# Dirty Tank?



## tennis4you (25 Jun 2010)

I am struggling with what seems to be a lot of particles of some sort in the tank.  They settle on the plants and then they do not look as good.  

I was originally doing water changes once a week, maybe 33% each time.  I have bumped that up to twice a week, about 50% each time.  That seems to help but not solving the issue.  Although I have only done that for 3 weeks so that is only 6 water changes.

I am attaching an image, the small plants up close seem to get coated with stuff, the algae eaters will get some of it off now and then, but not all of it.  Not sure if that is algae or if I have other issues.

I do have small amounts of BBA around and some other algae.  I am struggling big time with this tank.  I have CO2 going (couldn't tell you how much CO2 is int he water though).  I am slamming in about 4-5 bubbles per second in a 30 gallon tank, the fish seem to be OK.  

Picture below.  Any thoughts on why there would seem to be so many particles in the tank.  If I do anything in the tank it just stirs it all up and then it settles on the plants.


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## bigmatt (25 Jun 2010)

Difficult to tell 'cos it looks brilliantly clear in the pic!  
Maybe try upping your flow rate to keep particles in suspension and then put some filter floss in your filter to strain it out.  It does compromise flow but it does work well.  Maybe run a second filter just with floss to clean it out?
Hope this helps!
Matt


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## tennis4you (25 Jun 2010)

I like the idea of the filter floss.  

All in all the tank looks good until I get my hands in it and then everything kicks up.  The flow rate is really high from the canister filter for a 30 gallon tank so it takes a little while for it to settle.  It just seems like it is dirtier than it should be...


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## bigmatt (25 Jun 2010)

There's always a bit of muck to grub up - you could also try disturbing the plants before water change then syphoning out as much of the muck as you can.  A top tip i picked up from reading George Farmer's article is also to refill using 6mm airline - prevents substrate disturbance really nicely!
M


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