my tank is much clean but not good enough

[bigfishhead]

I use to have brown color algae on the side of the tank and green water in the tank. Even I do a 50% water change every weekend.

I think I feed my fish too often. I feed them daily with NLS...

I bought about 20+ baby bristkenose 2~3 cm. I put about 16 in my big display tank. I feed my fish every two days.

Guess what.... After two weeks the tank is so clean! brown algae is gone from the glass and rocks. The water is crystal clear even on Sat before the water change.

But only one problem. Thses baby keep sucking on my draftwood and clean those gaint fish waste and produce very tiny black waste everywhere on top of my coral sand.... When it reach to certain amout it looks pretty obvious and urgly... I am still working hard to sucking them up during the weekly water change. it takes me about 40 mins.

Any idea what can be done to reduce the amount of maintance?

Anyone figure out some method without cleaning the tank for a while but still looks clean? like Extra circulation that direct the waste to FX5 input nozzle or something?

[Squirt]

Extra circulation will help keep the sand cleaner of waste. How big is your tank? Those 20 babies will eventually get to 15cm+ maybe something to think about. They need driftwood/bogwood to suck on, it keeps them healthy. As for water changes, you have to do them no shortcuts. Water changes remove nitrates, even though nitrates aren't as toxic as ammonia they are still toxic. You could add plants but you still need to do water changes. Maybe get a darker substrate so the waste blends in a bit.

HTH

[ryanjury]

That is what plecos are great for I would look at thinning the number of them out to reduce the amount of waste they make, and also adding a powerhead or internal to keep the crud stirred up and allow the filter to pick it up.

[#!CrunchBang]

Yep circulation is the key to whether there is crud everywhere. I found using a spray bar pushing water across the surface gives better circulation than a single outlet.

[bigfishhead]

may be worth to put a extra internal filter on one corner as backup also create some water flow? or one or two power head + fx5 is enough for the 800L tank.. :bounce: :bounce:

[the-obstacle]

as above they're doing what they're good at. I'd add a couple of powerheads to increase the circulation but you will always notice fish poo on coral sand.