Bitty Water

[pinkdolphin_113]

my water in my tank has lots of little bits in the water just floating around. its not food or anything i know this. the only way to describe it is... annoyin!
is there anyway i can get rid of these annoying bits? my filter is doing the best it can but its just not good enough. a bigger filter?
also, the top of my sand has patches of black sand on it. whats with this??

would a shrimp help with the bits in the water? i had one but i cant find him anywhere! maybe a few more?
i do have a bit of a brown algea problem but my ottos seem to be doing a small but good job of it. im planning on adding a farlowella to the tank soon.

some of my fish also sometimes have like see-through string on them which have bubbles in them and sometimes "BITS" ... if that makes any sense to anyone. but to be fair the fish do seem fine n healthy

whats wrong?? yesterday i did 7 water changes from 7am till 1 am the next day!! the bits just dont go away.
sometimes its as though a skin is trying to form over my water too.
i just want clean water

x

 

[pica_nuttalli]

what kind of filter do you have? (brand, type, model # if you know it)

also what size tank, what do you have stocked and what are you feeding them?

 

[n3ont3tra]

Did you do a water change before you noticed the bits? When I do water changes, it stirs stuff up, but then it it all settles back down again within a few hours.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

i have a 55gal with a BRIO 4 filter or whatever.
i have a shoal of peppered corys(5), a small shoal of angels(4), shoal of white clouds(7), weather loaches(4), hillstream loaches(3), clown loaches(2), a yoyo loach and ottos (4). the reason the bottom is so full is because im addicted to loaches and i felt i needed them to borrow in the sand so gasses wouldn't form.

im feeding them a few flakes, some sinking pellets and a few bloodworm pellets twice a day. the flakes never usually make it to the bottom and the sinking pellets are always eaten my the corys and loaches.
the bloodworm pellets are slightly bigger and do take a while to be eaten but i always put them infront of the glass where i can see them just incase they don't get eaten.

Did you do a water change before you noticed the bits? When I do water changes, it stirs stuff up, but then it it all settles back down again within a few hours.

no i saw the bits and thought a water change would sort it. 6 later, no luck

 

[n3ont3tra]

How big are the CLs and Angels?

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

well the diamond blusher is about 4 inch from top to bottom. the black marble 1.5 inch. the koi blusher 3 inch and the silver about 1.5 inch also.
the clowns; biggest is about 2.5 inches long and the smallest is coming up to around 2 inches now.

and yes i know, before you say it, im going to need a bigger tank when they're bigger. its sorted.

 

[n3ont3tra]

Alright, that's not what I was gonna say, but anyways, the best guess I can come up with is that all of your bottom feeders are stirring up your substrate so much that the fish's waste is constantly getting mixed up from the sand.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

hummmmm never thought of that. thankyou do you reckon an external filter would possibly solve it? x

 

[n3ont3tra]

Erm... Sorry, I have no idea. I am so confused about all the different types of filters, it's not even funny anymore.

 

[DoubleJ]

The black on the sand sounds like algae to me. No more shrimp. The fish you have, in my experience, love to snack on them. Angels especially. I had 60+ ghost shrimp in a 55gl tank and got the bright idea to add 2 angels that were about 2 inches from top to bottom. 3 days later, not one shrimp was left alive.

I'm not familiar with a BRIO 4 filter. Got a picture or link? I have always prefered canister filters but, to each their own.

Is the tank cycled? if you've got brown algae, I would guess not. I would also guess that the floating bits are coming from your water supply. If you've done 7 water changes in a one day period and it's gotten no better, I think it's the water. Mine does this and I just let it go and within a day or two, it gets to the point where there are a few floaters but, not so much that it's distracting.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

hi thanks the water hasn't got any better over night. slightly blurry but ive put some de-chlorinator in thismorning.
i think BRIO is just a really small make that pet shops stick in set ups and charge as much as they would if they put a better brand in. if you get me
i cloned the tank from what it used to be and then gradually added the plants.
this is the link to the BRIO filters but it says 53gallon so shouldn't have been sold to me in a 55gallon!!
so i think im going to buy an external filter and see what goes on there.
how much do these usually cost?
they are alot more expensive i know this...

thanks x

 

[voo]

Try adding some filter floss to your filter, if there's room somewhere. That should remove a lot of the small particles.

 

[Egmel]

how much do these usually cost?
they are alot more expensive i know this...

depends on make and model, for a 55G it's not going to be cheap I'm afraid.

Eheim come Highly recommended, make sure you get one WITH MEDIA else it costs a fortune to add. Try here -> http/store.livingseas.co.uk/index.asp?fu...;productid=1303
Have a search in the HW forum for info about which make models are often suggested.

If all of them end up out of your price range look on ebay for a used one and post a wanted ad on the Buy/Sell/Swap section of this board good luck.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

hey thanks. that filter look really good but im affraid its most probably whats around me that i can buy. like in the shops because im not too keen on buying offline etc.
i thought it would have been alot more than that for an external filter that size with media too. i was thinking reaching £100 somewhere. but hey, im not complaining

thanks again x

 

[Egmel]

hey thanks. that filter look really good but im affraid its most probably whats around me that i can buy. like in the shops because im not too keen on buying offline etc.
i thought it would have been alot more than that for an external filter that size with media too. i was thinking reaching £100 somewhere. but hey, im not complaining

thanks again x

If it's any help I bought from that company and had no problems, they are an LFS in Dorset and were much better priced than anywhere else I looked.

If you find everywhere else is wildly more expensive you could always phone them and order over the phone. (That's assuming you're anti buying on the internet rather than anti buying unseen goods).

P.S if you can afford it, buy the size up from what you need for your tank, it allows for expansion later and means that if anything should go wrong with your tank you've got a little more leeway in biological filtration!