Unofficial Hi-Q Experiment Thread

[sirdarksol]

I'm going to post some notes on the Hi-Q system here. As the title says, this is unofficial. The purpose is to test individual parts of the system as I have a chance to.

So far, I have not been using the chemical filtration pads for a couple of months, and Miyamoto's tank still has very little Nitrates in it, which is awesome. I have been adding the BioMagic and VitaMagic still.

On another note, I've been adding the BioMagic to another tank, just to see if I could get any results without the Hi-Q equipment, and I have not noticed any difference. So it appears that the towers are an important part of the equation. When I run out of BioMagic, I will be continuing to test the towers. I am really curious to see if they will work without the stuff.

[sirdarksol]

Turns out the setup is too good to be true. The towers don't house permanent denitrification colonies, and the BioMagic seems capable of crashing a cycle. Miyamoto's tank has been building in nitrates, so as a test of the BioMagic, I put some back in the tank. The cycle crashed within days, and the ammonia rating shot up (a danger of an overstocked tank).

Sirdarksol's final opinion of the Hi-Q product: If you use it as directed (putting the additives in every week, and changing the filter media out every month), it will reduce the need for water changes to lower nitrates (but won't do anything for other dissolved organics). Without the additives and filter changes, the system is a pretty good filter, but won't do anything for your nitrates. Lastly, never, ever add BioMagic to an established filter without using the special carbon filter pads (which soak up excess ammonia).