're doing everything correctly.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thanks. It's only been about 2.5 months since I set them up, so I'm doubtful they're fully 'cycled' with the anoxic bacteria, but 3 of them have BCBs running as well and they've been soaking up all the ammonium anyway. I also have plants growing out of the tanks (pothos and peace lillies) so I haven't actually seen any readings for any nitrogen forms at all. I can't say which are doing the most work, but I'm loving the results regardless. Thanks again for responding and giving out all this help and advice.
This is great but a question I've had is what about tank size? If the bottom of your tank is 72x18 inches one lift tube doesn't seem like it would be enough compared to the smaller tanks you have talked about. I want to do this in my aquariums and this question is all that's stopping me. I've used bcb bags and baskets instead but wild like a plenum.
Hit and trial.
All you are trying to do is create a zone where the oxygen level is 0.5-2.0 ppm
Above this and your bacteria will not break nitrate to nitrogen and oxygen.
You can’t be too slow with the flow, the water plenum underneath is sufficient to prevent oxygen dropping below 0.5ppm
Too fast and you will not get the right conditions
What I suggest as a role of thumb is preparing the plenum (to avoid turning down later) with an uplift tube every 20" to 30" in the length of a tank, start using the one in the corner and cap (look for tube plastic furniture cap) the others, if you figure it out is too low flow, you open another lift tube.