Nells250
Fish Fanatic
HI folks, first post!
I am new at fish-keeping (unless you count the goldfish we had when I was in elementary school). I have two betta fish, an adult female and a juvenile that is SUPPOSED to be a male but we now think is female.
Both are in their own smallish unfiltered tanks, due to a lack of space and $$ for anything better. I keep up on their water changes and they are both happy.
I remembered that many years ago I had bought an all-in-one tank but never used it, and took the air pump out to see if it still worked, and sure enough it did. So I bought new hose and a replacement filter cartridge made by Aqueon to see what would happen when using just it (and not the entire little filter/decoration) in a glass vase with water and my spare plants.
YES, tiny budget...
Anyhoo, I ran my test twice, and both times the water actually got DIRTIER! All this "stuff" was floating around, almost looked like "dust strings". Not many bubbles came out, but they did come out, so air was getting through. The second time I made sure I left the pump on overnight, and it didn't matter, the water was still filled with odd, light colored "stuff". My two little tanks are WAY cleaner with just plain unfiltered water!
Is it possible the pump is too old, and perhaps something inside broke down through the years in storage, even though it was never even turned on? It is too old to find info about, but it is an AQT 3001.
What could the "stuff" that ended up in the water have been?
(SEE PICS... you can't see the floaty stuff very well)
I am new at fish-keeping (unless you count the goldfish we had when I was in elementary school). I have two betta fish, an adult female and a juvenile that is SUPPOSED to be a male but we now think is female.
Both are in their own smallish unfiltered tanks, due to a lack of space and $$ for anything better. I keep up on their water changes and they are both happy.
I remembered that many years ago I had bought an all-in-one tank but never used it, and took the air pump out to see if it still worked, and sure enough it did. So I bought new hose and a replacement filter cartridge made by Aqueon to see what would happen when using just it (and not the entire little filter/decoration) in a glass vase with water and my spare plants.
YES, tiny budget...
Anyhoo, I ran my test twice, and both times the water actually got DIRTIER! All this "stuff" was floating around, almost looked like "dust strings". Not many bubbles came out, but they did come out, so air was getting through. The second time I made sure I left the pump on overnight, and it didn't matter, the water was still filled with odd, light colored "stuff". My two little tanks are WAY cleaner with just plain unfiltered water!
Is it possible the pump is too old, and perhaps something inside broke down through the years in storage, even though it was never even turned on? It is too old to find info about, but it is an AQT 3001.
What could the "stuff" that ended up in the water have been?
(SEE PICS... you can't see the floaty stuff very well)
