TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 Again.... And again... My water in both my 3 foot tanks is so gross to look at and I just can't think of anything else to make it that wonderful crystal clear it used to be. It's full of floaties and my filters are filling up so fast with this brown sludge like stuff that they are actually getting clogged, I have to clean at least once a week and I'm have to pump the sludge out of the tubes. Im stumped. I have, in my external canitster filters sponge, ceramic cylinder things, charcoal and bio balls. I clean with use fish tank water. The lights are on around 9 hours a day, no direct sunlight. 27degrees and in one a ph of 7 and the other ph of 9. One is over stocked with Africans and the other (the worse one) has 7 bristle nose babies, 1 bristle nose adult, 2 baby clown loaches, 2 angel fish, 5 blue rams. What do I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 I even, last wednesday, pulled everything out of the worse tank scrubbed all the yucky stuff of the plants and DW in used fi tank waterand did a 60% water change and now, 6 days later, it's almost like I did nothing! It's gross! I've ha three fish die (not sure what of, I think my geo may just be a murderer) I don't over feed, I even tried not feeding for three days and it didn't make a difference. Not happy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liljohn_83 Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 is the brown sludg alge ? sounds like what you get when a tank is cyceling if so no lights and only feed once a day water change every second day , but youle need to treat your water in bucketsthen add to tank ''''not mix prime in the tank and fill ''''' until you get it under controle . im guesing on the info available you may have crashed your bio and it's cycling again ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubster Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 stop over feeding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 stop over feeding Don't over feed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 is the brown sludg alge ? sounds like what you get when a tank is cyceling if so no lights and only feed once a day water change every second day , but youle need to treat your water in bucketsthen add to tank ''''not mix prime in the tank and fill ''''' until you get it under controle . im guesing on the info available you may have crashed your bio and it's cycling again ? Yea happened when I changed my bio filter media and I'd guess it's algae yes. So should fully clean and do what you suggest or just start doing it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efc Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 Sounds like you are cleaning the tank way too much and killing the good bacteria. A tank has to go through a process called the nitrification cycle. It sounds complicated but its dead simple. Don't do any tank maintenance for 2-3 weeks. Feed ONCE a day during this process and feed SPARINGLY AKA bugger all! If you feel a water change is critical, just do a small 10% water only change and treat the water with prime. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liljohn_83 Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 follow efc hes on the monnie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve6610 Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 filling in some of these will also help, Problem:- Ph:- Ammonia:- Nitrate:- Nitrite:- Gh:- Kh:- Size of tank:- Temperature °C:- Been running for:- Filtration:-Canister/Sump/Internal Filter/Sponge:- Fish in tank:- Plants in Tank:- Feeding:- What food and How often Recent Medication Treatments:- Last water change:- Water change every Day/Weekly/Monthly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 Problem:- ****ty water / algae Ph:- 7 and 9 Ammonia:- 0 Nitrate:- 0 Nitrite:- 0 Gh:- don't know what Gh is Kh:- don't know what Kh is Size of tank:- 200 litres Temperature °C:- 26 degrees Been running for:- 6 months Filtration:-Canister/Sump/Internal Filter/Sponge:- canister Fish in tank:- Africans in one and the other has bristle nose, baby clown loaches angels and blue rams Plants in Tank:- in lower ph with angles has java fern and Anubis Feeding:- What food and How often. Sinking pellets once a day, at the moment not alot Recent Medication Treatments:- none besides prime during water changes Last water change:- last Wednesday Water change every Day/Weekly/Monthly up until the last two months every 3 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 Sounds like you are cleaning the tank way too much and killing the good bacteria.A tank has to go through a process called the nitrification cycle. It sounds complicated but its dead simple. Don't do any tank maintenance for 2-3 weeks. Feed ONCE a day during this process and feed SPARINGLY AKA bugger all! If you feel a water change is critical, just do a small 10% water only change and treat the water with prime. Nick What do I do about the clogged filter if I'm not cleaning it cause absolutly no water is getting through at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuffy_rana Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 start doin 30% water changes daily and turn the lights on for 4 hours a day. as i said on the earlier thread changing biomedia will cause biomass issues in the interim till things re establish properly. dont let it get you down, its fixable but like most good things......... time is the main component HTH nitrate at zero after a week has me a lil worried but it may well be the algae is eating it all up i guess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ash Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 It's been running for six months right? And ( I'm assuming ) the tank was cycled when you first started it yes? If yes to both above, what have you done differently lately that could have caused this? Added more fish, fish grown bigger, overstocked, how overstocked? Cleaned the filter under tap water by accident? Upgraded tank lights or leave lights on longer? Added plants or plant food? for the tank to be going well for so long then all of a sudden things start going pear shaped... If its not something you have done... Sounds like the filtration is not big enough to handle the bio-load... but that depends on how "overstocked" it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuffy_rana Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 It's been running for six months right?And ( I'm assuming ) the tank was cycled when you first started it yes? If yes to both above, what have you done differently lately that could have caused this? Added more fish, fish grown bigger, overstocked, how overstocked? Cleaned the filter under tap water by accident? Upgraded tank lights or leave lights on longer? Added plants or plant food? for the tank to be going well for so long then all of a sudden things start going pear shaped... If its not something you have done... Sounds like the filtration is not big enough to handle the bio-load... but that depends on how "overstocked" it is... the media was changed out recently mate. it was said on another thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ash Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 Ahhhhhhh, yep that'll do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 I did leave some o the used media behind. I'm re testing the water right now so will post the new results in 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 Holy woozers my nitrate has spiked to in between 5ppm and 10ppm since my last test. I did flush the pipes out with tap water because I could think of any other way to get the stuff out. Nitrite 0.50ppm Ammonia 0ppm Ph 7.6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
procull Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 .I did flush the pipes out with tap water because I could think of any other way to get the stuff out. use a pipe brush next time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 Pipe brush?? How would you get it through the whole tube? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 I just realized my other mistake and I feel so silly cause I did it because I was getting frustrated. I put tap water directly into the canister filter... I feel so silly right now. Will my fish be ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
procull Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 my pipe brush is about 4 foot long so it can scrub atleast 8ft of hose , its a brush on each end of a tight floppy spring , about 10bucks from any lfs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadFishFloating Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 ok my advise, for what its worth........... To clean hoses use a pull thru, like ya would on a chromed rifle barrel. A wire brush to start (AKA what procull is advising) and then a strip of rag tied to some cloth. The main problem seems to be the bio filtration was fried by tapwater. Not much to do but feed lightly, test the water and water change before ammonia or nitrite spike to levels that can harm fish. As far as optimizing filtration goes........ replace bio balls with seachem matrix replace carbon with purigen or macropore replace fine white filter pads that are clogging, with coarse blue or black ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaBeck1990 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 It's the pipes that are clogging. I have the one basket with black Matt which is the first the dirty water hits and the the fine white stuff at the opposite side with all the other stuff in between. BTW DFF the peacocks look absolutly amassing and have already grown so much, they seem to have made all my other peacocks grow faster aswel, and this is not their tank they are in, they are in another tank that all my other Peacock fry are in, can't wait to put them in my display tank, which is still under construction lol, my partner and I are building a 3 foot aqaurium coffee table that will eventually be for my peacocks, blue dolphins and hump heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadFishFloating Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 ah now thats music to my ears, good to hear! strange that its the pipes clogging tho methinks we need to lab analyse on the clog! Is it pet hair or anubias fibre or bacteria mulm or wut??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadFishFloating Posted March 13, 2012 Report Share Posted March 13, 2012 ah now thats music to my ears, good to hear! strange that its the pipes clogging tho methinks we need to lab analyse on the clog! Is it pet hair or anubias fibre or bacteria mulm or wut??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
