Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two tanks of 30 gallons and both have dirt like substance floating.

These tanks are heavily planted and with peat and sand substrate with few leaves littered on the base. I have a few floating duckweeds and submerged floating plants like Water Milfoil and also have arrow wort which shoots out floating leaves, on the base I have Valisneria, Elodia, Amazon sword. Bog woods and a 120 g/h power filter (peat and ceramic rings) and air pump outlets. These are open tanks without any hoods. Lighting is subdued to 30 watts as the tanks get diffused sunlight from morning till day end and plants grows quite well. I have placed the duckweed and milfoil to keep the dust away and also provide some cover for the fishes.

Water chemistry:

PH - 6.7 to 5.5 hardness 110

The problem is that the water constantly has floating dirt like substance and this cannot be cleared by the filter and even I have tried vacuuming the base and even about 80% water changes. it clears for a day or two and the dirt comes back on the third day.

Though my fishes are very happy in it and also growing well, however the water looks bad like river water. I have 6 (3 in each) Angels in one and 4 (2 in each)Discus in the other with 4 Yo Yo loaches in each tank.

Please help me to remove this dirt like substance.

Warm Regards

How long have your tanks been established? Could it be because they are newer tanks? Have you changed the substrate composition lately?

It is not good to do such large water changes... it removes the beneficial bacteria, which can lead to water chemistry problems and then fish stress and illnesses.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Thanks for your reply ...

Tanks have been there for more than 6 months now with same water and substrate and the issue has started from 2 months back, if I donot run my filters and water is somewhat still with the aeration running then the wtare slowly clears out in a day or two, however you can see the same dirt collecting amongst the milfoil and also you can see a layer of dirt on the substrate.

Fishes are doing fine ...

Regards

Hmmm. That's strange. Can you tell if it is a particular type of substrate that you are using? If so, maybe you shouldn't use that type anymore. It's very strange that you didn't experience this problem when you first set up the tank especially if you are only now seeing this problem. I am not sure what the problem is or how to fix it. We'll see what other members can think of.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Substrate ... It is simply river sand washed in water. It is truely quite strange as I am keeping fish for last 24 years and have never faced such a problem. Have discussed this problem with the local Hobbyist here in Kolkata, India, however they had no answer to the problem

Regards

One thing you can try while you wait to see if anyone else has experienced this problem is check out our fish chat room. The official chat is Tuesdays at 10 pm EST. There are some pretty knowledgeable people in there.

I'm sorry I can help you more. I hope you get the issue resolved soon. The good news is, you said your fish are fine.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."