Brown Growth In Filter Hoses

[Marley]

I have an eheim canister system. My water looks pretty clear, although a couple of days ago I thought it looked a bit brown. nitrite and ammonia levels are good and all fish are healthy. Today I noticed some brown stuff growing in the filter hoses. I also noticed some copper colored stuff on the rocks on the bottom. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance!
Marley

 

[5teady_2012]

Sounds like the gunk as just built up in the filter, just clean it off using water form your fish tank..

 

[waterdrop]

Maybe you should view this as a good thing, tank getting more mature and better for fish .. certainly can't hurt anything for a long time I would think.

This brings up an interesting question though: What do the "photo inclined" members do? Lots of our experienced members post pictures of really nice looking aquascapes and often the equipment, including the filter tubes, appear to be looking like new. Anyone want to confess to running a brush through those dirty tubes? Or perhaps there are other related comments - I've definately seen comments that a very newly cycled system can usually not withstand too much biofilm cleaning in the tubes without a potential mini-cycle - others agree?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Well i'm yet to be wholly convinced about the whole bio-film argument tbh. it's been put forward as one of the critical differences between a newly cycled tank and a mature one, all I've ever seen is speculation though, never any firm research/evidence. Perhaps if you have seen otherwise WD you'd care to point me in the direction of it!

I've cleaned out the pipe tubes before, it's just gunk/algae, it can eventually clog up and slow the flow rate or even block a filter but that's a whole lot of mank.

Best bet is a pip cleaner type brush and just give it a scrub and run a load of water through it. I'm not one to clean things to the point that they are immaculate for pics or anything like that but I've taken them off before.

We're actually gonna replace ours on our filters in the not too distant future as they're well manky and to be totally honest it'll only cost a few quid for some new ones and they're a ball ache to clean

 

[waterdrop]

Well, no, that's what I was fishing for. I never believed the story of cleaning tubes causing a minicycle myself, just thought I read a few comments to the effect here on TFF. My own judgement (based almost entirely on my reading here also) is that as long as one has taken reasonable care to outfit a tank with sufficient filter media volume, then that is all one has to worry about and the cleaning of tubes and gravel and everything else should never be a worry, as the bacteria population in the media alone will be the sufficient and necessary size.

So one should be free to clean away to heart's content! And it certainly makes sense to periodically replace the hose systems, as they will inevitably stiffen with age and may eventually be a bit more prone to slip off a connecting pipe as a result, although in practice I would not think this would happen much if one checks the tightness periodically. Perhaps other experienced ones will comment how long they've generally gone before tube replacements...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Well, no, that's what I was fishing for. I never believed the story of cleaning tubes causing a minicycle myself, just thought I read a few comments to the effect here on TFF. My own judgement (based almost entirely on my reading here also) is that as long as one has taken reasonable care to outfit a tank with sufficient filter media volume, then that is all one has to worry about and the cleaning of tubes and gravel and everything else should never be a worry, as the bacteria population in the media alone will be the sufficient and necessary size.

So one should be free to clean away to heart's content! And it certainly makes sense to periodically replace the hose systems, as they will inevitably stiffen with age and may eventually be a bit more prone to slip off a connecting pipe as a result, although in practice I would not think this would happen much if one checks the tightness periodically. Perhaps other experienced ones will comment how long they've generally gone before tube replacements...

~~waterdrop~~

Precisely my view WD,

worth adding though that there's two aspects to overcleaning and causing a mini cycle. one is that you deplete the bacteria population, as discussed above shouldn't be an issue in a well filtered tank, the second is that you stir up a load of waste, create extra ammonia in the tank and cause a mini cycle by doubling the bio load. Obviously whatever the size of your filter if you do something like that there is potential for a cycle, but maintaining the tank well should prevent there ever being that much waste around to be stirred up.

oh i expect a hose can comfortably last 5 years+ before you'd have any issues.

we're just having a little upgrade and clear out over the next few weeks, we're getting a new filter and have decided to sling some older slightly knackered stuff and get new ones, like our siphon's not pulling as hard as it used to and test kits probably out of date. Just a general upgrade of stuff that everyone needs periodically.

 

[waterdrop]

No, we know you MW, you guys just can't sit still.. gotta tinker and play, gotta run down to the LFS and get a few things

Seriously though, interesting you mention the bit about how the gravel cleans can stir things up (even on a clean tank there will be an inevitable ammonia blip from a good gravel clean, whether one can detect it or not) as I was just glancing back at that thread you started back in June on what advice to give newbies about algae. It pulled really good comments from Arron, Dave, the glass teardrop guy and the other plant guys.. mostly succeeding in my mind in once again showing the algae learning curve is steep. But it made me realize more how many of the normal maintenance things we do can be the triggers for algae. Sorry for this being off-topic to this thread, its just been really on my mind again.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

got an algae bloom or something?!

 

[waterdrop]

can't hide that algae

 

[Dave Spencer]

This brings up an interesting question though: What do the "photo inclined" members do? Lots of our experienced members post pictures of really nice looking aquascapes and often the equipment, including the filter tubes, appear to be looking like new. Anyone want to confess to running a brush through those dirty tubes?
~~waterdrop~~

I run my tanks with as close to zero visible algae as is possible. I don`t even have to wipe GDA off the close, `coz I know how to defeat that, too.

However, I will admit to getting brown gunk in the clear tubes and glass ware I use on the filter inlet and outlet. There will, of course, be no photos!

I use this item for cleaning my glass ware.

4004570 Eheim Flexible Cleaning Brush 12-16mm

Dave.

 

[waterdrop]

And there he is.. one of the very men I'm sure will eventually teach me how to tame my algae and grow my plants.. I'm always on the verge of a PM but then I think I havent' done enough homework yet.. (now let's see, 1.3w/g, 3 easy plants.. sigh)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

And there he is.. one of the very men I'm sure will eventually teach me how to tame my algae and grow my plants.. I'm always on the verge of a PM but then I think I havent' done enough homework yet.. (now let's see, 1.3w/g, 3 easy plants.. sigh)

times like this i'm v grateful for Ian's planting expertise.

should have seen the state of the plants in my tanks before he came along

the thing that baffles me is he has them growing beautifully even now in plain play sand, no CO2, no ferts, stock lighting so probably 1wpg or less........

i can understand how he had a lot of sucess when he was tinkering with them loads or doing EI but they just seem to grow for him whatever he does.

Guess some people are just naturally green fingered.

 

[Corleone]

Aside from a couple temple plants that simply refuse to do well for me, I've had about the same luck with my aquatic plants. No CO2, plain gravel, and I neglect my fertilizer regularly. I did upgrade from stock lighting to about 2 wpg. I also have to admit I don't research my plant selections at all, and only give them a cursory snail check before shoving them in the gravel and hoping for the best.

Land plants, though... I can sort of keep grass alive, but my garden has withered under my tender care.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Ian even got a bloomin lace plant growing in the same tank, it got drowned out by java moss eventually but i can never understand how i'd struggle to keep cabomba alive and he'd get tricky stuff growing easily.


I'm a little better with outside plants, we don't have a garden but I've a hanging basket and a couple of pots outside the front door and they're looking really good this year!


House plants always die on me though.

 

[waterdrop]

Yup, you two are describing me too. We all three must have "green-thumb-defect"

I'm certainly hoping to remedy that over time, though. Maybe being an "enthusiastic reeee-beginner" makes me naive enough to think I can get the hang of this seemingly elusive set of skills that has escaped me all my life, ha!

It was interesting to read from Dave (and aaron agreed I think) how much those guys work on trying to eliminate the "triggers" for algae by making light and carbon go along smoothly and trying not to generate little ammonia spikes. I was thinking when you said above, Corleone, that you are not regular with your fertilizer dosing that perhaps that is one of the differences between these successful people and "us." Its possible they are much more methodical about things like fertilizer, where we are guilty of being too random. MW, maybe that's one of the things Ian does, maybe he is good and regular about dosing in the ferts?

~~wd~~