Cleaning My Filter

[Mikey1]

only got 3 corys, 2 are only about 1.5" the bigger one is almost 3"..so they get fed once a day...and its about 1/4 of a wafer...and occasionally a few flakes rather than the algae, they also get bloodworms as a treat now n again......is this too much...oh n a starve day once a fortnight......and i gravel clean weekly, just give it a good turn over once every couple of weeks though....

if your vaccuuming gravel once a week there should be very little waste with only 3 fish in the tank, i would say you are either overfeeding, or your filter is not working well, or a combination of both,

i have about 15 small fish in a tank the same size as yours, and there is very little waste when i clean my gravel, certainly not near enough to "muck up" a filter,

if i "rake" the gravel with my fingers you would barely see any waste floating up

 

[snazy]

It doesn't sound like you are overfeeding from what you said. What filter is that exactly. Is it affecting the water clarity or you just want to know the best way to clean it? Do you see tiny bits floating after a while? I used to have a not so good filter that did that. The moment I put a second filter all was gone. And as Mikey1 says, I have an overstocked, but overfiltered tank and almost nothing comes out of the gravel. I can go on for months not cleaning the filter without any adverse effects and the filters always look clean on the outside.

 

[MrsM]

It doesn't sound like you are overfeeding from what you said. What filter is that exactly. Is it affecting the water clarity or you just want to know the best way to clean it? Do you see tiny bits floating after a while? I used to have a not so good filter that did that. The moment I put a second filter all was gone. And as Mikey1 says, I have an overstocked, but overfiltered tank and almost nothing comes out of the gravel. I can go on for months not cleaning the filter without any adverse effects and the filters always look clean on the outside.

the filter came with the tank when we bought it, its a moray aqua one 320... if i shouldnt get much muck from the gravel when raking the gravel with my fingers then i AM over feeding.... how much should i be feeding them? and what foods do they need and prefer? also i got a crappy gravel cleaner its more of a siphon to be honest, but i you tubed gravel cleaning and i now know how to clean the gravel correctly i used to just move the siphon/cleaner over the top of the gravel and maybe poke around a bit, then every so often id churn away at the gravel, hence all the muck coming out...

p.s, i know i may ask alot of silly questions and sometimes i get some smart assy comments back but im still learning so..hey!! dont shoot me, we all started somewhere right!(im actually gonna add that to my signature!)

just looked up the price of the filter i have £20...im assuming thats the lower end of quality for filters??

 

[snazy]

You need to stick the siphon deep into the gravel after you've started the suction, then the muck comes out on top of it and gets sucked in via the tube. This way there's no stirring at all.
From what you said I don't think you are overfeeding but maybe there isn't enough flow from the filter as most should go there ideally.

From what I found online, the moray aqua one 320 is as it's name, is 320 litres an hour. I think this is way too low. For a 70 litre tank that gives you 4 times the water volume an hour filtration per manufacturer specifications. Cut that in two because most filters after taking into account media, etc..in reallity work a lot less, so you are stuck to max 2-3 times the water volume an hour. Ideally you should have 7-8 times the water flow an hour, so I would aim at least 560 L/H filter although myself I would aim at 10 times, so something of the sort of 700L/H filter and you'll see a great difference.

As for food, they like the hikari sinking wafers(orange pack). I've got the hikari mini wafers too, new life spectrum several different sinking wafers, sometimes algae wafers, sometimes frozen food(once a week). I have community tanks so I do overfeed slightly to make sure all of them gets a share but they'll eat half a wafer each with no problem.

 

[MrsM]

You need to stick the siphon deep into the gravel after you've started the suction, then the muck comes out on top of it and gets sucked in via the tube. This way there's no stirring at all.
From what you said I don't think you are overfeeding but maybe there isn't enough flow from the filter as most should go there ideally.

From what I found online, the moray aqua one 320 is as it's name, is 320 litres an hour. I think this is way too low. For a 70 litre tank that gives you 4 times the water volume an hour filtration per manufacturer specifications. Cut that in two because most filters after taking into account media, etc..in reallity work a lot less, so you are stuck to max 2-3 times the water volume an hour. Ideally you should have 7-8 times the water flow an hour, so I would aim at least 560 L/H filter although myself I would aim at 10 times, so something of the sort of 700L/H filter and you'll see a great difference.

ok i dont get all the numbers etc, but i had a feeling i would get a "better" filter..they always put the cheaper alternative in the whlole tank set ups for sale dont they...ill maybe look into upgrading the filter after xmas as i want a decent one and my 2 boys arent gonna love mummy too much for buying the them a new filter for xmas any suggestions as to what filter? i mean the makes? which ones are best for money..i must admit after a few hours after id messed the water up by churning into the gravel the filter had cleared the tank...

just seen the edit on food, thanks snazy

 

[Mikey1]

your filter and feeding may be fine, the excess waste might have built up because you were not cleaning the gravel properly, now that you know how to do it i would suggest syphoning/cleaning the gravel every 3 days changing no more than 50% of the water at one time, keep doing this every 3 days till the gravel is basically clean and no waste comes up, at that point start syphoning it once a week,

 

[MrsM]

your filter and feeding may be fine, the excess waste might have built up because you were not cleaning the gravel properly, now that you know how to do it i would suggest syphoning/cleaning the gravel every 3 days changing no more than 50% of the water at one time, keep doing this every 3 days till the gravel is basically clean and no waste comes up, at that point start syphoning it once a week,

this is exactly what i am going to do, and also upgrade my filter too! thanks

 

[Michelleuk]

snazy/ Mikey1-what filter do you have? how many liters is your tank?

 

[snazy]

I,ve got 4 tanks, soon to be 5 and besides the betta tank, filtration is provided by multiple filters to a total 10x the tank volume an hour. It doesn't really matter what filters. It depends which brands you like and what you can afford, or what type of setup you prefer