What should I do? Please help.

[Angler]

I am having trouble getting my water clear on my 125. There are tons of little particles, which I have determined to be just waste not being picked up by the filters.

I am running 2 xp3s and 2 emperor 400s, and I still have these particles. In the xp3s, I have pads in the bottom basket, matrix in the second, and the ultra fine pad on top. In the emperor 400s, I use the cartridges that come with the fine padding and carbon. additionally, I stuff an xp3 course pad in front of the cartridge that fits pretty well. I clean my xp3s only about once a month, and I clean or change the media on my emperors every 1 or 2 weeks.

What can I do to get my water polished? I have thought about putting filter floss in the emperors, but the pads that come with the emperors are already so fine that I am not sure if it will help. The other thing I was thinking about doing would be to replace the two emperors with two AC110s used entirely for mechanical filtration and use 1 xp3 for mostly bio, and remove the other xp3 if I get the results I want from just the 3 filters.

Any thoughts on this? Please help! Having dirty water when I do fifty percent weekly water changes and watch how much I feed is absolutely driving me crazy. I think my wife is going to divorce me because I never stop thinking about it!

 

[ShadowBass]

The other thing I was thinking about doing would be to replace the two emperors with two AC110s used entirely for mechanical filtration and use 1 xp3 for mostly bio, and remove the other xp3 if I get the results I want from just the 3 filters.

In my experience the aquaclears aren't as good at polishing as the emperors. There is a ton of bypass with them.

I've run the exact same filter setup as you on a 125g with no issues on water clarity. What is your stocking? Are you sure you're not getting algae blooms or something? What are your water parameters and what kind of lighting do you have? Also make sure your tank doesn't happen to be getting natural sunlight from a window or something.

You could run some kind of micron filter like a Magnum 350 and that would help if it is indeed fine particles suspended in your water column.

 

[brianjh]

In my experience the aquaclears aren't as good at polishing as the emperors. There is a ton of bypass with them.

I've run the exact same filter setup as you on a 125g with no issues on water clarity. What is your stocking? Are you sure you're not getting algae blooms or something? What are your water parameters and what kind of lighting do you have? Also make sure your tank doesn't happen to be getting natural sunlight from a window or something.

You could run some kind of micron filter like a Magnum 350 and that would help if it is indeed fine particles suspended in your water column.

A cheaper alternative to the magnum would be to try some "filter aid" your LFS should have it. you apply it to the filter basket and it makes the media kind of sticky. i have used it once in the last month and dont have any issues.

 

[Angler]

My stocking is in my sig. When I test my parameters, they are always healthy. I know that is not a good enough answer on water prameters, but I am at work and can't test them. The tank doesn't really get natural light. I just use a single flourescent strip on a timer which keeps the light on for about 10 hours. It looks like waste particals, not algae. The water has no green tint or anything.

I do get a "white" looking algae type substance on the glass that I haven't gotten on other tanks.

 

[Angler]

One more question - if my water parameters are fine, would these particles by unhealthy for my fish? It seems like these particles constantly being in contact with the gills is not a good thing.

 

[nfored]

I have the same thing, small very small particals floating in my water. I placed Rena FilStar Micro-Filtration Pads with no change. I have the pads so that 100% of the water flows through them, with no chance of bypassing the pads. My next step was to get a 1 micron inline filter. I would love to know how to fix this.

 

[Mattyou]

I use a Diatom Filter on my tanks and it polishes the water like you wouldn't believe. I would recommend a Diatom or a Mag 350.

 

[ken 429]

I have had this problem also i thought since my tanks are in my garage something was laying eggs in my tank. not even a magnum hot 250 with polishing cartridge helped. what i found was that the particles were actually micro bubbles from my emp. 400. try turning off your emp. for a while to see if this might help.

 

[Angler]

My water problem has got to be partly because I am not using my XP3s right.

Argggg........I am so frusterated!

I just took one of them down to clean. It was running for 6 or 7 weeks without being cleaned. It looked like all the gunk was bypassing the pads. It looks like this every single time I take down my XP3s

I have 2 course pads followed by two of the finer ones in the bottom basket. In the second basket, I have Seachem Matrix. In the top, I have the ultra fine pad. The bio basket and ultra fine pad are always all dirty. When I take out the bottom basket, all the gunk is just free floating. When I rinse out the pads from the bottom basket, there is nothing to rinse from them. They are not catching any gunk

Why?? I posted this question on my XP3s before, but never got an answer that has solved my problem. Hopefully someone can help. Thanks.