particles in my water

[T]

so in my 180.
ive had this little trouble since i started it up.
there are always particles flying around everywhere small particles
its not sand. its just junk
im running a fx5 with scrubbies and all the polishing pads.

and also a wetdry with 2 pumps going at 1200gph with top layer micro whatever pads and then polyester. and then scurbbies for bio.
the tanks been running for about maybe 1.5 months.
the particles wont go away! why is that...?

anybody have a similar problem? i never had this on my old tanks be4?
i know its coming from the wet dry... seems like the mechanical isnt doing its job becuse the wet dry output sometimes shoots out the particles.... weird how do i stop it?

 

[xaznkewlguyx]

put some water polishing pads in your fx5 tong.

Do you feed your fish mealworms? When I did... oh man.. i hated that crap!

 

[Deaths Sting]

get rid of the polishing pad and scrubbies and get some real media for it. get the prefilter media to handle the small particles. toss the polishing pad, that thing clogs like a b!tch. just use top basket for prefilter media and other two can be bio media. u can keep the scrubbies if u really want but i would use bio max.

 

[Deaths Sting]

put some water polishing pads in your fx5 tong.

Do you feed your fish mealworms? When I did... oh man.. i hated that crap!

adding more polishing pads will make things worse!!

i use prefilter in the top basket and bio max in the bottom 2 baskets. and i got some real big messy eaters! my water is totally crystal clear no particles what so ever.

 

[Rockydog]

adding more polishing pads will make things worse!!

i use prefilter in the top basket and bio max in the bottom 2 baskets. and i got some real big messy eaters! my water is totally crystal clear no particles what so ever.

I'm glad your water is crystal clear but Fluval Pre-filter had absolutely nothing to do with it. Pre-filter was designed (for the earlier Fluval filters) to filter coarse particles much coarser than what the sponges do in the FX5 so the Pre-filter adds no value to the filter. At least biomax, being porous, will filter fine particulate matter.

 

[Moshmarine]

I have same issue with my tank. I run an FX5 that has pre-filter media, bio-max, carbon padding, along with the sponges. I also run a wet/dry. However, it seems to get the worst right after feeding time.

 

[Rockydog]

Show us a picture of your sump, maybe we can advise where to put some filter material. If the water leaving the tank only comes off the surface then that's also a problem because you have to create a current to bring the detritus to the top in order to get to the sump. With your setup you may be creating more water turbulence than creating water flow to get detritus to the filters.

 

[Rockydog]

I have same issue with my tank. I run an FX5 that has pre-filter media, bio-max, carbon padding, along with the sponges. I also run a wet/dry. However, it seems to get the worst right after feeding time.

It will always be the worst right after feeding. In my 180g I have 45 hap/peacock/mbuna males ranging from 4 to 8 in. I always shut down my filters prior to feeding (hate to see good food being sucked up by the filters) and feed 1 tsp of 1mm NLS sinking pellets. Believe me it looks like a war zone after, very small particles everywhere but withing 30 to 45 minutes after the filters are turned back on, the water is clear again.

This is my filtering system

Inlet

Return area in center

Fuge on right side with water going to return area

and an FX5 with biomax in top and center basket and in the bottom basket I have loose Seachem Matrix carbon sandwiched between 2 Fluval blue fine filter pads. The whole bottom basket serves as a fine filter. I do not get any micro bubbles from this setup and does a super filtering job.

In the tank I have the AGA mega flow sump returns which draws water from 3 different levels

and between the two overflows I have my FX5 intake. All the return water is directed across the top of the tank down the front glass and back to the filter intakes.

Not a great pic but this is the tank.

 

[gavigan1]

When I placed my power head less than 12in above the bottom my tank gets cloudy. Too much current = stirred up tank.