Hello everyone,
I'm currently doing battle with what I think is old tank syndrome. Looking for some advice about what I have been doing to remedy the problem.
My tank is about 3 years old. I do pwc 25-30% every week with a gravel vac. Clean the filter about once a month. When I clean the filter I use tank water to preserve the bacteria and all that good stuff, only change the carbon and top pad. The bio balls, ceramic rings and filter foam never get changed out. Everything has always been fine, but for the past month I have been trying to remedy a cloudy water problem.
One mistake I did make was to never get the gravel vac down and deep. I looked up under my tank with a flashlight and was shocked to see all the gunk!
On Wed. I cleaned half the tank down to the bottom with the gravel vac, waited till Sat and did the other half. Both times I sucked out about 50% of the water.
Am I on the right track to recovery here?
I had a vortex but it was always a hassle. Just bought a magnum 250 to use as a diatom filter.
Tank Specs: 90gal, Rena XP3, (2)404 power heads, air stones, air wand, (2) heaters.
Water specs: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, nitrates 20, ph 6.8 ish. (before I did the super gravel vac sessions I always had a problem with high nitrates)
Fish: 1 pink, 1 blue, 2 gold gourami, 5 danios, 2 pictus cats, 6 baby clown loaches, 18" pleco
First pic shows the whole tank and it really does'nt look too bad. Second pic from the side shows the haze
Thanks!!!
I'm currently doing battle with what I think is old tank syndrome. Looking for some advice about what I have been doing to remedy the problem.
My tank is about 3 years old. I do pwc 25-30% every week with a gravel vac. Clean the filter about once a month. When I clean the filter I use tank water to preserve the bacteria and all that good stuff, only change the carbon and top pad. The bio balls, ceramic rings and filter foam never get changed out. Everything has always been fine, but for the past month I have been trying to remedy a cloudy water problem.
One mistake I did make was to never get the gravel vac down and deep. I looked up under my tank with a flashlight and was shocked to see all the gunk!
On Wed. I cleaned half the tank down to the bottom with the gravel vac, waited till Sat and did the other half. Both times I sucked out about 50% of the water.
Am I on the right track to recovery here?
I had a vortex but it was always a hassle. Just bought a magnum 250 to use as a diatom filter.
Tank Specs: 90gal, Rena XP3, (2)404 power heads, air stones, air wand, (2) heaters.
Water specs: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, nitrates 20, ph 6.8 ish. (before I did the super gravel vac sessions I always had a problem with high nitrates)
Fish: 1 pink, 1 blue, 2 gold gourami, 5 danios, 2 pictus cats, 6 baby clown loaches, 18" pleco
First pic shows the whole tank and it really does'nt look too bad. Second pic from the side shows the haze
Thanks!!!
