Aquaria Central

[djfsolo]

Hi everyone, I'm new here.

You may have seen my other post concerning a new 55g build I am working on, thanks for any advice you gave me there, and hopefully that you will give me here

I just changed 25-30% of the water in my 10g as it's been about a week and a half. I checked the filter which I actually changed last week and it's already completely dark all the way around! (Filter is a Tetra Whisper EX2). I'm used to seeing one side dark, and the other kind of light with a few dark areas here and there. Are these bacterial colonies? It looks like algae but I don't quite understand how it would grow inside the dark filter. When stirring some of the pebbles I also see this weird, fuzzy stuff float up in the water, which seems to be what's coming off the filter when I"m rinsing it in the sink. What is this stuff? Should I be concerned? The filter flow also seems to be very weak from where it used to be, water is trickling out of the left side, and not completely out of the entire wide-mouth of the body. I can see it sucking up debris in the tank so it's still working but it seems weak, is it possible that it is clogged with all this stuff? I didn't want to remove it just in case it was crucial to the tank environment. All of my fish seem to be doing okay. I currently have 2 Mollies, 1 gold twinbar, 1 red glofish/danio, 1 pleco, and 3 tetras (I forget what kind but they are silver, have red tipped fins and tail, and a blue spot near the base of the tail).

Thanks for any help you can provide

[krytan]

You should be cleaning your filter in old tank water, tap water will kill off your healthy bacteria. Have you cleaned the impropeller of your filter? When you do a water change you shold be doing a gravel vac at the same time to get the muck out of your gravel.
What pleco do you have?

[djfsolo]

I have not cleaned the impropeller of the filter, how do you properly clean this? Also in old aquarium water with a toothbrush or something? I always do a gravel vac when I change the water, sorry I forgot to mention it- pull up plenty of muck, there's just some stuff that comes up that doesn't look like fish waste and was wondering if maybe you all knew? I am unsure of what pleco I have, I have a picture here:

So that IS bacteria that I'm seeing? I wish I had a dig cam handy, as I do not right now, and cannot take pictures of the filter. It is covered in dark, mucky stuff, and this is the 3rd time I've cleaned it in tap water so have I Just been lucky concerning fish deaths? After I change water I always put in some startright and prime, as well as some API aquarium salt.

[krytan]

No you can't see the bacteria, what you are seeing is muck. With the impropeller, take it out of it's housing clean it really well then clean the housing out with a brush, put it backtogether and the flow of your filter will improve.
I would also stop using the salt unless you are treating for ich and put the prime in the water before you add it to the aquarium.
Your pleco is going to get huge, he'll need a bigger tank soon.

[djfsolo]

Okay sounds good, should I brush the filter pad itself clean of this muck as well? I will probably move the pleco to it's own tank once it requires it, for now I think it's doing ok .

The only reason I used salt was one of my older fish (a powder blue gourami that is no longer living) said on the tag "requires aquarium salt" - does this mean it is a brackish fish and I shouldn't have mixed it in with the rest in the first place? Will it harm my fish? I was recommended by the person at my LFS to use a little each time I do a water change.

Thanks again for the advice

[krytan]

No adding aquarium salt does not make brackish conditions and gouramis don't need salt. To make brackish water you need to add marine salt and measure the sg level to keep it between 1.005 - 1.012.
Just squeeze the filter pads in old tank water until they look clean.

[djfsolo]

ok thank you- your advice would be much appreciated in my other thread