Water Problem ?

Hi Tony
well at moment you seem to have nothing to worry about so i would go with the flow as they say if its not broken dont fix it

if the ph starts to rise slowly allow it. could i suggest you set a side a glass of water and test it do not not treat it just allow it to settle just to see your tap water pH this is something i do every few months cause some time the source change and this will effect pH

but keep up the good work and keep us post and ask questions if needed

mickeywallace wrote:

Hi Tony
well at moment you seem to have nothing to worry about so i would go with the flow as they say if its not broken dont fix it

if the ph starts to rise slowly allow it. could i suggest you set a side a glass of water and test it do not not treat it just allow it to settle just to see your tap water pH this is something i do every few months cause some time the source change and this will effect pH

but keep up the good work and keep us post and ask questions if needed

Hi Mickey.
Just got up this morning & the water is very cloudy all of a sudden.Was perfect yesterday. I will do a water test when I get a chance.I'm totally puzzled.

amdaley wrote:

mickeywallace wrote:

Hi Tony
well at moment you seem to have nothing to worry about so i would go with the flow as they say if its not broken dont fix it

if the ph starts to rise slowly allow it. could i suggest you set a side a glass of water and test it do not not treat it just allow it to settle just to see your tap water pH this is something i do every few months cause some time the source change and this will effect pH

but keep up the good work and keep us post and ask questions if needed

Hi Mickey.
Just got up this morning & the water is very cloudy all of a sudden.Was perfect yesterday. I will do a water test when I get a chance.I'm totally puzzled.

Just did the water test & Ammonia is back up at 2.One thing I noticed which I have not seen before is that some of the fish which are normally well down in the tank (Glowlights) are now up near the top of the tank like they are feeding. I can't say I like this. LB if your around there somewhere.what do you think ?

amdaley wrote:

amdaley wrote:

mickeywallace wrote:

Hi Tony
well at moment you seem to have nothing to worry about so i would go with the flow as they say if its not broken dont fix it

if the ph starts to rise slowly allow it. could i suggest you set a side a glass of water and test it do not not treat it just allow it to settle just to see your tap water pH this is something i do every few months cause some time the source change and this will effect pH

but keep up the good work and keep us post and ask questions if needed

Hi Mickey.
Just got up this morning & the water is very cloudy all of a sudden.Was perfect yesterday. I will do a water test when I get a chance.I'm totally puzzled.

Just did the water test & Ammonia is back up at 2.One thing I noticed which I have not seen before is that some of the fish which are normally well down in the tank (Glowlights) are now up near the top of the tank like they are feeding. I can't say I like this. LB if your around there somewhere.what do you think ?

Can anyone out there offer any suggestions ?

Hi Everyone.

Cleaned out the filters in tank water & did a 15lt water change. I found that the filters were quite dirty.Don't know why as we cleaned them out recently & are only feeding the fish every 2nd day & only give a little.
However it has had an affect as Ammonia is now down to 1.5 & the other readings are Ph 6. Nitrate & Nitrite are 0.
Fish look happier.
Mickey I recently tested my tap water & found PH 6.6, Ammonia,Nitrate & Nitrite were 0.

Tony.

Does the fish that are at the top look like they are gasping for air? They might not be gettign enough oxegen. Are you using and air pump or is the surface water being agitated?

The cloudy water may be an algae bloom. This can be treated with PClear.

Can you post a pic?

Hi Tony

As Nonie said the cloudy water may be an algae bloom or Bacterial blooms a partial water change or two would be a good idea to reduce the bacteria and ammonia

Don’t clean your filter too much as it might do more harm than good, personally when I clean 1 of my filters it will turn 20L of tank water black with dirt so they do hold a lot of muck before you need to clean them.


LB

Hi All.
Just back home now. Tank is still cloudy. Looks like a fog. I can see it moving in the water.
Fish don't seem to mind.Rang LFS,he said that it isn't anything to worry about & that I could add some more Aqua clear.I did another 15lt water change & that seems to have helped.
I will see how it goes.

Tony.

Test results.
Ph 6.
Ammonia 2.
Nitrate 0.
Nitrite 0.

This morning did a 45lt water change which is about 15% & added Aqua clear in the right dosage ammount as yesterdays dose was way under estimated.Also discovered last night that our filter is missing a blue sponge.It just didn't come with the filter at the start. It should have 2 blue & 1 black sponge.I will get the LFS to give me one.The fish are fine showing no sign of any kind of distress.

Tony.

Same results today. I have done a water change of 45lts again & redosed with Amquesl+.
I have also added Aqua clear to try & clear the water which is still cloudy.I have also changed the white wool filter as it was due.My partner has got an air pump with an airstone to airate the water better.
I would be grateful if someone has thoughts on this as I seem to have done as much as I can.
Fish seem to have no problem & are showing no signs of any distress.

Changing the white wool filter was probably a bad idea as it would have had beneficial bacteria on it, I never change filter media unless it’s damaged.

LB

Hi LB.
I understand that you have to change the white wool filter every month.
Tony.

Not at all Tony, it makes no sense.
The manufactures want to shift their product and want you to replace it often, I see no reason to do this, as long as your media is reasonably clean then it dose the same job with the exception of media like carbon etc which has a limit of how much toxins it can absorb and after a time will leach the toxins back into the water.


LB

Personally i think it is a good idea to change the white prefilter when it gets really dirty.
When it gets dirty and clogged there is all sorts of bacteria on it consuming oxygen. The more oxygen they consume the less there is for the filter bacteria and then even less for the fish in the tank.
You could wash it out in tap water to clean it and kill off the bacteria. I know this goes against everything you have read about cleaning media in tap water but this is only a prefilter designed to stop debris clogging the rest of the media.
The rest of the media only needs to be changed when it gets clogged.

Hi Platy.
I'm interested in what you say about the white filter stopping debris blocking the other filters. I looked at my filter diagram last night & discovered that the inlet pipe coming from the tank goes right down through the filter cannister without touching any of the media,it then comes up through each media in turn and the last media it reaches is the white media which is the top media in the cannister.Maybe it doesn't really matter which way the filters are arranged ?

Todays results are the same as the last few days.Fish look happy. My male Thick Lipped Gourami is very busy blowing bubbles to make some sort of nest. He keeps after the female but she isn't interested. Typical woman

Ah, my mistake. I was picturing a different design filter.
The white pad in your filter would be a polishing pad to remove the last of the dirt going through the filter.
No harm leaving these in and then just change them or wash them during filter maintenance.
You are right it dosent really matter which way the media is set up. It is usually big to small. As in sponges/bio rings with big openings first to collect the larger dirt and then the finer sponges.

I replace my polish pad every few months,some dont bother but I do find it does give the water a little extra clarity to it, but again it would only be once every 3 or 4 months to be honest. A wash in the existing water wont remove most the dirt and to be honest once they get wet they are hard to do anything with so easier to replace it every 3 or 4 months in my opinion,they are fairly cheap anyhow so its easier to do it if you find it works. I have plants in my tank and I find it keeps the tank cleaner when I change the polish filter every so often.

Gavin

Hi Everyone.

These days I do a 10lt water change every day & the results haven't changed at all.

Ph 6.
Ammonia 2.
Nitrite 0.
Nitrate 0.

The fish seem fine so perhaps the Ammonia reading may be false because of the Amquel+ that we were using in the tank.We are thinking of putting in some Carbon in the filter to try & remove any stuff that shouldn't be there. If anyone has any ideas on this I would like to hear them.

Tony.

Ammonia was up to about 3 today. The 10lt a day water change I was doing doesn't seem to be enough so I cleaned the gravel & did a 40lt water change.That should help.The fish seem fine but I would like to know what is causing the Ammonia.The water is a little cloudy which is also strange but it has been like this for about a week.Maybe adding the Carbon to the filter when I get it will make a difference ?