cloudy water

been having few probs with the new 240 tank.
not so much bothered about stats at the moment as the plants seem to be holding well after a scary start.
the problem is cloudy water, very very cloudy water. even after doing a 75% wc 2 days ago the cloud is back again tonight.
i think it could be down to the filter media that came with the ehiem ecco. (they are little white balls) which seem to be breaking down and turning to dust and then circulating into the tank causing the cloud.
now i might be wrong on this and it could be somthing else as i was dosing at the start but would say by now with the wc i have done and the stats that they have all been depleated. and i am back to the start with cloudy water again.
has any body had or heard of any one having this type of problem.
i realy am at a loss now and cant think of anything else to do that i havnt done.

Anything that has a small possibility of breaking down wouldnt be put within a mile of one of my external filters,I have seen what can happen. :shock:

I would take out that media asap.Try to post a picture to see if anyone has any experience with this material.Would it be possible that the little white balls should be in a bag inside the filter(filter bag).

In regard to water clouding should the little white balls have been cleaned before inserting them into the filter?I know with playsand water can stay clouded for a week even if it was washed!!

I'm with Chris on this one. If it breaks down in the filter it ain't filter media. Eheim filters that come with filter media usually include sponges and splintered glass or their own filter material that looks like splintered glass but isn't (can't remember the name off hand)
Take it out and replace it

Holger

thanks for replys. heres pics of the media.




if any one has used this b4. thinking about it now though prob my fault as i didnt rinse it b4 use. :oops: :oops:
can you suggest a suitiable media to use to replace this?
thanks

looks like the media I have in the Eheim filter. The problem is that you didn't rinse it. I rinsed mine and a fair amount of crap came off it.

Do you have any fish in the tank? If not I'd more or less do a massive water change and at the same time, take out the filter media and give it a good rinse (perhaps in the water you took from the tank)

I have something similar in my Fluval. As Essjay says, you need to rinse it well before adding to the filter.

Have you tried adding some fine filter wool? That should help clear it up.

This could be a pre curser to green water if its a highlight planted tank, this is usually how it starts, its an indication something is out of check as regards your fertiliser routine.

Could also be some sort of bacterial bloom.

But may be something as simple as your filter media as the other lads have pointed out.

an algae bloom is green not white and does not start out white. Chlorophyl is green. Bacterial bloom is a possibilty but rare.
The filter media needs to be washed thoroughly before use. It says that on the pack. Anything that is leaves a powdery residue anywhere when you put it into the filter needs to be washed before use.
API do stuff that binds those small particles together so they can be filtered out

no fish in the tank yet that why not to bothered about the stats as yet, just the plants.was dosing but stopped everything when this started. tank was running over a week b4 the cloud strated that why i didnt think it was the media in the fillter. just did a major wc and cleaned out the filter to start over again. have tried the the api stuff in the smaller 60 tank and didnt do anything so it went in the bin.
first time using external so not sure what goes and what dosnt go in it, only used what came with the filter as assumed it should work, which it prob does if i had rinsed it b4 use. :roll:

what do you lads use in externals? any advice?

zig: its not a highlighted tank only 2.5wpg.

the plants seem to be doing fairly ok. just getting stringy now with loss of light due to the cloud. once the cloud goes the lighting should be ok again.
going to keep the fluval internal running for a day another day or so to help out

I added the Tetra bio balls. They're plastic so should last forever. They are designed to have a large surface area.

I also got bio rings with my fluval which are made of that chalky stuff that you're having the problem with. When it starts disintegrating (as it will with age), I'll replace it with the plastic bio balls. I got mine in Brittas for around a tenner for a decent sized bag.

I'd definatly consider 2.5WPG over a 240l tank to be a highlight tank, you have the ability to grow most plants under that amount of light and thats really what they mean by a highlight setup, its only a guideline, but it will definatly need CO2 and regular addition of fertiliser or you will have problems.

Holgar you are correct green water will not start out white, its more like a haze in the water imo, it can actually be difficult to determine any colour until you look at the tank from the side and look through it lengthways and then you will see the water has a green tint but its not always obvious what colour it is when you look at it from the front of the tank and someone who has not experienced this before may refer to it as white, I'm just throwing out some possibilities which may or may not be correct.

But you are probably right it is more than likely the filter media, we will find out!

i think gavin has the bio balls, if so i will pop in tomorrow and get some. will the bio balls fit inside the baskets?

www.eheim.de/eheim/inhalte/index.jsp?key...iendetail_27520_ehen

b4 i go any further lets make sure i have this right:
2 x aquaglow tubes @ 40weach
2 x daylight tubes @ 40weach = 160w
160w / 63.4 = 2.52wpg?????

zig.c02 running on diy at the moment(will get you that pic you asked for) and will be dosing when get this sorted out. only stopped as this was the first real attempt at dosing and wasnt sure if i messed it up.

2.5 watts/gallon is not a highlight tank. Far from it. OK, you might consider it high-light when you run a tank with no plants. Some red leafed species need more than 1watt/litre (not gallon), yours has just over half that. Since you have no fish in the tank I think we can safely rule algal bloom out since their are no waste products bein deposited into the water, that is unless your tapwater isn't polluted with them already.

I reckon you should get one or two layers into those baskets.

uk.tetra.de/tetra/go/39A5A2FF7E96C076A6C...ist=1&lang_id=20

could also try Siporax. Supposed to be great stuff....

gavin has them in stock so will get them tomorrow when on a break.
even with the wc earlier today the cloud is starting to form agin in the tank. its heartbreaking after all ive done and its still here. :cry:
will see if he has that and work out what will be best.
can we go back to feet & inches? trying to mix & match ft&inch galls& ltr is a pain in the butt. have to talk to the schools about this.

not the tap water as have no probs with the other tank.

i got the bio balls from gavin today and some extra filters to go in, white and blue from the jewel range as he didnt have the ehiem type. have fitted them all in tonight so will see what happens over the next few days.

zig: when i stripped the filter i found that the white filter i fitted yesterday was nearly all green. if the new filters and bio balls dont clear this up it looks like you were on the right track as the start of green water.

looking through the side of the tank it looks worse, but im red/GREEN color blind so i proberbly wouldnt be able to tell the difference. :roll:

will give it the weekend & see how it goes and let you know.

It could be cavitation of the pump (vacuum sucking in air before the pump causing a very very fine mist) turn of the pump for one hour and see if the mist clears it it does it cavitation. If not for some reason dont ask me why how it works but it does tend to work, by adding some very dirty filter wool form another mature tank, and compacting it more than normal (twice the amount compress into one compartment) does tend to clear the problem over night and the problem wont re cour

i think the answer to this one is in the picture

This looks like something out of ER or casualty, can you explain to the viewers what is each thing and its it inside out side of the water and is it below the water level, it does not make sense only to you.............

for the new viewer it is a picture of a patients insides after eating to many green beans

it a side view of a 240 tank with green water. the plastic item on the left is called a bubble counter and is OUTSIDE of the tank. the item just left of center is called a diffuser and is INSIDE the tank.
the items inbetween are called plants. and the plants are INSIDE the tank.
the mass of green is water.

Hi Mr Algae,
Sorry for my ignorance (Tough I was 'promoted' to the status of a Guppy today I am really still a Fry! )...
I understand your 'guided tour' of the attached picture, but, what is the purpose of a bubble counter and the diffuser? are they connected together? how does it work?
Just curious! :wink:
Thanks.

Hi Mr Algae,
Sorry for my ignorance (Tough I was 'promoted' to the status of a Guppy today I am really still a Fry! )...
I understand your 'guided tour' of the attached picture, but, what is the purpose of a bubble counter and the diffuser? are they connected together? how does it work?
Just curious! :wink:
Thanks.

There is no such thing as a stupid question only stupid answers, your not the only one that still no no better off from the explanation of the photo! :?

it takes a while for fr jack to catch up with the rest of us.
yes wallry they are connected to together. they dont normaly go together but its a new diffuser and i cant make the bubbles in it at the moment with the gw. so i re attatched the bc so i could monitor the bubble count. although the c02 is disconected at the moment. while i try to sort out the gw.
btw welcome to itfs

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still cant post anywere but here????

Hello Mr Algae

Yes green water, hard to get rid of, the only algae that a UV steriliser will remove, if you can get your hands on one of those, problem sorted, it will take a few days to a week to get rid of green water with a UV running, it will basically go through the reverse procedure of how you got it, the water will go from green to a white hazy colour before it will clear up totally with a UV, but like most algaes if you don't sort out the initial problem it will return, usually quite quickly with green water.

Hard to know how you got it, ammonia is nearly always involved with green water, even tiny ammonia spikes in the right conditions will trigger green water, the right conditions usually involve lots of light and the wrong amounts of CO2 or fertiliser for planted tanks.

So what do you do now?? failing to get a UV simplest thing to try and costs no money is a 3-4 day blackout, completely cover the tank with black bags, blankets, whatever, make sure its totally blacked out, leave it covered for at least 72 hours in darkness, it could take longer, have a look at this stage though to check if its clearing or not, sometimes it can take up to 5 days. This is the simplest thing to try and it may work, it may not work but it will have cost you nothing and its always worth a try. If you don't fix how it started though it will come back just as bad, there is an imbalance in your fertiliser routine for the tank and this is what the green water thrives on, fix that and you will have fixed the problem.

hi zig thanks for that.
i am in the second day of black out at the moment and stopped all ferts & c02 nothing going into the tank at all at present. thursday eve will be 3 days so will have a look then. have done a lot of sqarching for this one & going back to the way i set up the first tank till its sorted then see were i am at with it. will let you know.
thanks again
regards

rotting barley hay or just 5 strands of hay stringed together (aquarium)and left to rot will stop that or in full sunlight in a pond a sack filled with a few hand full of hay left to rot will stop the green stuff.

rotting barley hay or just 5 strands of hay stringed together (aquarium)and left to rot will stop that or in full sunlight in a pond a sack filled with a few hand full of hay left to rot will stop the green stuff.

Another way is to use 1-2 year old willow branches, cut about 40 inches off the branch and place it in the aquarium, the branches just need to be about 1/2 inch thick, within about 3-5 days the branch will start to grow lots of aeriel roots under water, as the branch grows more roots the water will clear up, it takes about 8 days to be totally clear, with this method the green water never comes back, this method is safe for fish as well, its been tried on fry tanks with no ill effects on the fish. You remove the branch after the treatment.

The theory is that the willow can consume nutrients quicker than the aquatic plants and we know algae is also a plant so it outcompetes these for the nutrients.