PDA

View Full Version : intake question? Clear water???



grantbudd74
07-12-2009, 06:14 AM
I have a pro 3 filter in my 6x2x2 which has one outlet and 2 intakes. I have the outlet at the top left side coming out through a spray bar pointed down toward the gravel to help create flow toward the 2 intakes.

The intakes are on the right side and one is front right corner and one is rear right corner.

They are in a planted tank and the substrate is fine sand. The plants are mainly at the back yet the water always has bits in it! I don't mind tannin any ideas?

The filter is ehiem and rated for 2500l aquariums (mine is 580L) and now I have a pro ehiem filter for 400L aquarium as well running a surface skimmer to try and help.

How would you set this up?

Oh my pro with the skimmer is rear right but at the top. Its an Ehiem skimmer.

Thx

Grant

tcyiu
07-12-2009, 11:52 AM
Are you using any fine filter media like polyester floss/fibre? These will help "polish" the water, but will need to be changed frequently as these clog quickly.

As for the spray bar, is this mounted above the water line, or low down near the sand? If it is mounted very low, this will just stir up the muck (which would normally be removed by vacuuming the sand).

What is the bioload? Are there fish like loaches that are constantly stirring up the sand? What are you feeding? Something that breaks up easily into little bits?

As an interim solution, you might consider "polishing" the water with a DE filter. This is a good option if you already have a convertible filter like a Magnum 350. I wouldn't run out and buy one since I don't think these are long term solutions. It would be best to get to root cause.

Lastly, how long has this been up. If it has been recently set up, give it some time to settle. Even with high turnover, it takes a lot of time for all of the water to pass through the filter.

Tim

grantbudd74
07-17-2009, 09:01 AM
tank set up is about 5 -8 weeks old and is planted. The spray bar (ehiem pro 3) is at the top pointing outward and down so it hits the gravel very lightly about 2 ft away all bars are under the water line. The other spray bar (ehiem pro series) attached to the skimmer points down but there is no gravel movement but you could be right about the water movement. I have tried to get some water movement to prevent algae and the discus spend more time in the higher flow areas of the tank. Not a raging torrent mind you :-)

I do feed spectrum (happy to change if the fish will go for it?) and that causes a bit of mess 6-7 times a day on a timer. The intakes are a long way away (6ft) at the other end of the tank and I don't vac as the sand as its so fine the bits move along toward the intakes.

Bio load is 8 small discus, 20 tetras, 12 corries, 2 BN cats and 2 clown loaches but these don't really move much and they hang in the wood and plants all day. I have no idea what the DE filter thing is that you mentioned but I do have an ehiem surface skimmer fitted to another canister ehiem pro series filter (400l per hr) so water turning over is in excess of about 4 times the tank volume an hour.

I have used seachem purigen but this gets exhausted easilly so frequent water changes of 30-50l ever couple of days works ok but reduces the ferts in the water as I dose liquid ferts.

I have replaced my fine filter pad with no improvement in this little gauge. Maybe its a bit of crap i the return spring? I take the pump head off once a week to clear all the crap that biluds up and also rinse out the fine filter pad under used tank water.

Any more ideas? should I drill out the spray bars? Leave as is? my BN's are having babies and I have about 12 that I have seen so far all doing very well. I would like crystal clear water but no lose ferts by using carbon for example. Does water flow reduce algae? tanks that have higher water flow dont have BBA that I have seen and mine is going crazy on the driftwood!

Sorry about this long reply

Grant

poconogal
07-17-2009, 01:58 PM
Have you tried pointing the spray bars upwards some. It will reduce the force of the flow a bit down to your substrate. Maybe this will help.

Another thing is that I found that the fine filter pads do not seem to work as well as good old filter floss. I always used the floss in my canister and then I switched to the filter pad for the Rena XP3. I noticed a definite difference. Where I used to have crystal clear polished water while using the floss, I ended up have tiny particles floating in the tank when I switched to the fine filter pad. Even the addition of an Eheim canister with Eheim's fine filter pad did not help much until recently, but the XP3 is due for a cleaning now, so that pad must be clogged up some and finally removing the tiny particles.

hboute
07-21-2009, 04:12 PM
I had the same problem on my new planted tank (178 gallon) with a Rena XP3 and e-heim professionel II. I decided to get a big filter (Fluval FX5) and now the water looks much better.

danyal2
07-23-2009, 03:05 AM
I have the pro3e and it seems my one intake side no longer sucks water at the same rate as the other. All media is brand new, just weird. Any ideas?