Getting rid of polyester dust

[tcyiu]

I have a tankful of what appears to be polyester dust and I need help getting rid of it.

I used polyester fibres from Walmart for a few months and the water appears milky. See this thread

It has now been over a month since I have replaced the bad fibres with the stuff from the LFS. and at least 8 water changes. (I tested those by swishing in a glass jar. The LFS fibres are clean). But it seems that the water keeps clouding back up.

I'm not sure what to do to get rid of the particles in the water. My Magnum with the micron filter does NOT appear to be doing the job. I'm tempted to buy some diatomaceous earth and trying that with the Magnum.

But what really bothers me is why the particles keeps coming back. I wonder if the sponge in the Eheim has captured a lot of these fragments and are slowly releasing them back. Any ideas??

Tim

[Graham]

I doubt very much that it's the fibres clouding the water...between the removal of the bad stuff, 8 water changes and the filter...they should be long gone. I'd give the filter sponge a good rinse.

The odds are you're seeing a bacteria bloom and that why it keeps coming back..........

Graham

[poconogal]

I doubt very much that it's the fibres clouding the water...between the removal of the bad stuff, 8 water changes and the filter...they should be long gone. I'd give the filter sponge a good rinse.

The odds are you're seeing a bacteria bloom and that why it keeps coming back..........

Graham

I agree with Graham, that's what it sounds like to me. Bacterial blooms will go away on their own - IME in about 2 weeks.

[tcyiu]

I doubt very much that it's the fibres clouding the water...between the removal of the bad stuff, 8 water changes and the filter...they should be long gone. I'd give the filter sponge a good rinse.

The odds are you're seeing a bacteria bloom and that why it keeps coming back..........

Graham

I thought the same thing. Add 2 more changes since my post.

But I swear that you can see the individual particles suspended in the water. Under my son's toy microscope (I don't have a real one), these particles look crystalline. Therefore I am guessing that these particles are synthetic and not organic.

BUT that still begs the question: where are they coming from???

I have a bunch of Plantastic plastic plants from 20 years ago. (I am not kidding, these have been with me that long). I wonder if these are slowly disintegrating??? Or could it be the Eheim sponge or Eheim polyester scrubpad looking thing. Both of which are 20 years old?? Are these disintegrating?

But the thing is, this tank with this exact setup was running fine for a year with ZERO particulates. The only difference are the 3 pieces of real driftwood and the 3 additional discus.

Man, I don't feel like buying a whole new set up.

Tim

[Graham]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

''.........Eheim sponge or Eheim polyester scrubpad looking thing. Both of which are 20 years old?? Are these disintegrating?..........''

Replace them..... cheap and will eliminate one possibilty....open pore foam does break down

[tcyiu]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

''.........Eheim sponge or Eheim polyester scrubpad looking thing. Both of which are 20 years old?? Are these disintegrating?..........''

Replace them..... cheap and will eliminate one possibilty....open pore foam does break down

Thanks. Didn't know that foam could break down. I'll replace these and see how that goes. In fact, I'll take them out the next time I service the filter. I'll just stuff the whole cannister with floss for now.

Tim

[kaceyo]

Don't toss out all of your bio-media at once. You'll lose all of your bacteria and ammonia will spike up very quickly. I'd remove no more than a third at a time and replace it with new sponges. Wait a couple of weeks and do it again, etc.

Kacey

[tcyiu]

Don't toss out all of your bio-media at once. You'll lose all of your bacteria and ammonia will spike up very quickly. I'd remove no more than a third at a time and replace it with new sponges. Wait a couple of weeks and do it again, etc.

Kacey

No fears. In my current set up, I use lots of floss as my primary filtration mechanism. When I have some time, I intend to completely remove the old Eheim media, and will add more floss to backfill. I will leave the old floss intact to maintain the bio filtration capacity.

In addition, the tank has gravel which is also a great medium for the bacteria. By the way, when I had to remove the bad floss from Walmart, I also rinsed out the Eheim filters. This significantly diminished the biofiltration capacity of the cannister filter for a while. But the tank was quite resilient, I think because of the gravel.

Tim