Hi a bit of a problem with fine paticles in the tank water.The tank as you well know by now is a rio 180 . Its running with the juwel internal and an external tetratec 700.With the internal i dont use the carbon fiter sachet only if needed after meds,not so far( touch wood ) so i increased the space with filter wool to polish etc but still have the problem even when filters are cleaned one at a time.
I noticed with the fast bushy growth of plants when cutting back that they let alot of fine particles back into the water to worsen things,they seem to act like a filter in their own right but at the same time thne particles seems to be coating the plants promoting algae growth.
Its not a bacterial bloom that i had when i first set the tank up,was reading a recent post though and was wondering would UV help in any way,forgive the ignorance,reinlightened avid fishkeeper here on a mission ......

Nomad 'on a mission'...(I like that).

I am a little uncertain about what your problem might be but do you have playsand as a substrate? - I ask because I used some in some tanks I recently set up and there is a very fine residue of sand everywhere but this is gradually dropping to the bottom...I also witnessed the same with some 'sandy' gravel I used but this also went eventually.

I also had a residue of limescale dust (for want of a better description) when I used unfiltered water but the mains water here is so very hard and alkaline.

Other than these couple of poor suggestions I cannot be more helpful - I'm afraid...unless it's a water impurity. In any case I would suggest a few days of 25% water changing to see if that might help the problem.

Sorry for being less than helpful on this.

John

Another quick thought,
You mention cleaning your filters, if you take out the internal be sure to lift it into something like an ice cream box to collect the stuff which will inevitably drip out of it to save it going back into the tank water...here's a further point, I'm wondering if you're cleaning them too often? It's recommended that you only clean out a filter when its output is appreciably reduced - say by 30% or so but you are doing right by not cleaning both together - you could appreciably reduce to danger levels the bacteria levels if both are cleaned at the same time - and of course you would know not to rinse the filter media in fresh tap water...

Just my pennies worth - give P Clear a go. I was having the same prob and used this stuff and it worked a treat. It gathers all the particles to the bottom of the tank leaving the water clear but a good clean out is need the next day after use!!! Oh and I used some Poly filter in the internal!!!

Hi John thanks for that,the substrate im using is Aquagrit from A.V and the internal fiter is the juwel one thats silicone fixed to the tank.Ive heard plenty say that there is mess with these filters when cleaning letting mulm and fine cloud too etc back into the tank especially when the filter is turned back on,i find that myself.
I have a small filter box in another small tank holding with its suckers to the glass and because i can release the suckers i do place the filter in a bag before i turn off the air supply to it,a good tip,simple but effective.
Regarding cleaning i do that on an average basis,filer wool in the internal is washed weekly in tank water as the norm and it the pump always has a good flow rate. The nozzle for water flow is aimed at it the surface to agitate the water to help oxygen levels etc so no problems really there.
The water here is pretty soft PH wise,its a steady 6.5,other perameters when recently checked were Ammonia o,GH around 60ppm,KH 0ppm,Nitrite 0ppm,Nitate around 80ppm which always seems to be that,a bit high i,d say but lower from the tap,part changes weekly around 30%.
Nonie,i prefer when possible not to use anything chemical wise and only as a last resort but am thinking i might give it a go rather than having the fish surely taking these fine particles into their systems,thanks.............

P.S would a UV filter help in any way with the problem ??

Could the problem simply be related to turnover?

I.e. is this just detrious that is collecting due to insufficient flow in the tank?

Could you be overfeeding?

You might consider sticking in a powerhead or another internal filter for some flow if that's the case.

I have had a similar problem in a smaller tank with plenty of flow & I think it was just down to overfeeding, the particles were broken down food that had accumulated even though there was plenty of flow.

Aaaaaaaaagh just wrote a reply and to you 2poc and it dissapeared,turnover is fine because of the extra external tetratec 700 installed even though juwel say the internal supplied with the tank is perfect
With regard to over feeding i would say no but now you say that you bring a thought to mind.A previous post i sent in it was regarding JMC catfish pellets,i found that they just went to dust shortly after being dropped into the tank,is this maybe part or the by product and remnent of the problem? or is it bacterial to a degree hense my question...would a UV filter help other than the benefits of killing unfriendly bacteria ????

uv is mainly used to combat disease and also algae, but have you tried some filter wool (the type traditionally used in box filters)on the top of the filter it is used to polish the water and being finer than most other filter pads generally traps finer particles
Seamus

Hi Seamus,i use the filterwool in the top section of the internal filter,it does the job to a degree but the problem is still there.........

only thing i can suggest then is to maybe put in a second layer lower down the internal filter otherwise i'm stumped
Seamus