White Gravel Turning Brown

[JMcQueen]

As per title, I have Unipac white microgravel in my tank to offset the black fish, only its starting to turn quite brown. At first I thought it was diatoms but im not so sure. Its mainly in the middle of the tank and the areas which are shaded either by the filter or behind rocks isnt affected at all. Im going to fish a handful out later and have a better look but could it be that the colour is bleaching out of the gravel either due to the light or some other reason?

 

[ian]

Get a pic and we'll be able to have a better look. It could even be detritus, it may be a dead spot in the tank?

 

[JMcQueen]

Get a pic and we'll be able to have a better look. It could even be detritus, it may be a dead spot in the tank?

I'll get a pic in a bit. Its too wide to be general waste. Although the gravel does need a vac at the minute, the 'brown' is about a 50cm by 15 cm patch in the middle.

 

[JMcQueen]

Try this one, its actually quite difficult to capture it in a picture. The lighting doesnt work terrible well in the photo.

http/i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu79/JPMcQueen/Tank4.jpg

 

[ian]

could we be diatoms, they can hang around for ages. It could be general muck, if the filter isn't picking up, is you outlet facing downwards to see if the filter will shift it?

 

[JMcQueen]

That photo was taken from the far right hand side of the tank which is about 8cm in legnth. The filter is on the far left. I use the spray bar setting from the filter so it tends to jet horizontal but because the fish were suffering with the current I've had to put a piece of foam in front of the spray bar to act as a damper.

I suppose it could be general dirt. What I might do is net the fish out at the weekend and do a huge water chance and whilst doing it, give the gravel a good wash. The fish have been in the tank for about a month.

I dont like netting fish out of a tank but I wouldnt want to start swirling the gravel around with them in it. I can imagine it would kick up a huge amount of stuff and I'd need to lower the water below a reasonable level to keep them in.