How Much do you guys know about these?

Have just had the stand built for our 300ltr Tank sent the stand up and put the tank on, sub-strate and gravel in, filled with water

water was all grubby and dirty from the fill, this i understanded, have had the filter going for about 48 hrs now and yet the water has gone from dirty to milky, ya honestly cant see more than a couple of inches into the tank,

had trouble getting the filter going to start with, didnt want to prime, and have now got it going, could i possibly have the media in the wrong way?

Any ideas??

Here's a pic (sorry not so good taken from a mobile phone)

Lights on!

what do you have in the tank?

YIKES!!!!

Empty the tank and clean the substrate. I had this problem (no as extreme as yours!) and i took the gravel out and washed it in a big tank of water while in a cloth bag.

Yeah, it looks like you didn't wash the gravel enough beforehand. Very hard stuff to filter out because it's so fine.

Hi Casper

Looks a bit like dirty gravel!

I put 6 bags in my 215 ltr tank, rinced each bag at least 12 times in in a 20ltr bucket until clear, because it was a fairly fine gravel.

If you were to start from fresh it might be a lot easier.

Regards, TGWH

had trouble getting the filter going to start with, didnt want to prime, and have now got it going, could i possibly have the media in the wrong way?

Hey Casper, i have the instructions here for the various Aquaone models, the CF1000 should have the media in the following order

Bottom Tray - Bio balls

Middle tray - Ceramic noodles with 15PPI sponge pad

Top Tray - 35PPI Sponge pad with filter wool on top.

Hope that helps. If you've got them in the right order then I agree that its probably dirty gravel.

i have a cf1000 & its great. have you checked that the water it is actually flowing out the spraybar? I mistakenly fitted an end cap as a jointer in the spraybar & blocked the flow :oops:

I have a cf 1000 as well as all the other sizes. Check that the water is coming out of the spraybar. The other thing that may be causing it is the white ceramic noodles, they seem to have a certain amount of powdery dust come off them at the start. I have had to vacuum the bottom of my tank with a couple of these filters and then its cleared up fine.

The CF1000 has 2 trays and the CF1200 has 3 trays.

CF1000, Bottom tray has bio balls and blue sponge. top tray has the noodles and black sponge and fine filter wool.

yeah i have a cf1200, but the picture made for the cf1000 makes it look like a tray, i guess its not a tray but the sponge.

The order of the media in the filter shouldn't cause this problem. Plus I would expect that if it was just dirt in the gravel it would have settled by now or at least you should be able to see it getting clearer.

My guess is that its a bacteria bloom, I'd leave it for a couple of days and see what happens. If its dirt your filter will get all clogged up with silt and your tank should be clearing up. If its a bacterial bloom your filter wont silt up but it will still clear given a bit more time.

The CF1000 has 2 trays and the CF1200 has 3 trays.

CF1000, Bottom tray has bio balls and blue sponge. top tray has the noodles and black sponge and fine filter wool.

the instructions that came with my cf1000 shows the bio balls in the bottom of the canister, bottom (1 of 2) trays has ceramic bio rings & top tray has a wool pad the can also have additional media

I got the cf1000.

I throw the plastic bio balls away.

The Bottom tray has the blue sponge(coarse one) followed by Ceramic noodles. The idea of the sponge first is to diffuse the water flow before it hits the noodles.

Top tray has the Black sponge(fine one) followed by filter wool. If I am using carbon, I put it inbetween the black sponge and the filter wool.

The Bottom tray has the blue sponge(coarse one) followed by Ceramic noodles. The idea of the sponge first is to diffuse the water flow before it hits the noodles.

Usually the first spong is a machanical filter to stop the larger bits of rubbish getting to your noodles or other media and blocking up the fine pores where the bacterial live

The order of the media in the filter shouldn't cause this problem. Plus I would expect that if it was just dirt in the gravel it would have settled by now or at least you should be able to see it getting clearer.

My guess is that its a bacteria bloom, I'd leave it for a couple of days and see what happens. If its dirt your filter will get all clogged up with silt and your tank should be clearing up. If its a bacterial bloom your filter wont silt up but it will still clear given a bit more time.

And We have a winner

Had Chris from Redwood Aquatics come out (a mate of mine) and have a look for us,

the substrate caused the brown murky stuff to come up but the filter has got rid of that, and on closer inspection we both reckon its a bacterial bloom, possibly caused by to much cycle or TLC.

Will leave it a couple of days and hope that it clears up

Cheers to everyone for the fast response!

Hi there...I've just setup a Cf1000.

It seems noisey, and I think it's the balls in the bottom rattling around. Has this ever happened to anyone? if so how did you fix it?

i keep the balls in the bottom & my CF1200 & CF1000 are both almost silent. I cannot hear them until you open the cabinet & listen carefully.

I am cycling a CF1000 on our tank and the noise of the plastic balls drives me nuts!

I am cycling a CF1000 on our tank and the noise of the plastic balls drives me nuts!

I know what you mean.......but what do we do? take 'em all out? or add some more?

I was wondering about adding more and hoping as the bacteria grew it would muffle the rattle. Since it isn't my filter and won't be in my house once cycled, I'm not too worried 8)

You might be able to stick some filter wool under or around them to stop the rattle?

in a year, i have never heard the balls going nuts i wonder why that is the case

Jam more balls in there until they can't move.

Smidey perhaps you have different balls? :lol:

I thought of the filter wool but then wondered if it would clog too quickly.

I recently got a CF1000 also and the bio balls are rattling on mine also. Its in a cabinet so its not to noisey but still slightly annoying.

I also had a leak around the priming cap when i got mine (brand new filter) and it therefore let air get into the filter which made it noisey also. I ended up taking the rubber o ring off the priming cap and putting some plumbing tape around the centre bit (just a little bit) and then put the o-ring back on and it is not working like a charm, no leaks at all.

I might have to see if i can find some more bio-balls like Ira advised.