Keeping the tank spotless

[Danny]

It seems no matter how long I spend cleaning the tank each day it's never clean, I ruffle the plants daily and net/siphon out any debris etc but it's never ending.

I only have 6 cardinal tetra at the moment and barely feeding, it's just dirty. So much so it's really getting annoying now, the stems seem to hold dirt constantly and I just don't get where it's coming from.... It's like rank muck from a tank that hasn't been cleaned in months and I can spend 1/2hrs a day cleaning but it's never bloody ending.

Is this normal or am I just being ocd about it? When ever I look at the tanks run by top aquarists they look absolutely spotless.

 

[Chrispowell]

Is it a new tank? Not diatoms is it?? Really most established tanks should look fine for 7 day’s or longer without much more then a few stray bits of substrate mixing.

Obviously the best tanks have lots of work to keep them looking good but you shouldn’t need to do 1/2hour a day

 

[Danny]

Only planted it a couple of weeks ago, no diatoms at all it's just muck as if it's been planted and neglected for 6 months.

 

[alto]

More substrate breakdown? didn't you have the ADA mud slide

I noticed you have an Eheim Classic 250 on this tank, I'd check flowrate - I realize you have an additional circulation pump but only the Eheim is actually "polishing" the water, if you have any inline equipment on this filter, tank turnover may only be a couple times an hour (at best this filter will manage 440l/h but my experience with the Classic filters is they are very susceptible to back pressure flow reduction)

What media is in the Eheim?

Tank looked good in the Thursday photo - maybe try including some "muck" photos

 

[Danny]

More substrate breakdown? didn't you have the ADA mud slide

I noticed you have an Eheim Classic 250 on this tank, I'd check flowrate - I realize you have an additional circulation pump but only the Eheim is actually "polishing" the water, if you have any inline equipment on this filter, tank turnover may only be a couple times an hour (at best this filter will manage 440l/h but my experience with the Classic filters is they are very susceptible to back pressure flow reduction)

What media is in the Eheim?

Tank looked good in the Thursday photo - maybe try including some "muck" photos

I have been considering that the filter isn't turning over enough water, it's more matter than finer particles though so not a side affect of the filter.

I have alfagrog, the coarse sponge and floss in the canister.

I cleaned it earlier but I'll stir it up again tomorrow or Tuesday and grab some photos, I've put it down to bio film from the wood breaking down and rotting plants ( the rotting I don't particularly have )

The stems on the rotala constantly look dirty when you look at them properly, a photo from a distance hides it well.

I trimmed the rotala and mosses pretty hard today to try and freshen everything up with new growth to see how that goes.

 

[Maple]

A few months ago I set up a new nano tank with a small internal filter. I had some diatoms to start with and then a lot of brown looking muck everywhere for a long time. I thought it was still diatoms and put a couple of fast growing plants, weekly water changes, and upgrade to a bigger internal filter, and it cleared itself. But I think it was similar to what you are writing about - just a lot of muck on everything a couple of days after the water change.

I also have a long running (around 3 years) big tank that was getting bit tired-looking so I replanted it using old substrate, some new sand, a lot of the old hardscape, and my mature external filter. It is spotless more or less, since the change two weeks ago. I just changed water once and removed some dying leaves.

My tanks are low-ish tech. I am dosing EI and liquid carbon. But the experience with the new nano got me thinking that a new tank can be hard to balance with an immature or small filter, or plants struggling to acclimatise, or not enough fast growing plants. Still don't know what it was exactly. You learn how little you know when you set up a new tank from scratch.

 

[Danny]

Does sound pretty similar Maple, it's just mulch like muck.

I get barely any algae on the glass now, I've left it for a few days to see how it goes and it's barely noticible yet hair algae keeps popping it's head up.

I just don't get it, tanks always look totally pristine from others but this is just dirty lol

 

[Danny]

Hard to see in the photo but it's just dirty, its weird because there are lush shoots at ground level.

 

[Edvet]

tanks always look totally pristine from others

I am quite sure they time the pictures after a clean, and zoom in/don't show the bad pieces.
Don't beat yourself up, just keep doing what you are doing 6/8 weeks and then judge if it's going in the right direction

 

[zozo]

Only planted it a couple of weeks ago, no diatoms at all it's just muck as if it's been planted and neglected for 6 months.

That can be pretty normal for a new setup and there is no saying how long this will keep up.. My latest 110 litre low tech looked awfully dirty for over 6 months.. I believe i used over 5 kilo's of Mopani wood, this leached the water tea brown for many months, the wood also released a light brown powder like substance accumulating on the black substrate. It grew filamentous diatomes and other algae for months.. It was the first time it happened to me that i had to do 2 water changes a week without getting the tank looking clean for a day for months. It took me at least 6 months before i saw a little bit improvement. But in the end it setled all down and this tank now is over 2 years old and pretty clean looking with a normal weekly 30 minute maintenance session.

Just remember there is no fixed number to give in how long it takes for a closed system to find it's proper balance.

Just keep up with it one day it'll be there.. Stripping it down after a few weeks into the frustration is no garranty that the next one will be better off.