[Dirty Bottom] Please advise....

[s050399b]

Hi guys,

Always find that the bottom is always very dirty, if you stir it, you will faint........

any advise?

[Simon]

Siphon

[vinz]

Could mean that your tank circulation not good, i.e. the dirt isn't going by the filter intake.

You could add shrimps or active bottom swimmers like cories or loaches. Their activity will stir up the dirt and hopefully * cross your fingers * the dirt will end up being carried by water currents to the filter intake... this is really slow and is more of a prevention then a cure... i.e. do a siphon of the substrate surface first. After that the fishes will help to prevent new dirt from settling too long.

[Simon]

could it be something contributing to the collection of dirt? rotting plants? leftover food? circulation shouldn't be too strong that the dirt gets blown off the gravel and clouding the water column

[vinz]

[quote:1a03938989="Simon"]... circulation shouldn't be too strong that the dirt gets blown off the gravel and clouding the water column[/quote:1a03938989]

Opps! Better clarify... I agree with Simon here. What I meant earlier is that circulation should be good enough to carry most detritus by the filter inlet before they get a chance to settle down permanently.

Anyway, it's not unusual to find mulm collection under the plants, where circulation isn't very strong.

[s050399b]

hi guys, i am having a 2 feet tank, have one of those dolphne filters, initially bought one, put it at left, all the waste are acculmulated at right, bought another one and put at right, and the waste gather in centre,

put in 2 apple snails, all the waste are gone now,

problem is now got lots of green algue on the glass wall, the snails eat those too,

thinking of getting molly, SAE, and more apple snails to clean up the algue,

you guys never know apple snails eat waste right? haha! that's my secret!!

[Simon]

[quote:74f1153be0="s050399b"]hi guys, i am having a 2 feet tank, have one of those dolphne filters, initially bought one, put it at left, all the waste are acculmulated at right, bought another one and put at right, and the waste gather in centre,

put in 2 apple snails, all the waste are gone now,

problem is now got lots of green algue on the glass wall, the snails eat those too,

thinking of getting molly, SAE, and more apple snails to clean up the algue,

you guys never know apple snails eat waste right? haha! that's my secret!! [/quote:74f1153be0]

Dolphne brand? overhead filter? If so, how is the output like? vertically down? or did you divert the flow?

[s050399b]

The dolpine filter is a immitation of the penguin filter, difference is, there's a biowheel in the original design. It's about SGD$17 for model 300, which does 300 litres / hour. The most expensive is about SGD$25

The below is the original filter from USA. Dolphine is from Taiwan.







For apple snails, get the biggest size! about size of a 50 cent coin, and it cost SGD$0.50 at Blk 328, Clementi Ave 2, #01-210, Singapore 120328, tel: 6777-8468. I'm planning to get it from there, as my LFS charge me $0.80, and they don't have stock now.

But remember that snails need calcium in their diet, so boiled some spinach, cut it into small pieces and feed them. Or get coral chips, and put it in your filter, it will disolve slowly. Tablets make the water cloudy for 1-2 days. Can get from guardain.