I cant keep my water clean, and its driving me crazy.

[mowielx]

I'm no expert but are you washing the filter media out with tap water or the tank water that you have taken out. If you wash it in tank water it is likely that the bacteria is being killed and your tank may be cycling every time. Although as everyone has said it sounds like a nasty waste buildup around the rocks. Every time i water change i gravel vac a new section of sand.

Cheers

 

[Toby_H]

I'm no expert but are you washing the filter media out with tap water or the tank water that you have taken out. If you wash it in tank water it is likely that the bacteria is being killed and your tank may be cycling every time.

I rinse my Aqua Clear sponges under the tap with hot water about every other week. Although this probably does kill the Beneficial Bacteria that lives in the sponge, there is BB throughout the system. Since BB has a very high doubling rate, this minor loss is quickly replaced... There are a lot of myths and exaggerations out there about beneficial bacteria... But that's the topic for another thread

The problem here is the waste that has been building up in the gravel for months that hasn't been cleaned...

 

[12 Volt Man]

if you are rinsing your filters under tap water briefly, the chlorine is not killing any bacteria, the contact time is nowhere near long enough.

I have been doing this for 20 years, always wondering why I was not wiping out my tanks lol

then I got into the water and wastewater treatment industry and found out why.

chlorine takes time to work. water treatment plants, for example, in ontario, allow for a minimum 20 minutes contact time for water to be exposed to chlorine (which is a surface disinfectant) for disinfection.

thats why rinsing your media under tap water for 30 seconds doesn't do anything.

now, granted, the more chlorine in your water, the lower the contact time required for disinfection.

but still, your not going to be anywhere near the time required to cause problems unless your municipal water is straight chlorine..

 

[MonsterMinis]

I would have to agree that large water changes could do more damage then good at this point.. I do 25% WCs on my 40 gal 2x a week for my juvi Oscar and his tank mates ( very high bio-load tank) and will liekly need to bump it up to 3x before I can find a tank to upgrade too. multile smaller Wcs are far better ime then 1 giant one. if your water stays bad enough that you thnk about doign 50% WC's break it down too 2 smaller ones. My oscars tank is bare bottom.. and It's filthy by the end of the week as I only really "gravel vac" one of those WCs. or if you like the river rock, thin it out so you can suck the extra debris easily all the way down to the glass... approx 2"-3" depth of gravel if that. and instead of complealty upgradeing your filter system I'de add another filter to the tank opposed to just one bigger new one. I find 2 filters is a blessing for BB growth in a system and helps regulate water perameters better. as the 2 systems "feed" eachother bacteria. personally though I would be looking into upgradeing the fishs tank to a 125 or 150 in the near future if possible or aquireing another tank to seperate them. as many people have stated. 50glas isn't big enough for 1 adult O really let alone 2. for now these sugegstions will help. but honestly imo the only true answer is upgrade your tank size, re-home one of them, or split them into 2 75 gal tanks.

 

[Natural_Born_Killer]

From what I know about gravel, and many have stated this above, you really need to keep it clean.

If I were you I would switch over to sand, its far easier to keep clean as all the dirt sits at the top so you can just suck it out. You must make sure to go around all decor as its great hiding places for dirt.

 

[ChannelCat]

Ok, on the fish size, they may be bigger than 4 inches. Its hard to gauge when i can barely see them, but i wouldnt give them over 6 inches.

I vacuumed the gravel this morning and suprisingly not much came out. I ran it all over the bottom for a while and i didnt pull anything big out. Most of it looked like toilet water.

I also did a 20% water change and I will do that again in a day or two.

I took the AQ completely out and cleaned everything. Under the foam media it looked like brown mud. I replaced the media in this order: Foam, Scrubbies, Carbon/Charcoal?. I have been away from carbon/charcoal? media for about a year, but i saw it do wonders with my tanks in the past so it cant hurt to try.

I guess i am going to do away with the rocks. Where do I get pool filter sand and is it expensive?

 

[Toby_H]

Keep in mind that your system requires Beneficial Bacteria to break down waste. It’s growing on all the surfaces in your system. So be careful about how much you change/clean at a time or you may remove too much bacteria and put yourself in yet another bind.

Did you use a gravel vac (siphon hose with a fatter tube on one end)? And I believe you mentioned earlier this tank is on the ground, So did you take steps to ensure the siphon was strong enough to truly vac the gravel?

You have to clean the filters every once in a while, or they just start spitting dirty stuff back in the water…

My favorite thing about Aqua Clear filters is that if you clean them regularly, you never have to actually replace the media, just wash it. Despite what Hagen says about how to stack media in the Aqua Clear filters, I put my sponge on top and everything else below it. I’ve found this allows less bypass (dirty water bypassing media and flowing back to the tank unfiltered).



12 Volt - I rinse my sponges under the tap with hot water for as long as it takes to get all the crud out of them. Several minutes at least, up to 10 if it’s been a few weeks since I’ve cleaned them.

I am convinced that no problems occur because there is bacteria on all of the surfaces throughout the system, and even though I am killing off a small % when cleaning the sponge, their doubling time is so high they are replaced very quickly and no harm is done.

 

[Sab_Fan]

12 Volt - I rinse my sponges under the tap with hot water for as long as it takes to get all the crud out of them. Several minutes at least, up to 10 if it’s been a few weeks since I’ve cleaned them.

I am convinced that no problems occur because there is bacteria on all of the surfaces throughout the system, and even though I am killing off a small % when cleaning the sponge, their doubling time is so high they are replaced very quickly and no harm is done.

x2 . . . but this is also why I like to have at least two filters on every tank; so that I can clean them on alternating schedules and minimize any adverse impacts on the bacteria . . . so I would advise the OP to add a 2nd filter, and many of the other things suggested (change substrate, more regular vacuuming)

 

[Noddy]

I use a soda bottle with the bottom cut off, attached to a garden hose.
I vaccuum the gravel everyweek and do a 50% WC.
But I was told by people who know quite a bit about Oscars ,that Charcoal in your filter is a bad idea !
But I don't know why ,anyone???

 

[Sab_Fan]

among the theories I've heard about charcoal:

> it removes some positive trace elements from the water
> if left in too long, it will start to leach back into the tank
> it is not necessary

it may not be a "bad idea", but I don't think it's necessary either . . . I stopped using charcoal years ago . . .