syndicate;3359102; said:
so what filter would you recommend if I upgrade? I hate to let the AQ go but it is not doing the job
I cant keep my water clean, and its driving me crazy.
- Thread starter ChannelCat
- Start date
so what filter would you recommend if I upgrade? I hate to let the AQ go but it is not doing the job
Might be stupid but do u gravel vac the whole tank when water changing cause I have river rocks as sub in my 350 and I suck a lot a crap out everyweek
No, i dont vac regularly because it is a pain in the *** with a floor tank. Would it make a considerable difference?
Yeah, it does. Big difference. Gravel vac all the time and get rid of the river rock bottoms; they're terrible.
ChannelCat;3359111; said:
AC110s are one of the best filters (at least HOB) in the industry. Get another one.
ChannelCat;3359133; said:
yes with out a doubt.
I would estimate that most HOB's only remove around 20-30% of the actual debris in the water column. And the rest will settle on the bottom and decay.
I would do 50% water changes 3 times a week for maybe 2 weeks and do a good gravel vacuum at each change. After you get caught back up you can probably vacuum every other week. But still change 50% of the water weekly. It helps the tank and fish alot.
Another filter will help but you can never replace good maintenance techniques.
Genetics come in to play here. I assumed you were overfeeding apparently im wrong. A 50 gallon tank as im sure you know is on the rather small volume for two growing oscars. I suggest going bare bottom tank or possibly gravel that you can vacuum easily because oscars eat pretty messy. Also what are your water parameters ?ChannelCat;3359080; said:orly? I guess I am underfeeding then.
It sounds like you were given some poor advice / direction when you were first setting this tank up… It’s good to see that your asking questions now and appear to be willing to make improvements… There have been a lot of mistakes pointed out or improvements suggested, but please don’t take them as criticisms.
If you are going to use gravel as a substrate, you have to do gravel vacs regularly… I agree this is probably the biggest part of your current issue…
I run 2x Aqua Clear 110s on my 55 & 75 gal tanks. The ones with little décor do fine like this, the ones with lots of décor look a lot better with a well placed powerhead keeping the waste from settling.
I gave up on gravel many years ago and only use sand (Pool Filter Sand). Provided you buy a large grained sand, it should be rather simple to keep your filters safe.
Your Oscars definitely should be far bigger than 4” after keeping them 7 months. Chances are your gravel is so full of waste that it keeps your water quality very poor (high nitrates, etc) and has thus stunted your Oscars growth.
I would suggest you avoid doing massive water changes despite previous advice. When organics build up they often cause the PH to decrease, often to a large degree. A huge water change may increase the PH too swiftly which is very unhealthy for your fish. Therefore I suggest doing 15~20% water changes every other day or so, vacuuming the gravel each time
If you are going to use gravel as a substrate, you have to do gravel vacs regularly… I agree this is probably the biggest part of your current issue…
I run 2x Aqua Clear 110s on my 55 & 75 gal tanks. The ones with little décor do fine like this, the ones with lots of décor look a lot better with a well placed powerhead keeping the waste from settling.
I gave up on gravel many years ago and only use sand (Pool Filter Sand). Provided you buy a large grained sand, it should be rather simple to keep your filters safe.
Your Oscars definitely should be far bigger than 4” after keeping them 7 months. Chances are your gravel is so full of waste that it keeps your water quality very poor (high nitrates, etc) and has thus stunted your Oscars growth.
I would suggest you avoid doing massive water changes despite previous advice. When organics build up they often cause the PH to decrease, often to a large degree. A huge water change may increase the PH too swiftly which is very unhealthy for your fish. Therefore I suggest doing 15~20% water changes every other day or so, vacuuming the gravel each time
