All the crud goes up one end of the tank

[Gill Passman]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem or knows how to deal with
it. The problem only appears to occur in one tank - the 4 foot
(47.5gall) Malawi. Tank has a Fluval 304, Air Pump and a recently added
Fluval 4 Plus (put in to deal with an overstocking issue due to the
number of births/survivors). The substrate is a white marine sand/fine
gravel. Lots of Ocean rock and just one plant that is clinging on (Anubia).

On one side of the tank the gravel is glistening. The other end of the
tank it is covered in crud. The end with the crud is the end were the
outlet is for the 304 and the 4 plus is now positioned. I regularily
decrud the filter medium in tank water and concentrate my gravel vac in
that area but it comes back after 30 mins are so. I'm guessing it must
relate to currents in the water pushing it back to the same place but I
have the same set up in my other 47.5 gall tank and don't see the same
issue....

Any ideas? I don't think that the fish care too much as long as I keep
up the cleaning/water changes to prevent any toxins building up...but it
does make the whole thing look a bit of a mess.

TIA
Gill

[Bill Stock]

"Gill Passman" > wrote in message
.. .
> Hi All,
>
> Just wondering if anyone else has this problem or knows how to deal with
> it. The problem only appears to occur in one tank - the 4 foot (47.5gall)
> Malawi. Tank has a Fluval 304, Air Pump and a recently added Fluval 4 Plus
> (put in to deal with an overstocking issue due to the number of
> births/survivors). The substrate is a white marine sand/fine gravel. Lots
> of Ocean rock and just one plant that is clinging on (Anubia).
>
> On one side of the tank the gravel is glistening. The other end of the
> tank it is covered in crud. The end with the crud is the end were the
> outlet is for the 304 and the 4 plus is now positioned. I regularily
> decrud the filter medium in tank water and concentrate my gravel vac in
> that area but it comes back after 30 mins are so. I'm guessing it must
> relate to currents in the water pushing it back to the same place but I
> have the same set up in my other 47.5 gall tank and don't see the same
> issue....

I've got two 304s on a 75 gallon Goldfish tank. The crud tends to collect
slightly right of center. Mostly behind a piece of driftwood, but not
entirely. I suspect this is partly due to unven output from the filters and
a dead spot created by the driftwood. This actually works out well for me,
as I can vacuum in one spot to get 75% of the crud. I have medium river
stones in this tank, which hide the crap, but don't trap it.

I was thinking the other day, that it would be nice to have a filter that
deposited the bulk of the crap outside of the filter prior to processing the
water. some sort of settling chamber that could be cleaned easily everday.
Or a settling chamber with some sort of drain plug. This would certainly
help my problems with the Nitrates on the GF tank.



> Any ideas? I don't think that the fish care too much as long as I keep up
> the cleaning/water changes to prevent any toxins building up...but it does
> make the whole thing look a bit of a mess.
>
> TIA
> Gill

[Chris Kollmann]

Quoth >,

> Hi All,
>
> Just wondering if anyone else has this problem or knows how to deal with
> it. The problem only appears to occur in one tank - the 4 foot
> (47.5gall) Malawi. Tank has a Fluval 304, Air Pump and a recently added
> Fluval 4 Plus (put in to deal with an overstocking issue due to the
> number of births/survivors). The substrate is a white marine sand/fine
> gravel. Lots of Ocean rock and just one plant that is clinging on (Anubia).
>
> On one side of the tank the gravel is glistening. The other end of the
> tank it is covered in crud. The end with the crud is the end were the
> outlet is for the 304 and the 4 plus is now positioned. I regularily
> decrud the filter medium in tank water and concentrate my gravel vac in
> that area but it comes back after 30 mins are so. I'm guessing it must
> relate to currents in the water pushing it back to the same place but I
> have the same set up in my other 47.5 gall tank and don't see the same
> issue....
>
> Any ideas? I don't think that the fish care too much as long as I keep
> up the cleaning/water changes to prevent any toxins building up...but it
> does make the whole thing look a bit of a mess.

Definitely a water movement issue. It's easy to have some dead areas in
the tank, especially with a lot of rockwork. I used to have the same
problem, but now I've had good results after setting up an undergravel
jet system to circulate the water around the bottom of the tank and
towards the filter intakes. You can find an article on undergravel jets
here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ug_jets.php

In my case I have two powerheads, both with sponge prefilters feeding 4
jets in my 55 gallon. The jets move the water in a swirling motion from
right to left, from the filter outlet towards the filter intake. Ever
since I added this to tank, I've barely needed to vacuum the sand at
all, as most of the detritus is caught either by my Eheim or by the two
sponge prefilters.

The jets have really worked great for me, and the nice thing about Mbuna
tanks is that it is easy to hide the powerheads and jets behind rocks.

--
Chris Kollmann

[Gill Passman]

Chris Kollmann wrote:
> Quoth >,
>
>
>>Hi All,
>>
>>Just wondering if anyone else has this problem or knows how to deal with
>>it. The problem only appears to occur in one tank - the 4 foot
>>(47.5gall) Malawi. Tank has a Fluval 304, Air Pump and a recently added
>>Fluval 4 Plus (put in to deal with an overstocking issue due to the
>>number of births/survivors). The substrate is a white marine sand/fine
>>gravel. Lots of Ocean rock and just one plant that is clinging on (Anubia).
>>
>>On one side of the tank the gravel is glistening. The other end of the
>>tank it is covered in crud. The end with the crud is the end were the
>>outlet is for the 304 and the 4 plus is now positioned. I regularily
>>decrud the filter medium in tank water and concentrate my gravel vac in
>>that area but it comes back after 30 mins are so. I'm guessing it must
>>relate to currents in the water pushing it back to the same place but I
>>have the same set up in my other 47.5 gall tank and don't see the same
>>issue....
>>
>>Any ideas? I don't think that the fish care too much as long as I keep
>>up the cleaning/water changes to prevent any toxins building up...but it
>>does make the whole thing look a bit of a mess.
>
>
> Definitely a water movement issue. It's easy to have some dead areas in
> the tank, especially with a lot of rockwork. I used to have the same
> problem, but now I've had good results after setting up an undergravel
> jet system to circulate the water around the bottom of the tank and
> towards the filter intakes. You can find an article on undergravel jets
> here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ug_jets.php
>
> In my case I have two powerheads, both with sponge prefilters feeding 4
> jets in my 55 gallon. The jets move the water in a swirling motion from
> right to left, from the filter outlet towards the filter intake. Ever
> since I added this to tank, I've barely needed to vacuum the sand at
> all, as most of the detritus is caught either by my Eheim or by the two
> sponge prefilters.
>
> The jets have really worked great for me, and the nice thing about Mbuna
> tanks is that it is easy to hide the powerheads and jets behind rocks.
>
Interesting article - thanks. It would mean breaking down the tank to
implement though....It also got me thinking about what is at the other
tank where I don't get the crud. The other end has the inlet valve for
the 304 and a Hydor Turbo Air Pump (with sponge)....I wonder if I could
get away with adding another Air Pump at the other end to get better
circulation (got one hanging around in another tank not in use as the
fish couldn't stand the currents).

Thanks again
Gill