floating particles

[Darth_discus]

i was just asking in my 48*18*18 inch tank i have 6 discus, uv, a jebo815, a eheim 2213, eheim aquaball2208, schego air pump. i do water changes evey second day(20 litres), and 40 litres every sunday, i also add OAFI geo liquid after every water change, and i was still wondering why there are floating particles even with the internal filter.

so can any one give me any ideas on what to do or what it is

Sorry forgot to mention added the aquaball internal filter a day ago.

[skoom]

Maybe if you added a UV steriliser then the water will clear up. Ladyred told me it is probably due to a bacterial bloom. I was doing 25% water changes daily and it wouldn't clear up. Once I installed a UV steriliser I have not seen cloudy water again.

[Merrilyn]

Darth, one or two things come to mind.

First is that there is not enough fine sponge or filter wool in your filters, and so even though it's picking up the fine particles, it is just letting them thru.

The other thing is, the flow of the water in your tank. Obviously the particles have to go past the filter intake to be sucked in and dealt with, but unless there is a continuous flow around the tank, the particles will stay suspended in the water.

Can you do a pic of the arrangement of the filters in your tank, and perhaps indicate where each outlet is.

The last thing that comes to mind, is, are you feeding a home made beefheart mix, and is it perhaps too fine, and the particles float for a long time after you feed the fish.

Let me know, and maybe we can sort something out.

P.S. Skoom, he has got a uv on his tank :wink:

[Darth_discus]

yes i can get a pic, but i am not feeding them a home made solution but i will be making up one soon and guess whos it is yours ladyred.

before i do anything i will try something because with the outlet*2 i have got one on one side and one on the other side and then i've got the intake the same one on one side and one on another side. what i will try is putting the outlets on the same side and the intakes on the same side and then have the internal pump on the outleets side pushing the water and particles back into the inlets

would this be an alright setup and i will get more filter pad very fine

[skoom]

sorry. my bad. hope things will work out.

[Darth_discus]

thanks i'm still yet to swap around the tank and get a pic

[nicholas76]

Darth

just a suggestion.

Im not knocking the OAfI product however I think you would get a better result with the Geo product instead.

I have heard mixed results from the OAfi product thats all.


secondly what are you feeding your fish and how much?? what are you parameters reading please

[Darth_discus]

i am feeding my fish

frozen redworms
live brine shrmp
frozen daphina
frozen brine shrimp
beefheart
shrimp
colourbits
OAFI discus food
hikari discus

my parameters are

ph 6.6
nitrate 40
nitrite 0
ammonia 0

[Merrilyn]

Darth, that's a pretty high nitrate reading. Could you possibly be overfeeding. Increase your waterchanges to bring that nitrate reading under control. Discus actually prefer a reading of under 10, so there has to be a reason for the high reading, and it's usually overfeeding.

[nicholas76]

cha ching !!

on the money ! overfeeding !!

[Darth_discus]

ok i wont feed as much but if it doesn't fix what then should i do

[marg]

Just ease up on the feeding for starters - I am sure you will see a big difference. When I first started out I had a similar problem - cut down on the excessive feeds and all was o.k..

[OscarManAlpha]

I'm seriuosly considering getting back into Discus in the near future.

Sydney water ( is my only option )

Just a couple of questions.

1 ) Is geo liquid of any benefit ?

2) If my tap water is 7.2 ph +/- with low or no KH Will I need to lower it further than that ?

3) From what I can gather keeping the water low or Nitrate free is far more important than a low ph ( I don't intend keeping wild caught fish atm )

[marg]

Oscarmanalpha, in answer to your questions:

GEOLIQUID - you will probably get a lot of different opinions on this one, but here's mine :

I have two 4 foot tanks and one 3 foot tank, all containing Discus. I do use Geoliquid in the 3 foot tank mainly because it is a barebottomed tank - no plants, wood or anything, and has only a box filter and a sponge filter for cleaning, however the 4 foot tanks have wood and plants in them and cannister filters so I don't use it in them as there is no way that I could afford to treat tanks of that size considering the amount of water changes you have to do to keep your tanks healthy.

PH - Keep your PH between 6.00 and 7.00. I maintain my tanks at about 6.8.

Hope this helps you.

[jim from sydney]

Get lots of cardinals...they love to eat the bits left-over........if you use beefheart mix than put a binder thru' it....dont break the beefheart up in small pieces when feeding let the discus do it for you and you will not get particles floating....practice a bit.....Jim

[marg]

You are right there Jim, cardinals are real little scavengers, aren't they.

I notice that as soon as I put food in my largest tank the clown loach and the knife fish (who sleep side by side) are out and about real quick, looking for a tit bit.

[Mattzilla]

i found that when i installed a fluidised bed filter that helped a lot with reducing floating particles. it polished the water like it has never looked before

worked great for me

[aquafrogstuff]

Darth,

I recently had a similar issue with my tank i.e. particles. It really bugged me. I have an internal filter like yourself. I basically bought another one for $30 and replaced the sponge filter with wool. I left it in the tank for a week with the main filter, problem solved. I use the additional filter regularly now, particularly when I do water changes and things in the tank get stirred up. Works well.

[rytis]

Darth, one or two things come to mind.

First is that there is not enough fine sponge or filter wool in your filters, and so even though it's picking up the fine particles, it is just letting them thru.
good thinking.... i also had same problem til i made my own filter with an intake tube stretched out accross the tank to cover wider area. believe it or not that made all the difference in my success keeping discus.

[Darth_discus]

i still haven't been able to clear it up
i have gone down to starving the fish everything.

Should i clean out everything in the tank eg pipes, both uv, all filter etc.

PLZ help :banghead :ug

[rytis]

get a pleco it will help clean some leftovers. make sure your filters are not over clogged slowing down performance.
patience in feeding is another thing: i cut beefheart myself and it definetely pays coz i know what size to cut (worked out a system) its more work, but there is zero leftovers, no particles with that particular stuff.... filter (selfmade) i clean inside foams 2 times a week.

[Merrilyn]

Darth, can you get a pic of the fine particles that you're talking about, then we might have a better idea of the problem.

[Darth_discus]

i will try soon on the weekend i will get rid of filter sponges and buy new ones and clean out uv get light and pipes

I will try and get a pic, but can't guratee early in the weekend maybe on sunday. :( :cry: