Tank Cloudy With Debris/waste?

[BoristheFish]

Hi, i am posting again with an update on Boris, my blood parrot cichlid. The last posts detailed my problems with his digging, the UGF and powerheads breaking, and the build-up of debris on his substrate.
Now, the UGF is fixed, the powerheads have been fixed, and his UGF is running smoothly. I have been vacuuming his gravel every few days, but there is too much debris to suck up, I have reached 20% before I know it and stop to add new water. The powerheads on the UGF filter have strong currents, and now that they are working, are clouding up the water with the debris on the substrate. You can see waste particles floating in the water and it is all throughout the tank.
As you can imagine, I am frustrated.
After weeks of taking apart the powerheads and testing them I have finally fixed the problem, and now that his filter is working properly, there is a new problem. I cannot vaccum the waste out of the water itself, only from the substrate. How do I remove the waste from the water, now that it is constantly being stirred up by the powerheads? (I have turned them to low and this is still a huge problem) Should I turn off the UGF powerheads or keep them on and have cloudy waste-filled water floating around? Will the UGF be able to pull the debris from the water like a normal filter would? Any advice?
Thanks,
BorisTheFish

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm afraid this is one of the problems with undergravels. Have you tried switching the powerheads off for an hour or so to see if the particles will sink down where you can hoover them out?
If that doesn't work, you may have to buy an internal filter to fill with filter floss that will take it out. A small one would do as you won't relying on it for biological filtration.

 

[BoristheFish]

I'm afraid this is one of the problems with undergravels. Have you tried switching the powerheads off for an hour or so to see if the particles will sink down where you can hoover them out?
If that doesn't work, you may have to buy an internal filter to fill with filter floss that will take it out. A small one would do as you won't relying on it for biological filtration.

Yes, if i turn them off eventually the particles settle down on the bottom, but I JUST vacuumed his gravel today. I want to wait until tomorrow before vacuuming again so a large water change won't stress Boris out, should I leave the UGF powerheads off until after I vacuum again tomorrow? What do I do if after I vacuum tomorrow there is still too much debris on the substrate that they will still be stirred up by the powerheads? Should I just leave them off for another week until i can try and vacuum all the waste out? (If I can)

 

[fluttermoth]

It's pushing it, but I reckon you'd be just about ok to leave the powerheads off until tomorrow. Any longer and the bacteria in your filter bed would die off though.

Could you rig up some kind of filter using one of your powerheads and something like plastic soft drink bottle that you can fill with floss?

 

[BoristheFish]

It's pushing it, but I reckon you'd be just about ok to leave the powerheads off until tomorrow. Any longer and the bacteria in your filter bed would die off though.

Could you rig up some kind of filter using one of your powerheads and something like plastic soft drink bottle that you can fill with floss?

I moved the filter from my smaller already established tank into his tank and it is clearing out the waste decently, but it is meant for a 20 gal tank and is trying to clean a 55 gal tank, so i know it's not ideal and will take forever. I will try and make a pseudo-filter out of a waterbottle, cotton/mesh, etc, and will try to clear the waste out of the water that way.
However, once the water is clear and has no waste floating around, do I even need a filter other than the UGF?

 

[fluttermoth]

Once you've cleared the waste, no, just the UGF would be ok, though probably not ideal (but I remember why you're using one ) as long as it doesn't keep reoccuring; do you know what the particles are? Are they food or poop?