Particles In Water

[ckohmh]

I'm using a Ehiem 2026 for my 4ft planted tank. And it is about 2 months already. Using Co2 with solenoid, and a Co2 diffusor (with bio balls, I think that's what they call). I have both middle water swimmers like Rummy nose tetrtas and bottom feeders like corys. I only have a total of 33 fishes (small and medium sizes) in my tank.

The problem is the water in my tank is still kind of cloudy, with particles floating and circulating round the tank after 2 months. And the gravel gets dirty pretty fast, like 1 day after I siphon off the dirt. When the bottom feeders starts feeding, their foraging in the sand cause a lot of dirt to float up in the water. I feed the fishes twice a day and the fishes finished the food in half hr at each feeding.

I have 3 questions :
1. Why is the tank still having particles after 2 months and how to get rid of it?

2. Why does the gravel gets dirty so fast?

3. Shouldn't the filter get rid of these particles?

[vinz]

What filter media do you have in your tank? You should have fine filter floss/cotton. You can pack more in to compress them, but that'll will slow down the flow rate too.

Check that your water circulation is the tank is good. Are the particles flowing to the filter inlet? Consider repositioning the filter inlet and/or outlets.

[ckohmh]

Hi Vinz,

The filter media I have comes with it - some white colour rings, and normal white filter sponge. Bought it at NA. I'm using JBL base fert if that info might help.

I have the inlet on one end and the outlet on the other end. The current flowing out of the outlets is quite strong, can see the particles moving from left side of the tank to the right side. I presume the water is circulating well from this scenario? I can't see whether the particles are going into the inlet as it is blocked by driftwood. But I presume there should be some going in since there is water coming out from the outlet. There were some vallisneria around the area of the inlet, I even cut that away cause I thought they might be preventing the particles from entering the inlet. But no improvement thus far.

[vinz]

Sounds like you're kinda short on filter media.

See Eheim's suggestion for filter media. The manual shold also have a diagram.

You don't have to get Eheim stuff... for the EhfiSubstrat, you can use BioHome or get the LFS to suggest something cheaper. It should be sintered glass (as is EhfiSubstrat and BioHome). Make sure they don't give you zeolite.

The rings, are ceramic rings. They are the bottom-most layer. I thot the 2026 should also come with a blue coarse sponge (can be seen in the link above) that fits above and in the same chamber as the ceramic rings. The top most chamber should be sintered glass and above that the fine white floss pad.

[sherchoo]

I was quite dissapointed when I first bought my Eheim 2028. I expected the filter to out-perform my Fluval 303 but to my suprise the filtering effect was the same. There were small particles (probably the same as ckohmh's) floating around causing much frustration after investing so much without any improvement. After about 1+ months, I bought my chiller. Installed it and to my suprise the floating particles was not so evident anymore. What I believe is that since the chiller have been installed, the flowrate has reduced quite a bit.

What I'm trying to say is that, if you have too high of flowrate, dirt tends to be stirred up into the water column making it look dirty. You could give that a try... lower your flowrate a little if you have a very strong flow going.

[elmike]

Hi guys

I have the same problem w stubborn fine particles that never seemed to get filtered out although I have 2 powerheads running at opposite sides. I was told that there are very fine filter media down to 25 micron that could just do the trick. Are these readily available at our lfs? Any brand name and where do I get them?

mike

[bclee]

I think just wait a while for the filter media to clog up a little especially when the media is brand new. The filtering will improve after a while.

When the bio-film in the media build up, it will help cling on to finer particles.

BC

[ckohmh]

Is it ok to lower the flow rate? Cause I read somewhere in the forum that it is best to keep it as it maximum for good filtration. For planted tanks, is it better to have fast flow rate or slow flow rate? I noticed the display tanks at Pet Safari you could hardly see any flow of the water, everything seems so still and peaceful other than the fishes swimming around.

Look forward to some advice

[vinz]

Yes you can lower the flow rate, but not too low. The idea is to achieve gentle but complete circulation in the tank.