Hello Everyone! I have a 350 gallon planted tank that always has a bunch of particles in the water and I am wondering if this is just something I have to deal with having a big tank. All of my smaller tanks are crystal clear with nothing floating in the water. The 350 water is also very clean except for the particles floating in the tank. I do not think the issue is my mechanical filtration since I have several layers of filter batting as well as 3 layers of 50-micron pads. The return pump is also 5000gph. The tank is stocked with 3 angelfish, 3 electric blue acaras, 10 congo tetras, 6 black skirt tetras, 3 clown loaches, 2 Bolivian Rams, 2 pearl gouramis, and 1 gold severum. Is it just normal to have a lot of particles in the water? Or does anyone else have a big tank with crystal clear water?
350 Gallon Tank Always Has Debris In The Water
- Thread starter RickyV
- Start date
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: < 5 ppm
I used to do 50% weekly water changes, but currently do 30% water changes every other week since the larger water changes had no impact on the particles in the water.
It doesn't matter how good you think your mech side is, if debris isn't getting to it to be collected then you will always have bits in your tank. Is it a surface skimming set up or bottom suction? Do you have any powerheads to help direct debris to your outlets. Have you got substrate with lots of decor? There are lots of factors involved, but ultimately it is a problem that should be able to be remedied easily with a bit of tweaking.
My setup is a surface skimming set up in the middle with two return lines pointing to the right and left side of the tank. They output tremendous flow but probably does not get everywhere evenly. I think it may be that I do have a lot of decor. It is a heavily planted aquarium with a decent amount of hardscape. I do not have any powerheads in the tank because I thought the flow from the 2 returns was enough, but I may need a few smaller powerheads to keep debris from collecting in certain areas.
Hello; A decade or two ago I decided to tackle this issue and was successful. I used a 20 gallon long to test some concepts. Still have that tank and it is setup currently.
Over the decades I have tried varying ways to create a landscape beyond a simple layer of substrate. Among the early things I did was to use silicone to adhere sheets of slate to lengths of glass. I found this to work well when done in a dry condition. In fact I still have a few of those pieces of glass still with some slate attached from the 1970's.
I also found I could make distinct levels in a tank using the glass panels. Sometimes just a single length of glass at an angle at each end of a tank. Using two different heights of glass I could have three distinct levels with very deep substrate in the corners. ( Note -I do thing rooted plants like a deep substrate)
I made one more discovery. That being I could smear a layer of clear silicone onto a section of glass and then sprinkle dry gravel substrate onto the tacky silicone. That makes the glass very much less visible and I did not have to use slate.
So I put together a test tank. On the left at the back I made a section as the tallest height. I made an adjacent section at a lower level in the middle of the tank. On the right side of the tank I made a third level an thought I was being very clever. On that right side I built a tunnel leading from the very lowest level at the front back to a space at the right rear of the tank. ( I will explain why it was not so clever later)
I used a HOB filter positioned so the intake was low at the back of the tank at the right hand in a space created at the end of the tunnel. I modified the output of the HOB so it pushed the water out across the tank and toward the highest level at the back left of the tank. I set it up and it worked just fine. The flow was such that detritus moved down the levels to the lowest level and into the tunnel. There it was picked up by the filter intake. Worked like a charm up to a point. No more detritus piling up at the lowest levels. I was happy and pleased with myself for a while.
The downside came when I needed to catch a fish out of that tank. Some fish found they could hide in the tunnel, maybe by accident but they never forgot. A net goes into the water and they dash to the tunnel. Not so clever after all, I was. There were ways to deal with this but none to good. The best was to get something in front of the tunnel to block it.
I may have some old pictures of that tank and will look to see.
Over the decades I have tried varying ways to create a landscape beyond a simple layer of substrate. Among the early things I did was to use silicone to adhere sheets of slate to lengths of glass. I found this to work well when done in a dry condition. In fact I still have a few of those pieces of glass still with some slate attached from the 1970's.
I also found I could make distinct levels in a tank using the glass panels. Sometimes just a single length of glass at an angle at each end of a tank. Using two different heights of glass I could have three distinct levels with very deep substrate in the corners. ( Note -I do thing rooted plants like a deep substrate)
I made one more discovery. That being I could smear a layer of clear silicone onto a section of glass and then sprinkle dry gravel substrate onto the tacky silicone. That makes the glass very much less visible and I did not have to use slate.
So I put together a test tank. On the left at the back I made a section as the tallest height. I made an adjacent section at a lower level in the middle of the tank. On the right side of the tank I made a third level an thought I was being very clever. On that right side I built a tunnel leading from the very lowest level at the front back to a space at the right rear of the tank. ( I will explain why it was not so clever later)
I used a HOB filter positioned so the intake was low at the back of the tank at the right hand in a space created at the end of the tunnel. I modified the output of the HOB so it pushed the water out across the tank and toward the highest level at the back left of the tank. I set it up and it worked just fine. The flow was such that detritus moved down the levels to the lowest level and into the tunnel. There it was picked up by the filter intake. Worked like a charm up to a point. No more detritus piling up at the lowest levels. I was happy and pleased with myself for a while.
The downside came when I needed to catch a fish out of that tank. Some fish found they could hide in the tunnel, maybe by accident but they never forgot. A net goes into the water and they dash to the tunnel. Not so clever after all, I was. There were ways to deal with this but none to good. The best was to get something in front of the tunnel to block it.
I may have some old pictures of that tank and will look to see.
Hello; I found some pictures of a later way the tank was set up after I removed the tunnel. The pictures do show how the gravel on the glass can look. 
I I use the Dicromatious Earth filter linked to in my signature and my tank always has crystal clear water.