Debris zooming around

[TarkMalbot]

Since upgrading the filtration and flow to 10x in my 165 litre tank there has been a lot of plant debris flying around the tank. It follows the circulation of the flow from the back of the tank and down the front and gets caught up on any plants at the front of the tank. Whenever I see photos or videos of other tanks they always look immaculate. Do others suffer from this and only take their snaps after a good clean up?

 

[Henry]

Do you mean its literally breaking bits off or just whipping it around? If its the former, the flow needs diffusing, the latter you could have nutrient/CO2 problems causing brittle growth.

 

[TarkMalbot]

The planted set up is reasonably new so hoping as they get more rooted and grow stronger there should be less. It's mainly any dead leaves that have detached or pieces of grass that have uprooted.

 

[Steve Smith]

Turn off your filter for a short while to allow things to float to the surface and use a net to remove as much as you can. Won't work 100% but should help.

 

[TarkMalbot]

I pick them out from the surface usually as they are on their travels. Turning the filter off stops the movement but the bits tangled up in the other plants has to be removed by hand.

 

[sciencefiction]

It can happen if the flow is too strong and the flow patterns are counter productive, preventing the floating pieces from getting caught by the filter. The other possibility is the filter isn't catching the particles. Try sponges as fine filter media.
And in the mean time as suggested cleaning them via nets and extra water changes,they may disappear in time as those particles that you see now were probably laying around the tank and by increasing the flow, the "rubbish" zones were lift up in the water and got broken down to pieces floating around.
And of course, the brittle growth possibility already mentioned isn't helping if that's the cause.

 

[TarkMalbot]

The water is clear as such, its just leaves and stems that have uprooted or fallen off for whatever reason. The flow is enough to sway the plants and the Eheim filter does a reasonable job of catching small particles.

Since posting this I now have about 50 Kribensis Fry in the tank so I have put a tight over the filter inlet to stop them being sucked in so larger particles aren't going through the filter at all at the moment!

 

[sciencefiction]

If it's just plant particles, then it's just unhealthy plant growth probably, but the floating pieces should still stick to the media over the inlets rather than floating around. Maybe check the pattern of the flow and adjust a bit.
I've got a tank that is going through a horrible melt plant because the plants were nearly dead before I put them in, and there's nothing floating around. It gets stuck to the sponges I've put on the intakes and the tank does have 10x flow too.