Questions regarding softwater tanks

[Phil_1983]

JBL or Sera.

JBL-specific.

Thanks, I think my local shop has JBL only. But I will stay away from the App-based one.

 

[MacZ]

Also Pistia is illegal in Germany. (EU, Darrell, remember?)

 

[MacZ]

Strip tests may not be accurate, but they don't give you false positives. Just make sure to take off the excess water with a paper towel and prevent the test fields from mixing and the results are good enough for hobbyist use.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

EU, Darrell, remember?

<"Everyday unfortunately">.

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

There are actually three different types of floating plants in the tank.

Limnobium laevigatum, because I read your duckweed index.
Phyllutans fluitans.
I also got some Salvinia minima.

Perfect. The simple answer is that you can just use their growth, and the <"Duckweed Index">, as your fixed nitrogen test kit.

May I ask if there is a way to obtain realistic measurements so that I don't have to guess? I'm pretty sure there are methods used in laboratories, but I'm looking for something that a “normal hobbyist” can use
I wanted to buy some test strips today, as Mac suggested.

Labs. tend to use an ion selective electrode, or ion chromatography‐based nutrient analyses, but nitrite (NO2-) is one of the easier ions to test for with reagents via spectroscopy, because it forms some insoluble coloured compounds.

What @MacZ says, you can get test strips from Merck etc, these commonly use the "Griess reaction", where nitrite reacts with an aromatic amine in acidic solution to form a red-violet diazonium salt, which is then measured by colorimetry (or by eye).

I'll be honest I haven't ever felt the need to test the tanks for nitrite (NO2-), even when they were in the lab.

cheers Darrel

 

[MacZ]

you can get test strips from Merck etc,

The ones I recommended are basically rebranded Merck, available for much less money and in every petstore.

 

[Phil_1983]

Hi all,

Perfect. The simple answer is that you can just use their growth, and the <"Duckweed Index">, as your fixed nitrogen test kit.

Labs. tend to use an ion selective electrode, or ion chromatography‐based nutrient analyses, but nitrite (NO2-) is one of the easier ions to test for with reagents via spectroscopy, because it forms some insoluble coloured compounds.

What @MacZ says, you can get test strips from Merck etc, these commonly use the "Griess reaction", where nitrite reacts with an aromatic amine in acidic solution to form a red-violet diazonium salt, which is then measured by colorimetry (or by eye).

I'll be honest I haven't ever felt the need to test the tanks for nitrite (NO2-), even when they were in the lab.

cheers Darrel

This is my plan. I am trying to understand the different colorings of the leaves as you descirbed in the index. For now I am still training my eyes

Labs. tend to use an ion selective electrode, or ion chromatography‐based nutrient analyses, but nitrite (NO2-) is one of the easier ions to test for with reagents via spectroscopy, because it forms some insoluble coloured compounds.

What @MacZ says, you can get test strips from Merck etc, these commonly use the "Griess reaction", where nitrite reacts with an aromatic amine in acidic solution to form a red-violet diazonium salt, which is then measured by colorimetry (or by eye).

I'll be honest I haven't ever felt the need to test the tanks for nitrite (NO2-), even when they were in the lab.

Okay, this is really interesting. I am definately have to do more reading about water chemistry. It is such a big field. Thanks for sharing these insights. I am trying to understand what is going on and this is really, really helpful.

 

[Phil_1983]

The ones I recommended are basically rebranded Merck, available for much less money and in every petstore.

Perfect.

 

[Phil_1983]

Hello everyone! Here is a quick update:

I picked up the test strips yesterday. Contrary to my expectations, however, only the Sera strips were available. Having tested several times, it's clear that the trend is moving towards 'no nitrite'.
Out of curiosity, I then did the drop test again. This also showed 0.6 mg/l.
As the measurement ranges for the Sera test strips are rather imprecise (0, 1, 5 and 10 mg/l), I essentially obtained a very similar result with both methods of measurement. I just find that interesting.

Today, I will do a 50% water change first. I will add the humic tea again. At the end of next week (earliest), the first animals will hopefully move in.

Regarding the total stock, I would like to add 20 Nannostomus marginatus to a Apistogramma male. I am currently looking for a pet shop willing to sell me just one. But that can wait a while.

That would complete the stock.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
A paper has come my way that is relevant to this thread.

The paper is from the Neufeld Research Group -
<"They looked at the sequence of microbial development in filters">.

Cheers Darrel

McKnight, Michelle M, Szabolcs, Natasha
Graham, Alyssa & Neufeld, Josh D (2025)
"Microbial community succession of home aquarium biofilters associated with early establishment of comammox Nitrospira"

https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycaf212

 

[Phil_1983]

Oh, thank you very much, Darrel!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Oh, thank you very much, Darrel!

Neufeld lab. thread <"Linked here">

I'll have a go through the paper when I have time and abstract the "good stuff".

In the UKAPS thread with the Neufeld lab. there is some discussion of whether plants might effect the microbial assemblage, and from the results of this paper, it looks like they probably do.

Cheers Darrel

 

[Phil_1983]

Great, thanks again. I gave the article a quick read yesterday, but I definately have to invest some more time into it

I will have a look at the UKAPS thread.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I'll have a go through the paper when I have time and abstract the "good stuff".

Probably these bits:

..... There was one apparent difference between the aquariums with and without early nitrification, which was the inclusion of live plants in both Aquariums1 and 2, but not in Aquarium 3......

We hypothesize that live plants served as a source of microorganisms, introducing nitrifiers that may have decreased the time required to establish an effective nitrifying community. Many rhizosphere and phyllosphere microorganisms would be transferred into the new aquarium upon addition of the plants. In aquaponics systems, nitrifying bacteria are often present in the system and sometimes associated with plant roots, including comammox Nitrospira and AOA [53, 54]. Elevated 16S rRNA gene copies per bead and sponge sample detected in the pre-fish sampling for Aquariums 1 and 2 support the hypothesis that they had a higher initial inoculation of microorganisms prior to the addition of fish, which might have aided in microbial community establishment. In addition to a potential microbial inoculation source, the live plants in Aquariums 1 and 2 provided some nitrate removal from the water via assimilatory processes, possibly explaining lower average nitrate concentrations for Aquarium1 (4.2±0.1mg/LNO3--N) and Aquarium 2 (7.2±1.3 mg/L NO3--N) compared to Aquarium 3 (9.5±1.5 mg/L NO3--N) across weeks 9–12.

And the Graph

cheers Darrel