Water flow and....dust?

[Karackle]

Sorry to be asking SO MANY questions, but, well I want to do this right

So I have 2 questions at the moment:

The first is I'm worried about water flow in the tank, as suggested I'm not using a filter relying on the plants to do most of the filtration for me, I have a small bubble wall in there at the moment but doing some reading on here I've seen that those can cause a decrease in CO2, and i'm also worried when I put him in my Betta won't like it, BUT I don't want to leave the water stagnant either, mostly because I worry the tank won't heat evenly then. I'm thinking of getting a valve so there's a very slow flow of bubbles, or getting one of the little filters just to provide some water flow, but I'm open to suggestion.

The second thing is I'm seeing what can only be described as looking like dust on my plants. Any ideas what it could be? algae? fungus? detritus? It's not ATTACHED to the plants, if i move the water it stirs up. I was thinking of using some extra airline tubing to siphon off as much as I can. Again, I'm open to thoughts and suggestions.

Here's what it looks like:

As always, thanks in advance!

 

[Purrbox]

Unless you're actually injecting CO2 into the aquarium then you don't need to worry about CO2 loss. Surface aggitation helps the CO2 return to equilibrium, which is a good thing when CO2 isn't being injected, but will gas off excess CO2 if it's being injected.

Looks like you might be dealing with staghorn algae, but I'm not sure. I'd just try to vacuum as much of it up in you next water change as possible and see if that takes care of it or if it comes back.

 

[An t-iasg]

Ask as many questions as you need to...that's why this forum is here!

The spots you're seeing may be diatoms. They are a type of algae. They appear in almost all new tanks. Do you have a bunch of brownish clumps on the substrate? I set up a new tank at the end of December and I think I'm just reaching the end of my diatom stage now. You can siphon it up or do some extra water changes to eliminate it. It seems to run its course after a month or so. It won't harm the fish or plants although it is unsightly. I did take care to keep it off my smaller plants like the four-leaf clover so the diatoms didn't block their light.

I'm not sure what the second picture is. It almost looks like some java moss that got loose, if you have any java moss. Otherwise, it's probably another type of algae. Try to manually remove it too.

About your water movement: Is this your 5 gallon tank? You will want some water movement. I once set up a QT tank with no water movement and I could tell a temperature difference (verified by a thermometer) when I put my hand at various places in the tank. The cold water sinks and the warmer water rises.

I use this filter in my 5.5 gallon tank: Duetto DJ-50 Duetto Multi-Filters

You can adjust the flow output direction. I turn mine toward the tank wall to minimize turbulence to my betta. You can also adjust the force of the flow output. There's a red dial that you can turn - you can see the holes getting bigger (more water passes through) or smaller (less water passes through) as you turn. I have mine closed down about halfway or a little less in the 5 gallon tank. I also have this filter in my 10 gallon tank. It's a versatile filter.

I removed the carbon cartridge that the filter came with and added my own little ball of filter floss for water polishing.

 

[Karackle]

Thanks for the advice, as always! Well I siphoned off a bunch of the stuff, it siphons of pretty easily, like it's just settled and not attached, so i siphoned until the water was down to how much I wanted to change and I managed to get quite a bit of it, so I'll keep an eye out on it. I've got my bubble wall turned on for water flow now, so I'll see how that does for a little while before making the decision about adding a filter or not...My female bettas enjoy playing in the bubble wall in my 20 gallon, and i've had male bettas play in bubble walls before as well, but if it seems like i need it for water clarity/particulate filtration purposes, then i'll definitely look into that one, thanks!

 

[Karackle]

Well, if nothing else I know that my large red Crypts and my Wisteria are photosynthesizing, I can see the little oxygen bubbles they're making, so at least even with the "stuff" in there, they're at least happy. And the water is sparkling clear, and the water parameters are all looking good. (I like to look on the bright side) So hopefully i'll get the fuzz under control too!

 

[Karackle]

Update

Well, the "fuzz" isn't totally gone, but it's definitely thinning, or at least it doesn't seem to be coming back as much/as quickly after siphoning it off. ALSO the stem plants are growing new roots both from the stems and from the bottom (well, at least one stalk of the cabomba that I accidentally diislodged while siphoning had new roots growing from the bottom ) AND it looks like there's some new green shoots coming from under the gravel near the small red Crypt and the large green Crypt! I can't see if there's new growth near the bottom of the large red crypts because they're hidden behind the driftwood, but I'll take the rest of it as a good sign that i'm doing at least something right?

 

[Purrbox]

New healthy growth is definately a sign of happy plants. Congrats!

 

[Karackle]

Thanks! The advice I got here definitely contributed to my happy plants, so thank you everyone!

I'll post update pictures when I add my Betta so you can see him in his new home!