Merky Water

[ljm]

Hello to Everyone, i am the new boy on the block. I have a question, I have a 300 lt tank with about 35 or so amazing Cichlids living very happy, however, i am constantly concerned about the cloudy water. I do a 30% water change every sunday. I do regular cleans during the week with EHEIM Quick Vac Pro to get rid of the poo and left over dinner. I run a 1200 Aquaone canister filter and clean the media each week as well. And yet i still get dirty water. I have started looking at the filter and i think that the aquaone is not doing its job properly. Can anyone suggest a high standard of filtration system that will clean the water perfectly.

Thanks

[ljm]

I have looked at the filter, My question is: Does the bottom filter basket need to fit snug . The way it is now, it seems that contaminated water can flow down beside the baskets and into the bottom pickup area. I would have thought that the baskets should fit snug against the filter wall so that there is no bypass. Is that correct ????? I would have thought that the contaminated water should only pass through the filter mediam. It looks like that some dirty water is bypassing the baskets, ending up in the bottom pickup, and getting pumped back into the tank. ???????

[Link2Hell]

sounds like you have answered the question

if the compartments fit incorrectly then you will get by pass

as you describe

check your manual and test fit the baskets so you get as good

as you can fit

coarse material to the bottom and fine filter pad to the top

[Teamsherman]

You can also try "Clarity" by Seachem which binds the microscopic particles together to make them big enough for your fine filter material to be able to trap them in the filter pad.

But I use AquaOne canisters and the baskets in them need to be a snug fit too or else I get the finer stuff coming back into the tank water having not been picked up by the media.

[Buccal]

It's very possible the baskets aren't fitting correctly,,, I have no experience with that filter type.

But on my cannister filters there is a lot of space around outsides of baskets which seems to show as being bypass,,

But I think there's not much bypass in operation, but once the media is beginning to block up, then bypass begins.

Cleaning filters once a week is far to much,,, just over a month if heavy stocked is more likely, but two to three months is more like it.

Otherwise there's to much disruption to beneficial bacterias in filter.

Also with most medias that aren't top end fancy types, you need slight build up of crap as a investment to allow more particles to get caught on the crap that's already in there, (talking about the fine particles that hazes water).

Also look at how much your feeding and what your feeding as some foods can be messy and sometimes in certain circumstances harmless bacterial blooms can occur in short periods.

Google up your filters order of basket stacking if you don't have the instructions.

If your close enough there, then let your filters go for at least a month and see what happens in between then.

If problems still occur,,, then start looking at some high end media like Purigen and the likes of, which by rights you shouldn't need at all.

I have a heavily stocked 2500 liter Malawi tank and I run 2 x FX5 canister filters on it.

When they get blocked (3 months), water gets a yellow tinge not far after water change.

After I clean both filters at once (note I can do ths because I have a overhead K media sump),,,,,,, my water goes hazy for the first week or two as very fine particles are passing through untill the particles start stacking "investing" on themselves.

And no, the haze isn't ammonia spikes.

Hopefully this gives you a few leads.

[ljm]

Awesome, I so basically the baskets should have no gap at all between the basket edge and the filter wall. Can the baskets shrink over a period of time. I bought the tank with the filters as secondhand. Is it a matter of replacing the old baskets with new ones ??

[Chuckmeister]

Its also a very heavily stocked tank for the size. Your filter is rated at 300 litres which is a guide to the size tank but you can also overstock the tank which can put pressure on your filter load if your filter cant keep up. Overloading a tank is a common issue people have. Its just another consideration to think of for the cloudiness.

[Buccal]

Awesome, I so basically the baskets should have no gap at all between the basket edge and the filter wall. Can the baskets shrink over a period of time. I bought the tank with the filters as secondhand. Is it a matter of replacing the old baskets with new ones ??

Unlikely the baskets shrink.

The gap between them and the canister wall is completely normal for almost every canister filter.

I think your real problem as I already said,,, "your being over zealous will your filter cleaning", so let it go cloudy and patiently wait for

2-5 weeks, and I'm pretty certain it'll start working for you.

If your impatient, then go out and buy some expensive media designed for polishing water.

I had a feeling you'd bought it second hand and working it out, that's why I said google the make for order of basket stacking.

[ljm]

I did a spec research on the filter,

The baskets are in order, i agree with ChuckMeister, i think the tank is over stocked.

I have found out that the 1200 Aquaone will do a 250lt tank max. so i recon the filter is overloaded. i have a second one that came with it , so i will set it up as well to see if tht works.

Any good tips on good healthy food for my little cithild friends ?

[Chuckmeister]

Overfiltering a tank is always good but Buccal is right with the cleaning regime. Its a little enthusiastic

Cleaning filters is something I try and do only when I see water flow deteriorate and then I only clean the filter pads