Dust Substance In Aquarium?

[mark4785]

Hello,
 
For the past few weeks my aquarium has had thousands of light brown minuscule dust-like particles floating in the water column as well as darker brown cumulations of the same that adheres to the plant leaves, glass and filter box.
 
What exactly is it and how do I get rid of it? I'd ideally like somebody to be able to identify what I'm dealing with as I don't want to go down the trial and error route of trying to eradicate it.
 
 
Mark.
 

 

[RRaquariums]

This could be wrong but I often get this substance in my freshwater and saltwater tanks as best I can figure it's small pieces of detritus ie fish waist dead plant matter and everything else floating around. It seems to collect into this stuff and either settles on the bottom or gets stuck to stuff. In my saltwater tank I use a turkey baster to gently blow it into the water so it goes down my overflow and gets taken out by my skimmer. In my freshwater tank I blow it into the water right before I do a water change and try to suck as much up as I can.
Hope this helps

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

I'm with RR on the ID. If you only have just a little bit, spot cleaning it during water changes shouldn't a hassle. If it is extensive, you are probably going to make a mess as you clean it and it will take days for the water to clear. Let your filters do most of the work for you as RR suggested.
 
Preventing it should be easy depending on your set-up. Good water movement keeps it from settling and your filters will collect it for you. You just need more circulation. If your filtration is borderline, add another filter. I find foam filters to be great at picking up fine particles giving the water a polished look. If you've got plenty of filtration, adding some small pumps to boost water movement will help it from settling.

 

[mark4785]

Thank you for your suggestions. 
 
Would a 90%+ water change solve the issue along with giving the filter media a thorough clean? The issue I have is that when I disturb this detritus a lot of it does not get sucked into the filter as my rate of filtration is only 350 litres per hour. I do have a powerhead that pushes 2000 litres of water through itself per hour but this is not capturing any of the detritus at all (as it's not designed to do so).

 

[Fish'nchips]

I keep miniature snails which keep most of it at bay. Other than that I don't sweat too much about it being a planted tank.

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

You really need more filtration. Put a sponge filter on that power head. It will amaze you how much of a difference it will make.