Problems With My Mbuna And Cichlid Subtrate...help Please...

[electric yellow]

If this is in the wrong section i apologise. I wasnt sure where to put it

Hi Everyone

We have had our Mbuna tank running for around four months now. But we have a problem...

When we started the tank we put in a mixture of sand and marble that our aquarium recommended and gave us. They use it in their show tanks. It eventually settled...looks good but for some reason the water is still cloudy. There is a fine layer of dust on everything. Even after regular water changes it is still like this.

It doesnt seem to bother the fish. But it looks bad. I use two types of filtration and we washed the sand before putting it in. Have cleaned the filters a few times to aid the filtration but it still doesnt make the water clear.

We had a smaller quarrantine tank with sand it but never had this problem. The sand was somewhat heavyer. Probably beach sand by the feel of it.

I thought it may be the water...but the parametres all come back fine everytime.

Tank Stats:

Size: 4ft Aqua One tank

Decor: lake rocks, plants, plenty of hiding spots, sand (raked every week or so to get air pockets out)

Filtration: aqua one cf1500 external filter, internal aqua one sponge air stone filter

Lighting: purple and normal fluro

Water changes down every two to three weeks

Water Parametres:
pH: 7.4
ammonia: 0-0.25ppm (minimal)
nitrate: 0ppm
nitrite: 0ppm


It isnt over stocked. It has 7 fish in it. I would like to add more but not till we get the sand and water sorted out. They love to dig. So the stirring of sand doesnt help. It settles back quickly, but when it settles again it still leaves it cloudy. I was wondering whether a layer of gravel on top would help? Something to weight the finer sand down? I would prefer to not have to rip the subtrate out and totally replace it.

Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated!!! Im pulling my hair out.

Ive included some photos so you can see how mucky the water is...

 

[emmsy]

personally I would do a SMALL water change in the morning and in the evening and hoover the substrate. This combination should ease the cloudyness if thatswhat it is. On the other hand it could be a bacterial or algae bloom, in which case Greenaway is the best for that.

 

[electric yellow]

Hmm interesting. I cant see it being an algea or bacterial problem as there is no visible signs except the cloudyness. I took the heater out today and the plants etc and rinsed the dust off them. But now they look dusty again. Ive also thought about removing ALL decor and doing a total vac of the sand but I dont want to stress the fish by removing everything to do this. I have actually done a vac of it three times and it hasnt helped.

 

[darrel69]

Its definately not algae nor a bacterial bloom imo, otherwise the water would be green-like... It looks like fine dust as you mentioned. Are you sure you gave everything a good wash before putting it in ? ie. rocks/decor/plants/sand/even the actual tank ect.. but tbh, the dust should have cleared by now, especially four mnths on... How often do you do waterchanges ? You sure its not your actual tap water thats cloudy ? You could try putting in some 'extra fine wool' in you filter to catch the fine particles.

When i first used sand, it sent my water very cloudy!! but within 3days, it way crystal clear...

Also, you dont need to stir the sand up every week to remove air pockets... too much imo. Once every mnths or so is enougth.

 

[dthoffsett]

If I remember correctly one of the disadvantages of marble as a substrate is excessive dust, IMHO the only thing to fix that is to change out the substrate. Otherwise I think you'll fight this for a very long time.

And with mbuna you really don't need to stir the sand, they'll do it for you.

 

[electric yellow]

Its not my tap water thats yucky as my 3ft has crystal clear water in it. I was thinking of pulling the plants and rocks out when i do my next water change. Or even putting the filter on the tank that is in my 3ft as that seems to do awesome with filtration.

I dont know...

I cleaned everything before we filled it up. The water has never been crystal clear. The digging around doesnt seem to stir it up too much. I think they actually like playing hide and seek in the icky water.

I might try a layer of cotton wool in the filter and see if that helps. It has bio balls, lil ceramic tubes, black sponge and a layer of thin meshy white wool stuff.

It is slightly clearer today after my water change two days ago but still mucky. The addition of the internal filter i thought may help...

 

[lil.guppy]

As long as you rinsed the sand really good before placing it in the tank, it should clear up in a few days. Mine took a little over a week if I remember right. I kept doing 20% water changes everyday until it finally cleared up.

 

[electric yellow]

^^^
Is it an on going problem for you when you do water changes? Or does it settle back down quickly?

We went back to our aquarium where we got the tank and spent a bit of time chatting to the guy who sold it too us. Hes actually a mate of ours. He gave us a bucket of beach sand to put on top if vacuming doesnt work and also some accu clear. Suppose to bind the finer stuff together for the filter to pick it up better. It looks a little bit better, we justd ont want to rely on the addition of accu clear to clear it up. We also added another cotton filter layer from an old filter we have kicking around in the shed. Also cleaned the filter out to.

Will watch it over the next week and do a water change later this week. Its so frustrating because our other tank with sand in it settled after a week. But that was heavier sand i guess.

 

[WaterBender1995]

looks uncycled to me (smokey bar effect) and water changes only prolong the problem.

 

[stargirly1208]

The pictures seem to me that it's the sand blowing around your tank. It's all over everything, the plans etc. So it just may be what you said, that it's too fine of a sand. Perhaps your filter is too strong and blowing it around? I agree that you may have to change the substrate.

Thanks for the post, I will now get a larger grain sand when I set up my tank