Maintaining the perfect filter system

[ksj]

Hello, I'd greatly appreciate it if someone can go into detail on the best way to maintain 0 ammonia, and nits, along with when to do water changes, how much to change, when to clean the filter, what else to clean, how much to clean, etc.

So basically, treat me like a total noob.
My current set up is a 90g tank with what is usually 10g in the sump tank. The pipe leading from the tank to the sump has a bit of sponge blocking any plants/fish/shrimp from going down and ends with pantyhose to catch any other solids.
Fish stock: 1 bristle nose pleco, small small of endlers, 1 pearl gourami, pair of kribs, neo shrimp (very few these days for some reason), 1 betta, 1 dwarf african frog, assassin snails, 6 amano shrimp, 2 Otocinclus Catfish, unknown amount of kuhli loaches(less then 10) and now 4 salt and pepper cories (had 5 yesterday). Moderately planted.

https://ibb.co/hpf958

[bergenm]

I don't think there is a 'best' way, I think every one has a way that works for them - Personally I do a 30% water change weekly on my tanks including gravel cleaning, whereas I do water changes much less frequently on my pond. I clean all of my sponges and filter media in a bucket of aquarium/pond water. I keep a low bio-load, feed lightly  and have a lot of plants. When setting up a new tank or starting up my pond in the spring I test the water frequently, but once the filters are established I rarely test.

[Jody]

Hi
I agree that there isn't a best way to maintain everything perfect, other than water changes and maintenance.
Low stocking levels, plants and proper feeding also help to keep things good.
Jody

[lucius]

Why do you use a sump, just curious?

I use a Fluval 306 and Fluval 406 on my 90 gallon.  Each month one of them gets fully rinsed out with tap water.  I have no ideal what my parameters are as I don't measure anything.  Water gets drained to a few inches every two weeks.  It's heavily planted with a lot of occupants.

[ksj]

It came with the aquarium. Its drilled in the upper left corner so the water comes down that way.

[Rumble Fish]

I use a sump system with great success on two freshwater tanks with a HOB overflow system. It drains down into bucket that is located inside my sump tank and it holds my prefilter and then it's filled with pot scrubbers and an air stone underneath for max airation. Depending on the sump level, about half the scrubbers are continuous submerged and the other half receive the 'rain' from the prefilter above.  The whole setup I got from the King of DIY book with maybe a few mods of my own. I then have a 3-4 inch foam divider (30ppi, I believe)  just before the return pump that all the water passes through. Aside from swapping out my prefilter, I never clean or wash anything in the sump. I do not use carbon at any time as these are planted tanks.

My sumps are quite a bit larger than yours: 100g display/55g sump and 75g display/40g sump and I'm setting up a third tank right now 65g display/20g sump.

Tanks are all moderately planted and well stocked.  I'm sure I overfeed. I top up frequently (a few times per week) as each tank looses many gallons from evaporation.  I'll occasionally pull a juice jug or two worth of water from the sump before I top up. I only vacuum the display tank to clean up excess sediment and this is done maybe twice per year with the key word being maybe. Mostly all I do is top up from evaporation loss. On the whole I like the natural look of fallen, decaying leaves and it doesn't seem to have any adverse affects. Both tanks are 'dirted' so a gravel vac is never done.

Results: Ammonia, nitrite and nitrates are always 0. The PH is 7.4 and 7.8 between the two existing tanks. I have no idea why they aren't the same. The water is slightly tea coloured from tannins as both tanks have wood in them.

I've found that this setup provides plenty of surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow to meet any bio load. It is also extremely low maintenance although slightly noisy but that's a different topic.