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OASE 250 not filtering 'fines'... please help!

alex_l

alex_l

Member
Joined
12 Mar 2023
Messages
78
Location
UK
Hi all,

I so hope you can help... so far I've been told complete tosh by people on Facebook who haven't run the Biomaster and likewise no-one in either of my LFS has run it.

I have a 200l moderately planted tank with a 250 Biomaster thermo on it. I've only used eHeim filters in the past but I got a bargain on this tank and this filter came with it. There's lots to like about it but 6 weeks in I have this ongoing issue with fine, suspended particles and I'm about ready to try a new filter, which I don't want to do!

The fines are anything from the size of a full stop down to barely visible to the naked eye. The water between is clear (but tannin stained). It's not bacterial bloom... it's detritus of some kind.
I believe some of it has come from a rookie error I made weeks ago when I put Purigen in to reduce tannins and forgot to rinse it!!!! It was bad. I then added Clarity as a flocculent and it's never been right since! This could help explain some of the tiny particles but not so much the full stop size ones which I think are crumbly fish poo. I tried the Clarity twice, with wool in the filter, and it just makes things worse... I end up with water that looks like milk!
In fact, last time I tried Clarity, I had JBL Symec Micro fleece in the filter... Still didn't catch it!

Last night, my husband took a look and moved the Symec Micro which I had put in that last shallow tray. He pointed out there was nothing holding it down and that the water would be bypassing it. He moved it down a couple of trays and firmly pinned it down with a blue sponge (with the intention of it just being there overnight). He carefully cut the new piece to size. He was confident the water would no longer bypass and we would wake up to clear water... nope!!!

So in my opinion either... the fines are so suspended they aren't making it down into the filter inlet in the bottom corner, in which case, with the Symec Micro in its new position I need to try that awful Clarity again as a flocculant.

OR... and this is my concern... due to the design of the filter with the prefilter chamber and the heater chamber and the slot-in trays, the filter trays just don't seal well enough to force the water through the Symec Micro. I know not all filters are great with fines... with have a koi pond running a Nexus which are highly rated filters... which don't touch fines!!

So... I think my options are:

Reconfigure the Biomaster once again... 60ppi sponges in the prefilter, something like SeaChem Matrix in all the bottom Chambers (I already have the fluval stuff and the Hel-X in the top two) and I leave it the hell alone to really build up some clag which should catch more bits... only allowing myself to clean the pre-filter for a couple of months. It's the opinion of the guy at my LFS that I'm meddling too much and the biological is stained but still looking quite clean.

Other option: with the Symec Micro in its new position, today, put the Clarity in again... scary thought!

Other option: buy a little Fluval internal filter and chuck it in the tank for a few hours as and when... I run a U2 on my son's 60l and it has beautiful water so I know it catches fines really well!

Other option: give up the OASE altogether and buy something like a Fluval canister.

I do gave loaches stirring up the bottom. It's sand so crud sits on top. There's a huge piece of driftwood so maybe a few dead spots which I flush now and then with an air stone. Inlet and outlet are both on the same side and flow is good.

Thank you so much for any help you can give me!!

Alex
 
This is the tank in question... six weeks old.
 

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Here are a few suggestions as someone who runs 2 x 350 Biomasters on a 350 litre.
Use 60ppi pre filter foam but clean weekly so as to maintain flow. I purchased a spare pair foam and mainly use 30ppi foam in the pre filter and water is clear.
Ensure the order of the foams in the main filter are set up correctly.
Water flows upwards in the main canister and so the top tray in the main filter body is used to polish the water.
I do not use floss to polish but a fine foam. I only open up the filter once every 6 months. In the main body I use use pot scrubbers and the water is crystal.
I suspect the suspension is to do with the tank being new, but would try a chemical water clear product e.g. API Accuclear.
I use gravel as substrate so nothing can be stirred up.
 
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Hi there,

Thank you for your reply 🙂

I've seen some cheaper 60ppi pre-filter sponges... think it's 'Finest Filters'... should I pick those up or stick with branded ones?

Is your fine polishing foam the orange one that came with the filter or do you have something finer?

What are pot scrubbers, please? I've never heard of these 🤔

I'm running two chambers with the coarse blue foam (bottom two). I was planning to take these out and fill with eheim substat if I'm going to use a finer 60ppi foam in the pre-filter then do a weekly clean on the pre-filter and leave the main body well alone for a while.

What do you think? Many thanks!
 
Sorry your initial post was too long to read. Are you running Co2?

You have a Koi pond, have you tried chucking some montmorillonite clay to the tank? (Depending on your waters PH obviously)

Have you tried using filter floss?

You might actually be best utilising a small internal filter full of floss and regularly changing it out.
 
.... I try to run my 3 tanks as economically/cheaply as possible so I chose the cheapest pre-filter sponges I could find online. I would think the mark up is insane for what is a cheap product cut into a shape.
I used the orange foam that came with the filter in the top tray.
Pot scrubbers are plastic balls to wash dishes... here's a YouTube video of a guy who used them in his FX filters
I let the pre filter do the majority of work, hence, my recommendation for cleaning or changing them weekly. Takes all of 5 minutes.
I have the blue coarse foams at the bottom and the pot scrubbers above and all is well for me at the moment.
 
filter-jpg.192686

$5 usb pump + 200 micron filter pad should filter all visible particles.

The finest filter pads available are 50 micron should you find them necessary. But i doubt they would remove colour staining - but I'm surprised purigen doesn't remove the colour - in which, just do water changes and perhaps remove the item that is causing the colour change?

I placed a brand new white square filter pad into the tank after my canisters had been running for an hour (2000l/hr combined). I have a 90p which is roughly 200 litres, so thats 10x theoretical flow.

It's evident that regular fine sponges did not trap the algae that you scrape off the glass. After I did this, the amount of GDA on my glass was significantly reduced.
 
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@alex_l , looking at the pic you've provided, I'd say your tank is in good shape, and I don't see any problems.
Also, maybe you expect from your filter too much. For water to be crystal clear, no filter is needed, and seldom any can provide it (diatom filters, yes). I run my tanks without any filters, so I can tell you what's the difference: none. If there's a source of (mechanical) pollution, then the water becomes cloudy no matter what. When this source disappears, water is clear.
Multiple times I've seen tanks infested with "something" due to unsuitable or improperly used filter media, esp. polishing pads or cottons.
I would never recommend using flocculents.
 
@alex_l i agree with @_Maq_ , the tank looks good. Be patient and let your filter mature. Once it’s mature it will keep you water crystal clear. After having used a flocculent several times, I’d also do a good water change, the. Just leave you tank aloe, except for your normal maintenance routine.
 
Hi there, seedoubleyou,

Thank you for your reply 🙂 Sorry for the essay!

I hadn't thought of clay, to be honest... I wonder whether this is clay in the Clarity and that's what made the water milky? I'm pretty nervous now about adding anything into the water.

I'm not running CO2, no... it's low tech.

I did try floss but I think I'm being too impatient with each thing I am trying.

I wondered about chucking a little internal filter in for now... I do have a spare one sat in drawer so it wouldn't hurt to try!

seedoubleyou said:
Sorry your initial post was too long to read. Are you running Co2?

You have a Koi pond, have you tried chucking some montmorillonite clay to the tank? (Depending on your waters PH obviously)

Have you tried using filter floss?

You might actually be best utilising a small internal filter full of floss and regularly changing it out.
Click to expand...
 
Tropicaltanklover said:
.... I try to run my 3 tanks as economically/cheaply as possible so I chose the cheapest pre-filter sponges I could find online. I would think the mark up is insane for what is a cheap product cut into a shape.
I used the orange foam that came with the filter in the top tray.
Pot scrubbers are plastic balls to wash dishes... here's a YouTube video of a guy who used them in his FX filters
I let the pre filter do the majority of work, hence, my recommendation for cleaning or changing them weekly. Takes all of 5 minutes.
I have the blue coarse foams at the bottom and the pot scrubbers above and all is well for me at the moment.
Click to expand...


Awesome, this is good to know, thank you! I know a lot of people are sceptical about using foam as additional bio but to be fair, it has a large surface area and good water flow... it ought to work well for aerobic, surely? I do think there is a lot of oversell on these media like SeaChem Matrix... I read one person saying they're basically the same stones you can buy from a garden centre and when they cut one in half it was clean inside! Pot scrubbers, eh... just goes to show!!! Fishkeeping is a bit money making racket of course, like any other hobby... pays to question it 🙂
 
erwin123 said:
filter-jpg.192686

$5 usb pump + 200 micron filter pad should filter all visible particles.

The finest filter pads available are 50 micron should you find them necessary. But i doubt they would remove colour staining - but I'm surprised purigen doesn't remove the colour - in which, just do water changes and perhaps remove the item that is causing the colour change?

I placed a brand new white square filter pad into the tank after my canisters had been running for an hour (2000l/hr combined). I have a 90p which is roughly 200 litres, so thats 10x theoretical flow.

It's evident that regular fine sponges did not trap the algae that you scrape off the glass. After I did this, the amount of GDA on my glass was significantly reduced.
Click to expand...

Okay, thank you 🙂 I do have a spare internal filter I could run on it for a while with a fine pad... it's just sat in a drawer doing nothing...
 
_Maq_ said:
@alex_l , looking at the pic you've provided, I'd say your tank is in good shape, and I don't see any problems.
Also, maybe you expect from your filter too much. For water to be crystal clear, no filter is needed, and seldom any can provide it (diatom filters, yes). I run my tanks without any filters, so I can tell you what's the difference: none. If there's a source of (mechanical) pollution, then the water becomes cloudy no matter what. When this source disappears, water is clear.
Multiple times I've seen tanks infested with "something" due to unsuitable or improperly used filter media, esp. polishing pads or cottons.
I would never recommend using flocculents.
Click to expand...

I think you've probably hit the nail on the head because just what are these fines? I have a sneaking suspicion it's a combination of faffing with the flocculants and perhaps using a floss which has in fact shed some fibres!! In my son's tank I have done no such faffing and the water is beautiful!!

I have a feeling if I am patient, once my filter has a better biofilm, these little bits will be trapped and hopefully, if I leave well alone, shouldn't reoccur.

Thank you so much 🙂
 
hypnogogia said:
@alex_l i agree with @_Maq_ , the tank looks good. Be patient and let your filter mature. Once it’s mature it will keep you water crystal clear. After having used a flocculent several times, I’d also do a good water change, the. Just leave you tank aloe, except for your normal maintenance routine.
Click to expand...

Thank you - wise words, I think! A little patience and a mature filter should go a long way 🙂
 
alex_l said:
Hi there, seedoubleyou,

Thank you for your reply 🙂 Sorry for the essay!

I hadn't thought of clay, to be honest... I wonder whether this is clay in the Clarity and that's what made the water milky? I'm pretty nervous now about adding anything into the water.

I'm not running CO2, no... it's low tech.

I did try floss but I think I'm being too impatient with each thing I am trying.

I wondered about chucking a little internal filter in for now... I do have a spare one sat in drawer so it wouldn't hurt to try!
Click to expand...
No need to apologise, I went on to read it once I had a minute.
Certain flocculants will just break down in your Water depending on what you use and your PH. This obviously contradicts the purpose of the flocculants.

I think outside of trying a small internal filter for the meantime, the advice already given in just giving it time, seems the best approach.
 
@seedoubleyou yes, I think I need to put a sticker on my filter head saying 'LEAVE' and only touch the pre-filter for a while! Time to plan another tank perhaps and leave this one the funk alone 🤣
 
@Ulster Aquarist it would be interesting to hear people's thoughts on this... I mean, it's sold as suitable for a 200l but someone else said the same on another group and then there's the person in this thread running two 350s on a 300l, I think they said!
 
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