Floating tiny brown dust particles

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Tacoeater

Aquarium Advice Activist
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Oct 13, 2012
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Started having this problem a couple weeks ago that I can't get rid of. I didn't change or add anything, regular 60% water changes every week, filters serviced every other month. Water test fine, fish happy. If you look closely you could see tiny little brown dust particles floating around. They just float, don't stick to glass or decorations, and not really on the water surface. I added Max 3 pre filters to both my F406 and AC110 that I had planned to add before all this started figuring it would help. The only thing I noticed is my piece of drift wood that I have in there is looking a bit pale, like it dried out, but I figured its due to my 4 bn plecos chomping on it all the time, plus I don't see the particles rising off of it. The pics are close ups, the particles are not that big. 50% water changes every other day for a week and substrate sweep did not make a difference either. Any ideas?
Forgot to add, been feeding NLS for over 3 years, same bucket for two months, so don't think it's the food. Also has a glass top plus canopy so not coming from above.


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I would think its your driftwood. I think I'm right in saying that all driftwood is constantly breaking down and your plecos are definitely having a good munch on it. Having said all that I'm sorry to say I have no idea how to solve your prob other than removing the wood and starting afresh. How long has your driftwood been in there? Im told that driftwood must be soaked for a few days in tank water before going in, so I guess my question is, is your driftwood new?

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Started having this problem a couple weeks ago that I can't get rid of. I didn't change or add anything, regular 60% water changes every week, filters serviced every other month. Water test fine, fish happy. If you look closely you could see tiny little brown dust particles floating around. They just float, don't stick to glass or decorations, and not really on the water surface. I added Max 3 pre filters to both my F406 and AC110 that I had planned to add before all this started figuring it would help. The only thing I noticed is my piece of drift wood that I have in there is looking a bit pale, like it dried out, but I figured its due to my 4 bn plecos chomping on it all the time, plus I don't see the particles rising off of it. The pics are close ups, the particles are not that big. 50% water changes every other day for a week and substrate sweep did not make a difference either. Any ideas?
Forgot to add, been feeding NLS for over 3 years, same bucket for two months, so don't think it's the food. Also has a glass top plus canopy so not coming from above.


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Clean your filters again and put some floss in there. I has this problem too but I serviced my filter, cleaned my substrate and added floss on the filter. The debris was gone on a week.
 
The wood is about 6 months old, boiled it twice plus kept it submerged in a bucket for three weeks before putting it in my tank. Not a single trace of tannins. I figured some floss would clean it up, but wanted to get to the problem first. This only bugs me because my water has always been crystal clear without it. Lots of filtration with Purigen for a 60g. As much as I love that piece, I will remove it to see what happens. Thanks.
 
For those following along it was a bad batch of NLS Cichlid 1mm pellets. I cleaned everything out once again and bought a new supply of NLS, my water is once again crystal clear and has been for the last weeks or so and I don't see the little floating dust particles floating around like before. My intake tubes are clear too, they were the first to show signs of that brown dust film. Very happy again with my tank.
 
Over the years I've noticed when using the very small NLS pellets, especially the small fish formula, if fish don't eat all that is put in the tank they do indeed float around in the water. I finally stopped using the small fish formula altogether.
 
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