Low-light planted, high fish, filtration question

[DocOc]

My tank is pretty cloudy with what I think are just waste, plant parts, and other organics. I have a Whisper filter rated for about 50gal in my 30gal hex. I have taken the sticky's advice and eliminated the carbon and now have some filter floss. How should I use it most effectively? Can I stop using the expensive filter bags that Tetra makes?

[malkore]

I'm not a fan of the Whisper filters at all. they're underpowered, and of course spendy due to replacing those cartridges.

you can rinse the cartridge durin a water change, but its still not as much filtration as an AquaClear HOB with 2 sponge blocks and a little filter floss.

Is the tank cloudy with debris, or hazy? Hazy usually means bacterial bloom or green water.

[CompMage]

Yea I had 4 whisper filters that I've replaced all of them.

LOWSEY PRODUCT!

For the filter floss in your aquaria the only way to avoid that that I found was to replace the filter ever 3 weeks or so. The filters are cheaply made, and very un effective.

I would defiantly take malkore's advice and get a AquaClear HOB filter.

for the hazy water, you might try CO2 ejection, once I added it, that went away for me. I would also do water changes of 20% every day for some time to try and clear the water up.

If you're seeing bits of plants in your tank you need to prone your plants down a little and try vacing. I know it's bad if you have plants but I've found if I use a smaller vac I can pull the junk off the surface of the gravel and not mess with the roots of my plants to much. Right now I'm using a vac designed for a 10G tank.

Oh yea even if it's bacterial bloom or green water....NO CHEMICALS

Good luck!

[DocOc]

Yeah, I got the filter from the guy who owned the tank before me. He just had a few cichlids I think. I'm pushing this system pretty hard. My water flow drops by about 50% in a couple days from clogging.
I saw a bacterial bloom early in my setup process and I don't think this is it. My chemistry is pretty good (because I watch it like a hawk as much as anything else). I know I may never get the crystal clarity I had at the beginning, but this seems like a little much.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I've had 2 Tetra whispers. both work well when the filters are clean.. As an alternative you can pick up some Topfin cartridges from petsmart. They allow you to put floss in the plastic sandwich..

The picture Here shows what it looks like.. It's a cage.

[DocOc]

As an alternative you can pick up some Topfin cartridges

Do you think that would fit in my Whisper?

I just ordered $150 worth of lighting for my tank. My gadget budget is shot for a while now. I know I need a new filter. I'm hoping that once I get my plants growing, I can get other things under control.

I'm trying to avoid chemicals as much as possible. I get the feeling that you can become dependant on them and still not get as good a result as treating the underlying cause.

[newfound77951]

I hear ya on the budget woes....but an Aquaclear online at Big Al's or equivalent should be <$20 for your size tank. You should never have to replace the foam blocks, just rinse them out every couple of weeks. It will pay for itself shortly. I have an AC 300 on my 55 gal, I think it was $21 online. I have 1 foam block and 2 bags of biomax in it. The filter is probably a little small for a 55 but my tank is heavily planted and the plants more than make up for the smaller filter by taking up any and all nutrients as fast as they possibly can (faster than I can add them, sometimes!)

Good luck!

[DocOc]

OK, so I replaced most of my substrate. I scooped out the majority of the gravel I had down there mixed with laterite (a huge source of cloudiness I found). It was clogging up my filters as fast as I could replace them. I have been using filter floss, replacing it once or twice a day to take the load off. I'm hoping that I can slowly eliminate the suspended laterite dust with some water changes and this method. Maybe I can get a filter to last longer than three days!