Why does my tank get dirty overnight?

[Crafty Nana]

I have been battling this for a while, and I decided I’m gonna get some help. I have a 75 gallon freshwater breeder tank. Right now, this is what is swimming around in my tank:
Dwarf Powder Blue Gourami
Pair of Sunset Honey Gourami
4 White Tip Tetra
7 Neon Tetras
Yellow Chinese Algae Eater
3 Bristlenose Plecos
10 Various Corydoras
Various Live Plants
And right now, I have an overload of those invasive snails, but this problem with my tank was happening prior to the snail invasion.
I have a Vevor Aquarium Filter 264GPH, 3-Stage Canister Filter 75 Gallon. I am also running a UV light and a polisher in my tank along with air bubbles the tank is it about 78° and the strip tells me that the pH hardness, nitrates, nitrites, et cetera within Line that’s what they should be. prior to this, I have tried numerous different filters, including HOB, internal, sponge, et cetera and I didn’t get any response better from one than the other. I’ve included some pictures of what happens and the problem is is that it happens overnight. I can have a sparkling clean tank before I go to bed and in the morning the sludge will build up sometimes it’ll be a white fungus type that is on the gravel but it doesn’t stay clean. It has been up well over 2 to 3 years and I have done a clean out putting new gravel tried sand which is what I’ve got in there now deleted fish at different fish. I’ve tried everything but it doesn’t seem like the tank seems to stay clean I have a friend of mine who lives in a different part of my county and she has springwater through her home. She does not do anything with her tank and it stays perfectly clean perfectly clear water test perfect it’s just not fair LOL. I have city water which I treat before I put in the tank, I use API tapwater conditioner and I’ve also used the flugul water conditioner among other brands. Any suggestions for me please?

 

[fishorama27 1]

Well, you have some "super pooper" fish; the CAE & plecos. How often do you vacuum the substrate & rinse/squeeze out the sponges? Are the plants losing leaves often? What plants? I sometimes have opinions, lol, but need more info. Could you be overfeeding? (more food = more poo & more snails), How often have you changed "everything"? Sorry too close to my dinnertime...

 

[CaptainBarnicles6]

I photo of the whole tank may give us some more clues?

How often are you doing your water changes and how much are you taken out each time?

 

[GaryE29]

That's pretty amazing. The most likely culprit is serious overfeeding. But I'd be curious to know how you clean the tank. What's your method/routine? Out of control biofilm is often a result of an uncycled tank, and overcleaning will create that.

 

[Crafty Nana]

I photo of the whole tank may give us some more clues?

How often are you doing your water changes and how much are you taken out each time?

I do water changes about every other week. It’s at least 25% in between time. I’m vacuuming the bottom because it gets so gummed up so it gets the water changed two weeks but it’s getting small water changes in the meantime. Right now, the tank is a mess because my filter isn’t working also and I’m trying to get that going but I’ll get your picture of it as soon as I can.

 

[Crafty Nana]

Well, you have some "super pooper" fish; the CAE & plecos. How often do you vacuum the substrate & rinse/squeeze out the sponges? Are the plants losing leaves often? What plants? I sometimes have opinions, lol, but need more info. Could you be overfeeding? (more food = more poo & more snails), How often have you changed "everything"? Sorry too close to my dinnertime...

Okay, I’ll take this one at a time who are my super poopers? I know who the Pleco are but who is the CAE? I vacuum the substrate pretty much at least every other day because it is so gross and the sponges are squeezed every other week. Sometimes I go a month on those because they are huge. My plants are not losing leaves my plants lose their life because of the sludge the only one that I can keep going is the big Amazon that I have. I have cut back feeding so much that I don’t see that I am over feeding them, but I can cut back some more if you think that’s part of the problem. I’ve been told that if you see a long stream of poo coming off of your fish that you’re feeding them too much and I have not seen that on my fish, so I’m kind of going by that if I’m wrong, let me know. I don’t change everything in my tank when I change it, but I did do a total change at the first part of October last year that was done because I had a breeding pair of Bristol nose Pleco and believe me they were prolific. I ended up with over 200 little guys and they took over my tank (I’ll post a picture with my Post here of what it look like with all the babies )and the only way that I could take care of the tank was to clean the whole thing out and start over. I did cycle it though before I put the fish back. I hope I answered your good enough if not let me know what I missed.

 

[TwoTankAmin25]

My first look and I was going to post what GaryE said. What are you feeding and how much? Please be as specific as possible,

Or

Fish do not need to be fed every day. Vacuum the tank well and then do not feed for a least one day and two would be better. It overfeeding is the cause you should not see the problem happen after you vac and do not feed for at least 1 day and 2 would be better.

If you do the above and the problem continues, you will eliminate over feeding as the cause.

 

[Crafty Nana]

Okay, I’ll take this one at a time who are my super poopers? I know who the Pleco are but who is the CAE? I vacuum the substrate pretty much at least every other day because it is so gross and the sponges are squeezed every other week. Sometimes I go a month on those because they are huge. My plants are not losing leaves my plants lose their life because of the sludge the only one that I can keep going is the big Amazon that I have. I have cut back feeding so much that I don’t see that I am over feeding them, but I can cut back some more if you think that’s part of the problem. I’ve been told that if you see a long stream of poo coming off of your fish that you’re feeding them too much and I have not seen that on my fish, so I’m kind of going by that if I’m wrong, let me know. I don’t change everything in my tank when I change it, but I did do a total change at the first part of October last year that was done because I had a breeding pair of Bristol nose Pleco and believe me they were prolific. I ended up with over 200 little guys and they took over my tank (I’ll post a picture with my Post here of what it look like with all the babies )and the only way that I could take care of the tank was to clean the whole thing out and start over. I did cycle it though before I put the fish back. I hope I answered your good enough if not let me know what I missed.

Use the picture I forgot to post. The first pictures that you see there have some of the white sludge that I get on the bottom of the tank it’s not Food it just doesn’t look like Food it’s a white sludge. It has black underneath of it and it stinks like crazy, and then the last two are the babies post a picture of the tank as soon as I can get one up that looks decent enough that you can see how I have it set up.

 

[Crafty Nana]

That's pretty amazing. The most likely culprit is serious overfeeding. But I'd be curious to know how you clean the tank. What's your method/routine? Out of control biofilm is often a result of an uncycled tank, and overcleaning will create that.

I’m definitely not a over cleaner. When I say that I vacuum up the gross stuff on the bottom, I am picking up that stuff that forms overnight and I’m not vacuuming the gravel or any of the bio material that I need in there I just skimmed the gravel with to get the junk off the top like I’ve said in the other post I do a 25% about every two weeks and I use a siphon hose I tried to use the python but it didn’t work with my faucet the water that I use address that in my first post that it’s municipal water but I treat it before I put it in there. I definitely have cycle tanks. They have been up for at least three years and when I cleaned that one out in October with the over population of the Pleco I made sure that I had enough biological in there before I let it go. I used to manage a pet shop so I do know a little bit about this but I’ve never experienced this type of sledge collecting in the tank overnight like this does that’s why I’m asking for help

 

[Crafty Nana]

My first look and I was going to post what GaryE said. What are you feeding and how much? Please be as specific as possible,

Or

Fisg do not need to be fed every day. Vacuum the tank well and then do not feed for a least one day and two would be better. It overfeeding is the cause you should not see the problem happen after you vac and do not feed for at least 1 day and 2 would be better.

If you do the above and the problem continues, you will eliminate over feeding as the cause.

My fish get about 5 wafers they’re the little ones and those are for the Coreys. the big plecos go after the little wafers so I give them a couple of big ones and I give it to them first. once they start eating then I put the small ones in for the Corey cats. Then I have this little spoon that came inside one of my foods that I got once and it’s perfect size for feeding the others. I have some tiny grains of food for the smaller fish and they get about half a scoop and then the other ones get bug bites and they get a little scoop of that. pretty much that’s all they get. every once in a while they get some blood worms for a treat or a square of freeze dried brine shrimp. that’s pretty much what they get every other day. I don’t feed flake cause it just seems to get sucked into the filter or that’s what it looks like was happening when I started getting the sludge like the flake was not getting eaten.

 

[Crafty Nana]

I photo of the whole tank may give us some more clues?

How often are you doing your water changes and how much are you taken out each time?

Here’s a photo of the tank that I set up when I cleaned it out in October this is how it was set up. The second picture is more what it looks like right now except I have sent out the plants quite a bit.

 

[Essjay30 145]

For clarification -

who is the CAE?

This fish

Yellow Chinese Algae Eater

 

[CaptainBarnicles6]

Thanks for the photos! My first suggestion would be to start doing huge water changes, remove and replace at least 50% every week. My second suggestion would be to get your filter working and get a bit of water movement, particularly in the areas where that biofilm is congregating. I know your gourami needs a gentle flow, but sponge filters offer almost no flow which won't be helping matters. I notice your light is throwing out a significant amount of blue...if you can, decrease that dramatically as it can have an impact on microbial growth I believe. My LED light is running mostly white, a smaller percentage red and green and blue sits at around 7%

 

[Crafty Nana]

For clarification -


This fish

Yeah, I figured that out. Thanks.

For clarification -


This fish

yeah, I figured that out thank you

 

[Crafty Nana]

Thanks for the photos! My first suggestion would be to start doing huge water changes, remove and replace at least 50% every week. My second suggestion would be to get your filter working and get a bit of water movement, particularly in the areas where that biofilm is congregating. I know your gourami needs a gentle flow, but sponge filters offer almost no flow which won't be helping matters. I notice your light is throwing out a significant amount of blue...if you can, decrease that dramatically as it can have an impact of microbial growth I believe. My LED light is running mostly white, a smaller percentage red and green and blue sits at around 7%

Filter is fixed and running and put an air into the tank. The fish are happy now, except for the gourami but he’ll get over it should have it all cleaned up by the end of the day I would think. I never thought about the light being an issue, but you could be right about that cause when I stop and think about it it seems like it may have started when I got that light. I normally don’t have the Blue on during the day. I just leave it at night so I can see the fish so I can tone that down for sure and I will try to do water changes as much as I can. I can a little bit kind of disabled and it’s really hard for me to do it, but I enjoy my tanks and I’m not going to quit working on them, so I will do the best I can.

And another part of this subject do those substrate cleaners gravel cleaners work it all to keep it under control or is it just a gimmick?