Something funny in the Water?

[Bosemani Fan]

Ok, I have a question about my water, Its not cloudy, but it seems to have Millions of tiny little Particals floating around in the water. I had to treat for Fin Rot about one month ago, and after I treated that with Melaflex, I Changed my Decorations and went with a piece of Well boiled and well soaked driftwood and 4 Rocks of which I got out of the Creek in front of my house, They were tested with Hydracloric acid, and proved to be fine. My question is: what are all these Tiny Particals and how do I get rid of them. I have done 2 cleanings and 2 50% water changes. My water Paremiters are fine, Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia, and PH are all normal. so i have no idea as to what these things are. If you looking at it from across the room it looks crystal clear, But when you get close to it you can see the Particals.

 

[Patricia]

It sounds like DOCs: Dissolved Organic Compounds, particles of food and stuff that are too small to be filtered out by regular filter media. You can do several things, among them:

1. if you have a hang-on-back type of filter, get some aquarium filter floss and put it between the regular filter and the outlet into the tank so that the water must flow through it for a day or so.

2. get a flocculant/coagulant/clumping agent and put the dose recommended into the filter box where the water comes into it, which will cause the DOC particles to clump together so that your regular filter medium *can* filter them.

3. get a diatom filter set-up (expensive! and you can only use it as a temporary measure or it will pull out the necessary nutrients; it will not replace your regular filter.)

Patricia

 

[cyberbeer65]

It sounds like DOCs: Dissolved Organic Compounds, particles of food and stuff that are too small to be filtered out by regular filter media. You can do several things, among them:

1. if you have a hang-on-back type of filter, get some aquarium filter floss and put it between the regular filter and the outlet into the tank so that the water must flow through it for a day or so.

2. get a flocculant/coagulant/clumping agent and put the dose recommended into the filter box where the water comes into it, which will cause the DOC particles to clump together so that your regular filter medium *can* filter them.

3. get a diatom filter set-up (expensive! and you can only use it as a temporary measure or it will pull out the necessary nutrients; it will not replace your regular filter.)

Patricia

Great advice Patricia!

 

[anonapersona]

filter tubing

when you clean the filter, do you also clean the filter tubing? sometimes that stuff floating around is from the outlet tubing, hard to say without knowing what filtration you have. In general, small stuff floating is a filtration issue, but can be small bubbles if there is a lot of surface disturbance from filters -- I sometimes get a lot of bubbles from my Penguin filter if the water level is a bit low.

 

[Bosemani Fan]

when you clean the filter, do you also clean the filter tubing? sometimes that stuff floating around is from the outlet tubing, hard to say without knowing what filtration you have. In general, small stuff floating is a filtration issue, but can be small bubbles if there is a lot of surface disturbance from filters -- I sometimes get a lot of bubbles from my Penguin filter if the water level is a bit low.

Yes, I clean the tubeing when ever i do a cleaning, also, I am using a Penguin 330. and its not bubbles that i am seeing.

 

[happychem]

Not DOCs, POCs (Particulate Organic Carbon).

Flocculants can work, but can also be dangerous for your inhabitants. Some of the most recent research in flocculant technology is focussed on using less harmful (non-aluminum/heavy metal-based) flocculants. I have serious doubts that the majority of aquarium product flocculants are that cutting edge. I'm not saying that they will cause problems in the short term, but long term or regular use is undesireable.

Do these particulates primarily manifest right after cleaning, or are they a week long issue?

Try the following. As Patricia suggested, get a big bag of filter wool - it's dirt cheap, cheaper than dirt, even

If you have a spare filter, pack it with filter wool and run it only for the one day after you do your weekly maintenance. I typically have issues with particulates for a few days after a major tank overhaul, but it usually clears gradually. I can speed the clearing by using filter wool, but as a long term, regular filter medium, I find that it gets clogged too rapidly for my tastes. It's also difficult to clean, so it's not an ideal long term solution, but it's excellent at "water scrubbing".