Particulates In Water

[Mickeybags]

Hi all,
I recently upgraded to a aquaclear 30 in my 10 gallon tank. I was told aquaclears are the Cadillacs of HOB filters. When I first set it up with the charcoal it was looking good. A month passed and threw out the charcoal. I didn't replace it since it's a little pricy and I don't need it. My water was starting to get really cloudy after PWC. I added water polishing pads and fluval prefilter along with the sponge and bio media yesterday. It's been 24 hours and there is still particulates. How do I get rid of these? Is there anything finer then filter floss?


Dorm room fish keeper

 

[wildroseofky]

It sounds like you are having a bacterial bloom. It will make your water get very cloudy. Have you been overfeeding? Most of use do and it causes this type of problem sometimes. Most newly cycled tanks encounter this. Do several water changes in the next week and clean your filter pads in old tank water when you do your weekly water changes. Try feeding just every other day and only small amounts. The recommended amount is the size of the fishes eye. Not much at all. Make sure to clean up any dead plants, excess food, and fish waste. It can take several weeks for this to go away so be patient and keep up the water changes.

 

[NiaCas]

+1 on the bacterial bloom theory. If you got a new filter and used new media then your tank probably needed to be recycled. Then you may have thrown away a good home for the bacteria when you threw out the charcoal. It's useless as charcoal unless you're removing medication, but it's ok to house bacteria. When you took it out, the bacteria left behind may not have had anywhere to go and there was more confusion. A month's not usually long enough for a tank to cycle anyway, so it probably wasn't finished yet. Bacteria can also live on those polisher pads, but it's going to take more than 24 hours for them to become at all effective in that regard
wildroseofky pretty much covered all you can really do during a fish-in cycle.

 

[Mickeybags]

I put the paper from my old bio wheel in the bag with the new bio media. I had the same issue when I set the tank up. The guy at the LFS said cycling was unnecessary as long as I added the fish slowly. But it cleared up quickly.


Dorm room fish keeper