Re: Filtration for rainbow fry

Andrew Boyd (andrew at pcug.org.au)
Mon, 05 Aug 1996 07:16:43 +1000

At 03:28 PM 8/2/96, John Dowden wrote:
>I have another couple of questions about filtration for rainbow fry. Do you
>need to use carbon in the filters?
>
>I will probably use an undergravel filter because that is what I have in my
>growing tank. Is aeration from the undergravel filter enough for the fry
or do
>you still need an air stone? If the aeration from the undergravel filter is
>enough how fast should the bubbles be to run the filter and still be slow
>enough as to not endanger the fry.

John - if you use an u/g filter then you may find several negatives:
- u/g infers the use of gravel .'. you have a ready made space for fry to go
missing in.
- uneaten food will also find it's way underneath the gravel and foul the
water (traditionally, prepared fry foods have a higher protein level).

U/g filters have several million detractors out there - they interfere with
plants and fry. However, IMHO they are OK in a *raising* (not *hatching*)
tank once the fry are of a decent size and age (5mm plus?) and attention is
paid to vacuuming the gravel.

I have a marked preference for using bare-bottomed tanks with sponge filters
- I am lazy and several years and lost batches of fry have shown this to be
the easiest for me. Tetra Brillant (tm) and their cheaper clones seem to do
the trick.

Regards, Andrew Boyd
___________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Boyd - andrew at pcug.org.au - http://www.pcug.org.au/~andrew
Rainbowfish Mailing List Archive: http://www.pcug.org.au/~andrew/rml.htm
Canberra and District Aquarium Soc: http://www.pcug.org.au/~andrew/cdas.htm
"A running man may cut 4000 throats in a single night" Klingon Proverb
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