ken loach Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Hi guys! I have a fluval 104 and a 120 litre tank I have a bunch of rummy nose tetra's, a pleco, x2 zodiac loaches, x2 kribs and one hatchet fish For years now I have been running biological ceramic tubes type media in my filter in both of the two drawers of my filter Things have been pretty sweet with the tank although it tends to go a slight shade of green from time to time I am looking at changing my media I just went into the pet store to buy some of the same stuff I always use and started thinking about my options I rang Hollywood fish farm and the dude on the phone explained my options to me - filter wool etc - unfortunately this conversation left me completely confused and I really need some help from the people on the boards here as to what my options are and what should be getting... Would another load of what I have got here fix my slightly green tank water issue? Could it be that the old media has just had it? FYI tank is out of the sun and gets a water change every two weeks so thats not the issue... Filter wool sounds like an option but you have to change this every two weeks and it slows down the flow of water?? I really don't understand...I must have been winging it up till now! Your help on this is greatly appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 There are a lot of good articles on the net explaining the difference between the three media. The problem is every person does things differently. I don't do any chemical filtration (carbon etc). Not going to be farting around every week or so changing the stuff. I have the ceramic tube thingys and filter wool. The ceramic apparently does most of the biological filtration, and the filter wool does the finer filtration getting some of the gunk out. However I also have a sponge-filter sponge on the inlet for the filter, so that stops most gunk getting in, which means I hardly ever go into the filter to rinse it as it doesn't gets clogged. Other people will tell you they rinse their filters out every week. Others will say they replace their filter wool every week As far as I am concerned, if your filter is well-set-up and your tank well-maintained, you should very very rarely need to do anything to the filter. Now onto your green water issue: The tank is sitting in the sun. There be your problem. No sun, no green water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken loach Posted December 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 heya stella thanks heaps for your help the tank is out of the sun though not in it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 It will be getting too much light from somewhere. Do you have plants? They use the nutrients and would probably help out. Like Stella, I can't be bothered messing with my filters. I clean them about every 4 months. Basically, my idea is that closest to the inlet of the filter (from the tank) should be the most corse things to catch the big stuff, and fine things like filter wool should be closest to the outlet because by then the filter would have sucked up most of the nasties. I'm always wary of changing the filter wool and other bits in the filter too often, it gets rid of too much good bacteria. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken loach Posted December 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 one more question...is filter wool going to necc make the water clearer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 sorry, I read "out in the sun" not "out of the sun" :oops: Too hasty. Ok, answer two: Things live where there are the means to let them live. In the case of algae they roughly need: Lots of light Lots of nutrients General dampness or water Get rid of one or more requirement and you get rid of the problem. In your case maybe increase the frequency of waterchanges and look closely at how much you are feeding (both reduce nutrients). FIlter wool might make it clearer, with the problem of clogging up the filter wool. If you remove the likelihood of solid muck (inc algae) floating about in the water, you increase the functioning of your filter, which is the bacteria action, not mechanical de-murking*. Treat it as a mechanical de-murker and you need to clean it out often. *hehehehe 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken loach Posted December 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 wicked...you guys rock thanks heaps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 How long do you have the lights on? I agree with Stella, too much light or too much food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken loach Posted December 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 I have the tank light on from 10 am till 10 pm I feed flakes every second day and a seaweed tablet for my pleco every 3rd day I just got back from the pet store - I went with eheim substrat media (expenny, but highly recomm by the good people at hollywood) and I have also purchased some filter wool Any suggestions here how I should progress going from two drawers of old media to one drawer of filter wool and one drawer of brand spankers substrat balls? I understand its a big no no to do it all at once.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 If you do it all at once you lose all the good bacteria and the tank will have to cycle again. Change one drawer at a time, a month apart. Hmm doesn't sound like the lights are on too much or that you are overfeeding. Could be just phosphates in the water. I tend to have trouble only in summer months when the water table is low. I do not do any water changes over summr if I can help it for this reason (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!) :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 http://www.fnzas.org.nz/index.php?PG=filt1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken loach Posted December 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 I did read that...not as handy as the tips I have got here today though :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 I'm with Caryl. Change bits at a time and you wont have a problem. Keep up the water changes, you can't really do too many! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spoon Posted December 23, 2008 Report Share Posted December 23, 2008 the ehiem media is really good what some people do is only use biological media and filter wool (no coarse sponge). having mostly biological media in the filter and a layer of filterwool before it . yes it does block up rather quickly but you will know when its blocked as there wont be much water running thru the filter. the more biological media you have the better and the filter wool will keep it clean to do its thing. filter wool does harbour beenfical bacteria but nowhere near as much as the eheim stuff so changing ur filter wool when its blocked and not touching the biological media wont upset the bacteria too much. its also cheap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted December 29, 2008 Report Share Posted December 29, 2008 I personally would not use filter wool as it clogs up too quickly and needs to be changed more often than a coarse sponge. for the fluval i would have the ceramic tubes at the bottom then the eheim substrate, then the noodles again. Keep the sponges. As Caryl said do one chamber at a time. Then again, from the sounds of it all you have to do is change the second chamber from tubes to eheim substrate. Filter will run stronger for much longer than if you used filter wool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ally07 Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 I used to have the same problem with green water in my outdoor tank as well. Whenever my schedule got hectic and water changes were pushed back to once a fortnight, that's when the water would turn a shade of green. I was using a canister filter which had coarse sponge for mechanical filtration, which worked fine, but I had to rinse out the algae from the sponges each time I did a water change. After about 1-2 months, the sponges would have gone from white to yellowish-green, and the water would gradually become greener. After I replaced the sponges with new ones, water cleared up again (for another couple of months). The good thing about the canister is that it also had space for loads of biological filter media, so I was able to replace the sponges without crashing the bacteria levels. My advice would be to increase the percentage and frequency of water changes and keep an eye on your filter sponges. Once algae gets into the sponges, your filter basically becomes an algae factory. 2c~ :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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