Strange Particles In The Water

[ATK!!!]

I recently set up my Juwel Rio 180 around 2 weeks ago and since then the water keeps on becoming cloudy and then going away for a bit then coming back a few days later. At first I thought it was just a bacterial bloom but now I'm not so sure... There are millions of distinguishable particles in the water that are like white dots, at first I thought the water had gone cloudy but on closer inspection the water is perfectly clear, it just has these particles in it.

I am currently silent cycling my tank so there are a lot of plants in there, the annoying thing is that the particles seem to settle on the leaves which I cant imagine will be good for them. I have a Tetratec ex1200 in there but I think I've positioned the outlets/inlet in a rather bad place so there seems to be dead spots in areas of the tank. So far I have it like this (sorry about the bad paint picture!):

As you can see there are dead spots where the gravel is not disturbed and in these spots hairs are starting to grow Could someone give me a better spray bar position! I'm guessing along the side on the left but some advice would be good.

Here are some tank parameters:
Ammonia:0ppm
Nitrite:0ppm
Nitrate:30ppm
pH:7.6
My water is very hard and the gh/kh are probably very high. Also I tried out a new phosphate kit I got a while back and got 0.5ppm

So does anyone have any ideas as to what would be a good idea to get rid of these spots and what they are, also any help with getting better flow would be appreciated

 

[ATK!!!]

Here are the particles

 

[MegaZerino]

you could try putting it along the left hand side so it goes towards the outlet, although you may get a small dead spot underneath the sprary bar. what you could do is just buy a powerhead and put that on the left side, that would probably remove the dead spots. and do you have filter floss in your filter??

 

[ATK!!!]

I do have filter floss yes, I was thinking of buying a power head but apparently they make a lot of noise which isn't ideal seeing as I have to sleep right next to the tank and I am very sensitive to noises!
I'll probably move the spray bar today then and see how things go.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Do you add any additives to the tank apart from a dechlorinator?

Have you inspected your filter in case the bits are coming from that?

 

[ATK!!!]

I will open up the filter later today and see what its like. Nothing else has been added to the tank apart from dechlorinator and "API Stress Zyme" bacterial starter. I didn't expect this to actually do anything but I added some in anyway, could this have caused it?

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I wouldn't think that the Stress Zyme would cause the particles but it will produce ammonia and if your maintenance routine is adequate you just don't need it. Stop using it for now and see what happens.

 

[MegaZerino]

you could use the powerhead in the day and at night just turn it off

 

[ATK!!!]

Great idea! I'll bear that in mind!

 

[Zikofski]

ye along the left would be a gd option if you can get all 3 tubes on the left you can say point the middle one to the bottom of the tank and have the side two pointing to the back of the tank? i tried this but i could not fit all 3 into my tank, instead i went for 2 filters, and use same layout as yours except mirrored on the right for the second filter, I'm sure i still get dead spots tbh

 

[phoenixgsd]

I wouldn't think that the Stress Zyme would cause the particles but it will produce ammonia and if your maintenance routine is adequate you just don't need it. Stop using it for now and see what happens.

does stress zyme cause ammonia? if so, that would solve a little mystery im having, maybe i will just dechlorinate on the next water change, i was under the impression it had to be added even in cycled tanks on water changes

 

[Xraymark]

I have the same tank and filter as yourself with the same configuration. I did have the outlet along the right side along the short axis of the tank and the inlet down the right side as well. The theory being flow would go down the length of the tank and back to the inlet.

You can only use one part of the spray bar so flow is a tad powerful but very doable. I was contemplating cutting one of the spray bars and attaching it to the end part and widening the holes in the spray bar to reduce some of the flow but just ended up with your set up. I may go back to my original plan.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I wouldn't think that the Stress Zyme would cause the particles but it will produce ammonia and if your maintenance routine is adequate you just don't need it. Stop using it for now and see what happens.

does stress zyme cause ammonia? if so, that would solve a little mystery im having, maybe i will just dechlorinate on the next water change, i was under the impression it had to be added even in cycled tanks on water changes

All of these 'dirt buster' type of products produce ammonia as they contain heterotrophic bacteria which eat the organics and process them into ammonia. If your filter is mature it's not a problem but they are also completely unnecessary in a well maintained tank.

 

[Lufbramatt]

does the flow from the spray bar break the surface of the water? If it does, the white dots are probably just tiny bubbles.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

This looks ifentical to my problem. I'd be interested to see how you get on.