Aquarium maintenance time

The following article will try to demonstrate that aquarium maintenance can be quite easy.

Go on the Internet to find information aquarium maintenance and you'll find that a good maintenance should be done weekly or at less twice a month.

I take care of over 25 tanks so there is no way I am gonna spend even half an hour on each tank every week or two. I actually clean them once a month. That's not much but my tanks always look clean, no algae problem, no pollution.

To do this I use a really strong filtration system. Forget about those filters you see in pet-shop. They are not bad but the filtration media what comes with can't do the job right. With some real good filtration media, your filter could do a much better job.

What’s a really good filtration media?
The largest the surface area in contact with water is, the better it is. More surface area allow more bacteria to establish on it. The more bacteria you have the stronger your nitrogen cycle is. Does it make sense?

Which filtration media should we use?
1) Bio Ball's surface area is 100 cubic feet for every cubic foot of material.
2) Lava Rock's surface area is approximately 315 meters squared per gram.
3) Silica Sand is approximately 390 meters squared per gram.
4) Aquarium activated Carbon is approximately 650 meters squared per gram.
5) Tri Base Pelletized Carbon is approximately 1,150 meters squared per gram. It also contains an available carbon source for the bacteria.

So I chosed Tri Base Pelletized carbon because it has much more surface area for bacteria growth. I’ll explain the available carbon source a little later.

According to Hiatt Distributor (who supply that carbon), there is two way we can use the Tri Base Pelletized Carbon: As a bacteria bed (this is what I use it for) or for chemical filtration.

Tri base Pelletized Carbon : As a bacteria bed
Here we do not use Tri Base Pelletized Carbon as a chemical reducer but as a bacteria bed. When used this way it has a 4 year life time and it will not release any chemical once it got old. Why should I use anything else when that carbon can hold 10 time more bacteria per gram?

A good bacteria bed is important. I use a bacteria call Right Now Bacteria. Interesting name don't you think!
The reason why it’s call Right Now Bacteria is because it develop so fast that Tri Base Pelletized Carbon gets totally colonized within only a few hours. At 25C, 0.1 gram of Right Now Bacteria will constitute a colony at a population density of 867 x 10 ⁸ organisms in eight hours. I have been trying to get some information about other kinds of bacteria starters but they never reply my emails.

Because Tri Base Pelletized Carbon contains an available carbon source, it allow Right Now Bacteria to complete the nitrogen cycle and reduce Nitrates into Nitrogen gas.

Conclusion
When used together, Right Now Bacteria and Tri Base Pelletized Carbon drastically reduce No3 and Po4 which reduce the need for water change. The bacteria only need to be used once.

My little 15 gallon tank has zero No3 and Po4 after a month without water change. All I do is to rinse the carbon once a month. While I do this, also change 2 to 3 gallons of water. How could it be more easy.

I invite everyone who are curious about this to give it a try with a small 5 or 10 gallon tank and see the results with your own eyes. The amount of carbon and bacteria needed is really small so you won’t spend much. A complete (and really easy) protocol and set-up instruction is available at here.