Advice Please On Uv Steriliser And Gravel Cleaner

[eve1967]

Hi,
I'm new to the site and wanted to ask for your help please?

Thinking of getting a uv 9w FRF steriliser and wondered if this has to be vertical in the tank?
Also I've got a gravel cleaner - easy clean by Hagen - use it weekly but it doesn't really suck up and agitate the gravel into the tube so can't get all the waste out - can you recommend any for me please? The tank is a 65l and the water is 10in deep.

Thanks,
Eve

 

[markandhisfish]

hi and welcome .

1stly the gravel vac . are you pushing it right into the gravel? if not give that a go . it should stir things up nicely sucking up the detritus etc but not the gravel .

onto the uv sterilizer . myself im not a believer in them . sure they are proven to kill pathogens etc in the water , but healthy unstressed fish should be capable of dealing with these through their immune system . whitespot is a perfect example . its in all of our water and healthy unstressed fish can deal with it themselves . the best way to prevent disease is to have happy stress free fish . things like good water conditions , good diet , enough shelter , correct temperature etc . all of this is much more value than a uv imo .

 

[KittyKat]

What is your reason for wanting a UV steriliser?

What size is your "Easy Clean" set? Mini should be enough for an aquarium that size.. even if it just stirs the gravel, that will usually be enough.. otherwise, if the aquarium is not on the floor, try lowering the bucket you are draining into to the floor and point the hose as straight down as you can, that will increase the flow rate of the water as it drains and stir up the gravel more.

 

[eve1967]

Thanks for the replies.

We push the cleaner right down into the gravel when cleaning it but it just isn't getting all the muck out - think we got the medium size easy clean and we sit the bucket on the floor when cleaning.

Wanted to try a UV as the fish are having some problems, cloudy eye, floating upside down, the white goldfish has turned yellow on it's face and base of fins and the fins are also looking streaked with red - looked this up and fin rot was mentioned. Thought a UV would help all these problems and stop the need to keep treating the water with chemicals, which are hit and miss also. Sometimes the water smells too - just wish we could get all the muck out the gravel. Saw a clip on you tube and the gravel was being sucked up 3/4 of the tube and also whirling around inside, ours just gets clogged at the bottom and we have to shake the gravel back out.

Replaced our old filter with a Fluval U2 and disappointed with it - gonna replace with 2 new filters with spray bars as the fish loved swimming through the spray the old filter had.

Can you recommend a good filter - thought Fluval was a good make but don't rate it at all. We had a Hailea before and it was ok till it burned out because other half didn't fully submerge it.

Appreciate your help and advice.
x

 

[Miles_hot]

I assume when you replaced the filter you transferred the media across? i.e. the fish aren't sitting in a pool of toxic waste products which is stressing them out. I was very tempted by the idea of a UV filter but the reaction on this site suggested that it wouldn't be necessary (though I might get one to use as a short range "zap the bad guys" type solution but I'm pretty unsure of that.

 

[markandhisfish]

rather than getting a uv you would be better off finding the route of the problems and dealing with that . what are your water stats for ammonia.nitrite and nitrate? maybe when youre gravel vaccing theres a kink at the top of the hose? have you tried just syphoning water out with the vac to check it is syphoning properly?also exactly what chemicals are you adding?

 

[KittyKat]

[...] think we got the medium size easy clean and we sit the bucket on the floor when cleaning.

It is most likely not working because it's just too large for a tank that size.

Wanted to try a UV as the fish are having some problems, cloudy eye, floating upside down, the white goldfish has turned yellow on it's face and base of fins and the fins are also looking streaked with red - looked this up and fin rot was mentioned. Thought a UV would help all these problems and stop the need to keep treating the water with chemicals, which are hit and miss also. Sometimes the water smells too - just wish we could get all the muck out the gravel. Saw a clip on you tube and the gravel was being sucked up 3/4 of the tube and also whirling around inside, ours just gets clogged at the bottom and we have to shake the gravel back out.

One of your problems is that a 65 litre aquarium is NOT suitable for goldfish. If you have more than one, you need at least a 3ft aquarium for now and you will most likely need to get a 4-5 ft when the fish get older.

It is quite clear that there are water problems, they must be solved if you want to keep fish successfully. For the moment, the easiest thing you can do is increase water changes to 20-25 litres every day with dechlorinated water, until we can figure out what the causes are.

Replaced our old filter with a Fluval U2 and disappointed with it - gonna replace with 2 new filters with spray bars as the fish loved swimming through the spray the old filter had.

Before you replace the filter, please let us sort out the problems.

rather than getting a uv you would be better off finding the route of the problems and dealing with that . what are your water stats for ammonia.nitrite and nitrate? maybe when youre gravel vaccing theres a kink at the top of the hose? have you tried just syphoning water out with the vac to check it is syphoning properly?also exactly what chemicals are you adding?

+1

So, eve1967, I hope you are willing to solve the problems the right way and not take shortcuts. If you are willing, there are a few things we need from you so we can start:

1. Using a good liquid test kit, test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Post the readings here. If you don't have a test kit, some shops will do the tests for you if you bring in a sample of water, if you do that, make sure they write the exact readings down for you.. "they're all within normal parameters" is not good enough.
2. What is the temperature of the water?
3. How many fish? What size? Only goldfish?
4. How long have you had the aquarium?
5. What and how often do you feed?
6. How often do you change water and how much?
7. How often do you clean the filer and how? You should clean it ONLY in old tank water, NEVER under the tap.
8. Do you know what a cycle is? If not, please read about in the resources section on here.