crystal clear water??

[shawnme]

bros,

i seem to have a problem with my water condition.i cant seem to get my water to be crystal clear like some bros do.

it looks like this : when the lights are off, the i can clearly see through the tank and it looks perfectly clear.however, when the lights are turned on, it's is obviously visible that there are minute particles floating around in the water.except for some which i notice to be tiny bubbles coming out of my reactor, plants bubbling like soda water and some white crawlies moving about the glass panels. besides that, it's those "i dont know what" particles which look white in colour to me visible to the naked eye(only when lights are turned on).

i've been doing some thinking and searching yet i couldnt come out with an explanation to it.

could it be the water hardness??? as i do have some coral chips in my canister since the last time i had calcium deficiency.

or could it be due to overdosing on NPK or micros???

well, i think i could fill out the need help template as well..

Beginners Info Sheet
--------------------

Tank Dimensions (LxWxH): 24"x12"x15" (90%full)

Tank Volume (litres or gallons): ~66L

Lighting Intensity(No of Watts) : 60w (3wpg)

Type of Lighting (FL/PL/MH) : 1x20wFL + 1x40wPL

No. of Hours your light is on : 10 hrs daily

CO2 Injection Rate (bps) : ~1.5bps

Type of CO2 (DIY/Liquid/Tank) : 2.5L cylinder

Method of Injection (e.g. Diffusor/Reactor): reactor

Substrate Used : river sand ~1-2mm dia.

How Thick is your base fert : ~2cm

How thick is your gravel : ~4-6cm

Liquid Fertilizers Used : Dr.Mallick's line of ferts

Frequency of fertilization : daily

Tank Temperature : 25-27 C

Type of Filter (overhead/internal/canister) : canister

Filter media used : sintered glass

How long has your tank been set up : 1 month +

Other equipment : surface skimmer

Chemical Properties (Fill what you can)
---------------------------------------
Carbonate Hardness (KH): 9 dkH
Total Hardness (gH): dont know (value too high)
pH : 7.2
NH4 (ppm):
NO2 (ppm):
NO3 (ppm): 80 ppm
PO4 (ppm):
Fe (ppm):

Chemical ferts dosing : per week

50% water change
3x5ppm NO3
3x0.5ppm PO4
4x3ppm K
estimate calculation of 4x0.22 Fe from LG-Micros

Bioload (Your Fish and Plants)
------------------------------

5 amano shrimps


Plants :

micranthemum unbrosum (growing well but old leaves turning brown)
h.micranthemoides (growing well but slight BBA on some that didnt recover from Ca deficiency)
glossostigma (growing well)
blyxa japonica (growing very well)
e.tenellus (growing and spreading fast)
rotala indica/rotudifolia (see some orange tinge and growing well)
rotala walichii (not so well but looks like recovering - alot of side shoots)
1 unknown (not too bad)


oh yeah, i forgot to add, for the past few days, i see some thread algae on the glass and i'm still fighting minor spot algae on some glosso and the glass panels which convinced me to invest on some test kits.

[juggler]

Can you check that the fine filter wool in your cannister filter is placed properly? There may be some gaps which water just flowed throught without being filtered. If you have not enough of the fine filter wool, put some more.

[shawnme]

alright..thanks bro juggler, i've changed and increased the amount of fine filter wool and checked that there's no passage in between for water to flow through.

[shawnme]

amount of filter wool checked and doubled...condition seem to increase by 70%...but i still have minute particles around the water space.

well, i shall double the amount of filter wool.

however, could it be due to the design of my canister?? eheim 2213....could the water flow be too strong for a 24"x12"x15"????

i've never had the problem with my 2028....

[barmby]

It may just be the Chlorine in your water that caused it. Why? You did 50% water change and killed the good bacteria + turned off the filter during water change (my guess). And bacteria boom is the core reason.

Try adding Anti-chlorine into the tank before water is added to top up the 50% less.

This works for me.

If not, you may consider spending more by adding a UV-Lamp.

[juggler]

[quote:f9769becb3="shawnme"]amount of filter wool checked and doubled...condition seem to increase by 70%...but i still have minute particles around the water space.

well, i shall double the amount of filter wool.

however, could it be due to the design of my canister?? eheim 2213....could the water flow be too strong for a 24"x12"x15"????

i've never had the problem with my 2028....[/quote:f9769becb3]

2213 should be more than adequate for a 2ft tank. If you can get the connectors to adjust the flow rate, it would be better.

Since the condition is getting better, why not wait a while more? As more dirt get trapped in the filter, the finer the filtration will be.

[shawnme]

it has been 2 days...and the condition has improved by almost 70% since the first days.....

it's not the chlorine...i use age water added with anti-chlorine....so i dont think it's about the bacteria as i see through the water clearly.the only matter now is the minute particles suspended in the water column.

i'm not sure if this is true but i often see 1 or 2 particles being blown out of my reactor. maybe the 2213 is too strong all along. or maybe i over stuffed it with media forcing the water to go around the media instead of going through it.i get this idea because i added flocculants to 85% of it's recommended dosage and still see minimal improvement. meaning that water wasnt filtered well.

anyway, i'm really exhausted with ideas, but the next step i'll try is to clean the media without destroying the colony of bb and to minimize the amount of filter medias within...

thanks for your ideas bros.....any more??? desperate to solve this problem as i envy those tanks with super clear water...hehe...and their successful owners....

[shawnme]

bros..

i just found out my KH, pH and NO3 readings today..

KH = 9dkH <---is it too hard??
pH = 7.2 <--- i still get a good reading of CO2 from the calculator
NO3 = 40-80 ppm <---*phew* ...and my amano shrimps are fine

so could it be the KH ?? i'll lower it from 9 dKH to around 5 dKH by removing my coral chips in my canister and use Sodium Bicarbonate instead...(which i suppose what most bros have) and i dont think i need to buffer gH as my tap reading is more than 20 dKH which i guess is fine..am i right???

my nitrate reading really gives me a shock. i guess my stock solution isnt that accurate after all since i did not use distilled water. however, water change is tomorrow, so i'll bear with it. Luckily my amano shrimps survived. in fact, my tap reading is already at ~10 ppm. so i guess i wont be needing to dose much of NO3 if i feed well.