I have a 5 gallon bucket filter setup as an anoxic filter. If I get elevated nitrate tests. I simply slow down the flow into the filter for a week and then I start testing 0 nitrates. it's unbelievable, I change my water when I feel like it. Thank you Dr. Novak!
Great tip! I try to tell people that constantly that sometimes things could be running too fast and all you have to do is slow it down a little bit for the anoxia conditions to exist. You seem to have caught on very quickly and now you are just adjusting what your test kits tell you how you should adjusted it.
UGF plates are crazy cheap unless you go with Lee Premium filters. I buy the Lee's premium because they are much stronger and the uplift tube connector is so much better. My 75 gallon cost about 80 bucks and the premium for my newest 40 gallon $61 with the 10 gallon costing another $32. But that's only because I wanted a specific set of plates. Getting the blue ones like in this video are ridiculously cheap! I can't believe anyone would complain about the cost of this filter. Especially when you consider this is a one and done purchase for the life of your tank. Another reason I didn't mind the premium plates...one time purchase. No cartridges, no fixing, no moving parts, no breakdowns. Ok, in not being sponsored by UGF companies so I'll get off my soapbox now hahaha. Have a great day and thanks for the continued education.
The Anoxic filtration works great in my aquarium and my koi pond , I would like to wish you a merry Christmas and happy new year and thanks for your help
Anoxic filter baskets have been running now in my pond for over 35 years straight without being torn apart and still filter the pond as it did back when it was originally built. It is the only non-clogging filtration system out there. I wished you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
WOW! Right now I'm going over the comments, drinking a glass of English Breakfast hot tea in the morning. I had a friend that sent me a can of English breakfast tea actually from England, and it was the best tea I ever drank in my life.
On his 40 gallon tank, he is using root tabs and easy green. Both will introduce nitrates into the tank. If dosed correctly, will keep your tank at 20-40ppm. So, the filter could be working.
Looks amazing. Do you have any updates to your led approach? I'd also say though that PAR is important as is CRI. Usually with these sorts of leds have a cri around 80-85. They are missing parts of the light spectrum, generally green and cyan.
Thank Dr Novak for sharing. My 7.5g tank which I built using a plenum and baked red clay in July, 2022 is consistently less than 20ppm with only occasional 20% water changes & top ups. My 40g goldfish tank which has a heavy bio load is set up using bcb bags with baked red clay in a sunsun canister filter & overhead diy sump with baked clay and pothos & after 4 months is now on average 30 to 40ppm with weekly 25% water changes. Previously it used to go up to 60 to 80ppm.
Thank you for the video. I always enjoy hearing about other peoples experience on building these type of filters. BTW, just went on Amazon to see what the UGFilter would cost for a 29 gallon. 12.97 + tax. Not too expensive at all.
I have two tanks, both with plenums, I am very happy with what they are doing, my fish seems to be very happy and lately I've been seeing breeding behavior on my cardinal tetras (which is something I never saw on my previous build) all in all I recommend it, is not hard to set up a plenum it's fun!
I had a underwear flite long time ago and never had chance my water or had two much problems that have with my hang on the back and thought they did make them any more so if you put sand in the tank will that stop the flow of the water
I always wondered how to calculate Bioloads to determine the volume of BCB's needed (in an unplanted tank for simplicity's sake). Because the plenums seem to be great in high Bioloads (your goldfish) tanks... Yet, many have mixed results using BCB's, if they do not have enough Anoxic media to counter the nitrate increases. Then, they end up putting Matrix in their canisters to keep nitrates down. It appears that Matrix has a decent Anoxic function.
Hi Dr. Novak. I'm planning on building a large African cichlid tank. I know that they like to dig, so I'm planning on having a screen on the plenum. But I still want them to be able to dig like they naturally do. My question is how deep can I make my plenum? Can I have 8" to 10" of substrate? I'd like the fish to have a few inches to dig. But also a solid foundation under for the plenum. Do I just turn up the air to compensate for the depth? Thanks again for your videos and time.
to have a deep substrate, but I don't think you really have to go that deep. Even if you went 6 inches and allow the fish to only dig, maybe an inch into it that would not upset the fish.
You can but it'll look weird and will take up a lot of water column and you'll need a ton of substrate! You can have a 5" substrate 4" of it on top of plenum and the mesh at 4" and 1" on top for the fish to play around. I have around 3" on top.of plenum and 1" on the mesh i sewed. I have a 100g cichlid tank.
I've been searching for the eheim substrate but don't see the less than 1/2 inch size? My ugf I purchased are all 1/2, anyone know where to purchase or replacement?
Dumb question maybe, but if your not replacing more water, and given that nitrification processes consume carbonate, won't the tank's pH crash, or are you replacing carbonate? My local water supply has a KH 1deg and GH 4deg.
I'm curious if the BCB bags will work in an Aqua Clear 50 HOB on Minimum flow? I want to use 2 bags so If I need to change one I can at least one working while the other "comes online"? I can't really do the Plenum because I need high flow high Oxygen for Hill Stream Loaches and need to run power heads on the UGF spraying air. I had the loaches before, and they never did well because I didn't have the fast current and high Oxygen levels, I now understand they need. They are not a beginner fish and like very clean water.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Honestly when I got the notification for your reply, I was holding my breath. I'm relieved to hear this can work. It's not a big deal to devote this one HOB to the Anoxic Filtration bags because I have 2 of them. Quick question will carbon or any other type of bag in the second unit interfere with the Anoxic filter?
Hi Dr. Novak, in Marks 40B does the substrate on the bottom interfere with Anoxic conditions, also I use the same product that you used on your 40B build for the UGF and they are quite more expensive now, but I think are better to use.
Yes it does. That's something Mark is going to have to determine if he will someday have to break down the aquarium and do it with a Plenum. Like for example my goldfish aquarium with sand and small gravel is doing great and it's been up for now for over a year but it does use a Plenum..
I’m new. Zero tank. I’m very interested. Been watching a lot of videos related to this. I wish somebody list the substrate layers used in the first tank… Would appreciate it.
I don't think he needs to worry that the second tank is still showing nitrates. It can take months to break in this system. I have 11 tanks, all on Anoxic filtration. 1 of them took about 5 months before the nitrates got under control. Another I literally have never seen nitrates in since converting it. There is luck involved on how quickly they fully 'cycle'. Currently, 2 of my tanks are a little overstocked. I was getting 0 ppm nitrates for months, but the fish have grown a lot and I added more temporarily. I now consistently get a reading of about 10 ppm nitrates, but that's it every day. It's not accumulating more and more, it's just gonna take time for the system to be able to fully keep up with the stocking. Plus some of those fish will come out once they grow a little more, so I'm not worried about it.
How do you know it's the plenum that is reducing the nitrates and not the plants? Has anyone set up a plenum without plants and still achieved 0 ppm nitrates?
There are several individuals that have aquarium set up with plenums that have testify to the fact that their nitrates have been lowered just because they are using a Plenum. Just like there are several testimonies claiming that plants lower nitrates.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums That sounds rather anecdotal. People "testify" to all sorts of things. Are there any rigorous scientific studies on plenums in aquariums?
I just started to look at your RUclips video and I like wath you do I have a all in tank would that be to much water flow can you help me with this I give your RUclips videos a 5star
Hello Dr Novak, I recently set up a new tank after a few years away from the hobby and set up a plenum and BCB basket in my eheim 2213 as per all your advice. It's been about 6 weeks and still have a problem with brown hair algae, needing water changes every 2-3 days to cleat it out. It's a 3 foot 150 litre tank. Any advice would be appreciated. I really love your videos by the way and watched every one of them from day 1!
With new tanks, brown algae is usually the corporate that constantly grows. Once the tank breaks in, and so will the brown algae, then leave. One thing you may want to do is add some bacteria to aid in the speedy production of useful bacteria in your aquarium. This may help the brown algae subside. But don't forget new tanks go through a lot of problems until they finally break in which could take several months.
I don't really agree that his plants are thriving. I set up my tank in much the same way, except it is very lightly stocked (currently) and much more heavily planted. I am now about six months in and have a problem. My slow growing plants, have green spot algae, and my faster growing plants are yellowing and cannibalizing themselves. The former is probably due to phosphate deficiency, the latter is due to nitrate deficiency. I was using a fertilizer without phosphate and nitrate and have switched to one with nitrate. I am also having to dose additional nitrate until I can balance things out. From those photos, it looks like his plants are starting to yellow. But there's no doubt, Anoxic filtration works for knocking down the nitrates.
hey doc, i use a product called ''Turface'' in my greenhouse cactus media. it is a calcined clay product. have you ever tried it as a filter media? it also might be good to use as gravel in an aquarium. it has a pleasing brown color. i don't think youtube will allow a link to the company but it's very easy to do a product search. i did a search of your vids using the word turface and didn't see any results. have you come across it, and if so what were your thoughts? thanks
Yes I have but it has a lot of calcium in it and therefore it creates the water to become too hardened, which is great for African cichlids, mollies any fish that likes hard water, but other than that a lot of people have steered away from such a product because of that.
Hi Dr Novak. I am currently trying to work on a design for an anoxic filter similar to an undergravel filter using anoxic filtration principles and needed your advice in fine tuning pipe length & diameter, etc in order to optimize the anoxic conditions in the filter. Can I email you my diagram of the system and my current intended measurements for your review and advice.
Undergravel filters are actually quite cheap from China and if someone still can't afford it then they can easily build an undergravel diy filter using egg crates or plastic trays. I have done it and it works fine. The under gravel filters are no longer available locally due to lack of demand and I didn't want to wait the shipment time from China which is around 2months so I simply built one.
My 850 gallon marine tank ran in a plenum for all 12 years of its existence. That tank had over 35 large angels, tangs, butterflies , etc and did great! So bcb bags in a sump would work just the same imo.
I’m of the opinion that there are easier and guaranteed methods for nitrate removal in saltwater. Carbon dosing, algae turf scrubbers, sulfur denitrators etc. When I had my sps tank up and running I actually had to dose nitrates due to a cyano bloom from bottomed out nitrates.
I had the same thing happen on my 200 gallon without any anoxic filtration. Plants consumed the nitrates and I now have to add Seachem Nitrogen, otherwise the zero nitrates condition results in brown outer leaves on my amazon swords. Recommendation: look for examples with a fish only tank.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums it's just a mesh bag used to wash bras and socks in the laundry so they don't get tangled. They're plastic mesh just like the filter media bags you're using and relatively cheap. They would work perfectly for a BCB too.
I have a 5 gallon bucket filter setup as an anoxic filter. If I get elevated nitrate tests. I simply slow down the flow into the filter for a week and then I start testing 0 nitrates. it's unbelievable, I change my water when I feel like it. Thank you Dr. Novak!
Great tip! I try to tell people that constantly that sometimes things could be running too fast and all you have to do is slow it down a little bit for the anoxia conditions to exist. You seem to have caught on very quickly and now you are just adjusting what your test kits tell you how you should adjusted it.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I followed your instructions, it works!
Thanks for sharing!
UGF plates are crazy cheap unless you go with Lee Premium filters. I buy the Lee's premium because they are much stronger and the uplift tube connector is so much better. My 75 gallon cost about 80 bucks and the premium for my newest 40 gallon $61 with the 10 gallon costing another $32. But that's only because I wanted a specific set of plates. Getting the blue ones like in this video are ridiculously cheap! I can't believe anyone would complain about the cost of this filter. Especially when you consider this is a one and done purchase for the life of your tank. Another reason I didn't mind the premium plates...one time purchase. No cartridges, no fixing, no moving parts, no breakdowns. Ok, in not being sponsored by UGF companies so I'll get off my soapbox now hahaha. Have a great day and thanks for the continued education.
Thank you! Im ready to start my first UGF!
Good luck with your first build!
The Anoxic filtration works great in my aquarium and my koi pond ,
I would like to wish you a merry Christmas and happy new year and thanks for your help
Anoxic filter baskets have been running now in my pond for over 35 years straight without being torn apart and still filter the pond as it did back when it was originally built. It is the only non-clogging filtration system out there. I wished you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
You are right, when I worked in a pet store here in Australia in the 1970s the first thing we handed people was the undergravel filter.
I remember when those were the only filters available!
Great Sunday morning video while enjoying a cup of hot tea. 18 F here in Chicago this morning.
WOW! Right now I'm going over the comments, drinking a glass of English Breakfast hot tea in the morning. I had a friend that sent me a can of English breakfast tea actually from England, and it was the best tea I ever drank in my life.
On his 40 gallon tank, he is using root tabs and easy green. Both will introduce nitrates into the tank. If dosed correctly, will keep your tank at 20-40ppm. So, the filter could be working.
I thought the same thing as you did. He needs to stop using all the fertilizers and root tabs.
Looks amazing. Do you have any updates to your led approach? I'd also say though that PAR is important as is CRI. Usually with these sorts of leds have a cri around 80-85. They are missing parts of the light spectrum, generally green and cyan.
Thank Dr Novak for sharing.
My 7.5g tank which I built using a plenum and baked red clay in July, 2022 is consistently less than 20ppm with only occasional 20% water changes & top ups.
My 40g goldfish tank which has a heavy bio load is set up using bcb bags with baked red clay in a sunsun canister filter & overhead diy sump with baked clay and pothos & after 4 months is now on average 30 to 40ppm with weekly 25% water changes. Previously it used to go up to 60 to 80ppm.
What red clay are you talking about?
@@rockfella27 The one normally used for pottery.
@@superaquatics Is it granular?
Thank you for the video. I always enjoy hearing about other peoples experience on building these type of filters. BTW, just went on Amazon to see what the UGFilter would cost for a 29 gallon. 12.97 + tax. Not too expensive at all.
Yes, I really don't understand why they made a comment that UG plates are too expensive.
I have two tanks, both with plenums, I am very happy with what they are doing, my fish seems to be very happy and lately I've been seeing breeding behavior on my cardinal tetras (which is something I never saw on my previous build) all in all I recommend it, is not hard to set up a plenum it's fun!
Thanks for sharing
Would I you be able to get away with one up lift tube on an 6x2’ plenum? The plates used are the black plates you used of Amazon with 1” of height.
yes
I had a underwear flite long time ago and never had chance my water or had two much problems that have with my hang on the back and thought they did make them any more so if you put sand in the tank will that stop the flow of the water
I always wondered how to calculate Bioloads to determine the volume of BCB's needed (in an unplanted tank for simplicity's sake).
Because the plenums seem to be great in high Bioloads (your goldfish) tanks... Yet, many have mixed results using BCB's, if they do not have enough Anoxic media to counter the nitrate increases.
Then, they end up putting Matrix in their canisters to keep nitrates down.
It appears that Matrix has a decent Anoxic function.
Who knows... You may have caused Seachem to develop Matrix. 😁
Matrix and other media is not recommended in AFS. It hinders the process.
I have a 150 gallon tank and wanted to know what the bubble count should be thank you in advance
Can I not cut the lift tube? Maintain as it is? A lot of difference?
Hi Dr. Novak. I'm planning on building a large African cichlid tank. I know that they like to dig, so I'm planning on having a screen on the plenum. But I still want them to be able to dig like they naturally do. My question is how deep can I make my plenum? Can I have 8" to 10" of substrate? I'd like the fish to have a few inches to dig. But also a solid foundation under for the plenum. Do I just turn up the air to compensate for the depth? Thanks again for your videos and time.
to have a deep substrate, but I don't think you really have to go that deep. Even if you went 6 inches and allow the fish to only dig, maybe an inch into it that would not upset the fish.
You can but it'll look weird and will take up a lot of water column and you'll need a ton of substrate! You can have a 5" substrate 4" of it on top of plenum and the mesh at 4" and 1" on top for the fish to play around. I have around 3" on top.of plenum and 1" on the mesh i sewed. I have a 100g cichlid tank.
I've been searching for the eheim substrate but don't see the less than 1/2 inch size? My ugf I purchased are all 1/2, anyone know where to purchase or replacement?
Dumb question maybe, but if your not replacing more water, and given that nitrification processes consume carbonate, won't the tank's pH crash, or are you replacing carbonate? My local water supply has a KH 1deg and GH 4deg.
I've never had an aquarium crash using a Plenum or an anoxic filter in 40 years.
I'm curious if the BCB bags will work in an Aqua Clear 50 HOB on Minimum flow? I want to use 2 bags so If I need to change one I can at least one working while the other "comes online"? I can't really do the Plenum because I need high flow high Oxygen for Hill Stream Loaches and need to run power heads on the UGF spraying air. I had the loaches before, and they never did well because I didn't have the fast current and high Oxygen levels, I now understand they need. They are not a beginner fish and like very clean water.
Other people have added BCB baskets to their hang on the back filters, and seem to be having great success with it.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Honestly when I got the notification for your reply, I was holding my breath. I'm relieved to hear this can work. It's not a big deal to devote this one HOB to the Anoxic Filtration bags because I have 2 of them. Quick question will carbon or any other type of bag in the second unit interfere with the Anoxic filter?
Hi Dr. Novak, in Marks 40B does the substrate on the bottom interfere with Anoxic conditions, also I use the same product that you used on your 40B build for the UGF and they are quite more expensive now, but I think are better to use.
Yes it does. That's something Mark is going to have to determine if he will someday have to break down the aquarium and do it with a Plenum. Like for example my goldfish aquarium with sand and small gravel is doing great and it's been up for now for over a year but it does use a Plenum..
I’m new. Zero tank. I’m very interested. Been watching a lot of videos related to this. I wish somebody list the substrate layers used in the first tank… Would appreciate it.
Welcome aboard! I do try to give the depth of the substrate that people made in aquariums.
I don't think he needs to worry that the second tank is still showing nitrates. It can take months to break in this system. I have 11 tanks, all on Anoxic filtration. 1 of them took about 5 months before the nitrates got under control. Another I literally have never seen nitrates in since converting it. There is luck involved on how quickly they fully 'cycle'. Currently, 2 of my tanks are a little overstocked. I was getting 0 ppm nitrates for months, but the fish have grown a lot and I added more temporarily. I now consistently get a reading of about 10 ppm nitrates, but that's it every day. It's not accumulating more and more, it's just gonna take time for the system to be able to fully keep up with the stocking. Plus some of those fish will come out once they grow a little more, so I'm not worried about it.
Yeah you're right, it's funny how some systems break in quicker than other systems and I really don't know why that is.
For cover doc non woven geotextile seems to be good option it's used as separator for lawns kindly advise
How do you know it's the plenum that is reducing the nitrates and not the plants? Has anyone set up a plenum without plants and still achieved 0 ppm nitrates?
There are several individuals that have aquarium set up with plenums that have testify to the fact that their nitrates have been lowered just because they are using a Plenum. Just like there are several testimonies claiming that plants lower nitrates.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums That sounds rather anecdotal. People "testify" to all sorts of things. Are there any rigorous scientific studies on plenums in aquariums?
UGPs are less than $20 with the brand names on amzon
I just started to look at your RUclips video and I like wath you do I have a all in tank would that be to much water flow can you help me with this I give your RUclips videos a 5star
Hello Dr Novak,
I recently set up a new tank after a few years away from the hobby and set up a plenum and BCB basket in my eheim 2213 as per all your advice. It's been about 6 weeks and still have a problem with brown hair algae, needing water changes every 2-3 days to cleat it out. It's a 3 foot 150 litre tank. Any advice would be appreciated. I really love your videos by the way and watched every one of them from day 1!
With new tanks, brown algae is usually the corporate that constantly grows. Once the tank breaks in, and so will the brown algae, then leave. One thing you may want to do is add some bacteria to aid in the speedy production of useful bacteria in your aquarium. This may help the brown algae subside. But don't forget new tanks go through a lot of problems until they finally break in which could take several months.
@Anoxic Filtration & Plenums for the Aquarium Many thanks for the reply Dr Novak and keep up the great videos!
I don't really agree that his plants are thriving. I set up my tank in much the same way, except it is very lightly stocked (currently) and much more heavily planted. I am now about six months in and have a problem. My slow growing plants, have green spot algae, and my faster growing plants are yellowing and cannibalizing themselves. The former is probably due to phosphate deficiency, the latter is due to nitrate deficiency.
I was using a fertilizer without phosphate and nitrate and have switched to one with nitrate. I am also having to dose additional nitrate until I can balance things out.
From those photos, it looks like his plants are starting to yellow. But there's no doubt, Anoxic filtration works for knocking down the nitrates.
hey doc, i use a product called ''Turface'' in my greenhouse cactus media. it is a calcined clay product. have you ever tried it as a filter media? it also might be good to use as gravel in an aquarium. it has a pleasing brown color. i don't think youtube will allow a link to the company but it's very easy to do a product search. i did a search of your vids using the word turface and didn't see any results. have you come across it, and if so what were your thoughts? thanks
Yes I have but it has a lot of calcium in it and therefore it creates the water to become too hardened, which is great for African cichlids, mollies any fish that likes hard water, but other than that a lot of people have steered away from such a product because of that.
Turface has low CEC as compared to Oil-dri. Does not mean it won't work but it may not work as good as kitty litter/oil-dri.
Hi Dr Novak. I am currently trying to work on a design for an anoxic filter similar to an undergravel filter using anoxic filtration principles and needed your advice in fine tuning pipe length & diameter, etc in order to optimize the anoxic conditions in the filter. Can I email you my diagram of the system and my current intended measurements for your review and advice.
How can I help you? drklnovak@gmail.com
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thanks. I will email you the details.
I think the comment that under gravel filter plates being expensive was trolling.
You know, I was kind of thinking that, or maybe it was some real young person that maybe didn't have the money.
Undergravel filters are actually quite cheap from China and if someone still can't afford it then they can easily build an undergravel diy filter using egg crates or plastic trays. I have done it and it works fine. The under gravel filters are no longer available locally due to lack of demand and I didn't want to wait the shipment time from China which is around 2months so I simply built one.
I got 4 UGFs for my new rack (29 + 3 20 longs) for like $12 each.
What you got them that cheap , holy cow!
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I just double checked, they were $12.97 for the penn plax ones that size on amazon. I guess I should have said $13.
Anyone keeping marine fish using BCB?
My 850 gallon marine tank ran in a plenum for all 12 years of its existence. That tank had over 35 large angels, tangs, butterflies , etc and did great! So bcb bags in a sump would work just the same imo.
I’m of the opinion that there are easier and guaranteed methods for nitrate removal in saltwater. Carbon dosing, algae turf scrubbers, sulfur denitrators etc. When I had my sps tank up and running I actually had to dose nitrates due to a cyano bloom from bottomed out nitrates.
Thanks for the reply
I had the same thing happen on my 200 gallon without any anoxic filtration. Plants consumed the nitrates and I now have to add Seachem Nitrogen, otherwise the zero nitrates condition results in brown outer leaves on my amazon swords. Recommendation: look for examples with a fish only tank.
For a Bcb basket try a bra bag ask your wife if you don’t know what it is.
OK you got me: what is a bra bag?
Large nylon bag, just do a search on Amazon
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums it's just a mesh bag used to wash bras and socks in the laundry so they don't get tangled. They're plastic mesh just like the filter media bags you're using and relatively cheap. They would work perfectly for a BCB too.