Tank "dusty" - why?

[bay4215]

Hi All - need some advice here, me a "planted" nut

I have a 4x1.5x1.5 ft that I am keeping as my "planted".

Filtration - 1200 ltr per hr cannister
Lighting - 2 tube 4ft FL white light on about 5hrs daily
Plants - nanas, a bit of moss and some hornwort floating on top.
Inhabitants - Yamatoes, cherry barbs, pencil fish, green eye tetra, misc cories
Water change - 20% per week, add Seachem flourish after each WC
Substrate - fine river sand

Now I find a lot of particles in the water - water's never been clear. And recently am seeing a lot of brown "dirt" on the hornwort. When I disturb the HW, the dirt will be all over the tank.

Why is this so? What am I not doing right? By the way, tank's been runnig for over 6 mths.

Seperately question - my nanas in another tank all along been ok but recently some leaves start turning yellow and rot. Why? No change in lighting nor water leh.

Appreciate some advice.

Thanks!!

[Shaihulud]

Not enogh mechanical filtration? Cannister filters GPH is not rated very high, getting a HOB filter that passes alot of water through its sieve should reduce the amount of particulate.

[Shadow]

your corries probably disturb your fine river sand.

About the nana, what is your fertelizer dossing?

[Quixotic]

I highly doubt it is the work of the cories (certainly not the one causing the brown dirt on the floating hornwort).

If the water has never been clear, something else must be causing this, could be lack of mechanical filtration or water movement (dirt on floating hornwort). Some more infromation on the cannister filter may help.

[Matt]

Is the water coming out of the filtration flushing the bottom of the tank?
Just a thought...

[bay4215]

Well, the outlet of the cannister is placed just above the water surface, to generate some breakage of the water surface. As for water movement, there are some parts of the surface that's rather still, but underneath, there's current generated by the cannister outlet.
Could be lack of mechanical filtration but the bioload's not high and was thinking the cannister should be good enough.

Fert dosage of nanas? No fert. Only PL lighting (in a 2.5ft height tank) for about 5 hrs daily. Was ok all along and been growing new shoots. Only recently start showing such signs.

Thanks for your efforts and trouble-shooting guys, keep them coming.

[|squee|]

The fine river sand might contain that "dust"... have you washed it before you put it in use? I find the sand sold at LFSes to be extremely dusty.

[ballsmyberries]

I'm having the same problem also but i'm using JBL Aquabasic plus......

[Barra21]

Yup i agree. I used lapis sand in the past and i must have washed it like more than 5 times before i'm satisfied to put it in the tank. Best to wash it first. but then again i'm doing a 2 ft tank and it'll be totally madness to wash gravel for lets say a 4-6 ft tank. haha.

[Quixotic]

But surely, 6 months is a long time for it to clear, even for the most dusty of gravel, isn't it? Perhaps try running an additional filter, e.g. HOB, purely on mechanical filtration and see how it goes.

[bay4215]

The sand been with me for some yrs.....used in other setups previously so don't think its the sand.
Ya, more inclined to think its the filtration...lack of mechanical filtration....but strange thing is why a simple tank like this can generate so much "dirt"?

[Barra21]

Maybe you can try those water clarifiers. Like the one by easy-life. i feel that works for me. I have a 2 ft tank with discus with an internal filter. Using that product cleared up the water in a day.

[juggler]

I think you should re-check the fine filter wool in your cannister filter. Maybe you left some gaps which allowed the "dirt" to seep thought back into the tank.

I encountered this before in my Eheim. I put more fine filter wool at the top and it was OK after that. Check the flow diagram of your filter and where the filter media should be placed.