Fish are dying - Cloudy water with tiny flakes.

[cichlid1409]

you'll definitely want to clean your impeller, a dirty impeller can serious impede your flow rate. you might want to try and clean the tubing if you can. alot of that white gunk can build up in there over time.

[cameracorpus]

Also, your media may be the culprit. Marineland makes a cut-to-fit that will trap very small particles.
I'd consider buying new tubing from Home Depot or somewhere. It's not green, but it is fairly cheap, and since it's clear you can monitor it.

[danielp]

Originally Posted by jarrodaden
What I can't understand is why the HOB is fixing a problem that the cannister can't seem to handle.

I look at it a couple of ways.

1) The return on a HOB is in the middle of the water column and the return for a canister is at the bottom of the water column.

2) A lot of suspended matter is lighter than the density of the water and it will not sink therfore leaving it floating in the middle of the column.
3) Basically the HOB draws from the middle of the column capturing matter that can't sink to the bottom layers.

The canister filters water as it sinks and is returned to the top.Food, fish waste, plant matter etc etc that has a density greater than water sinks and is captured by the canister.

Hope this helps.

[Gapzero]

+1 Danielp could not be more right. I use canister filters, and right after a massive water change I use the hob for supplemental filtration. Now I use the sandman as a constant addition on two of my tanks.

[jarrodaden]

Assuming that I am not the only one with no prior experience in doing a media cleaning and more importantly an impellar cleaning, here is a link I found.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265051

I haven't tried cleaning the impellar yet but nothing I have tried so far is fixing the problem. The more I fuss with it, the worse it gets.

I think it might be white scale buildup that is breaking off and being pumped out into the tank. I assume that my "futzing" with it is causing more and more of this to loosen but I cannot get it to stop.

If cleaning the impellar doesn't work, I will probably replace all of the tubing.

I don't recommend the Home Depot tubing by the way. The wall of the tubing is not as stiff and the tubing has a tendancy to squish flat under suction.

[cameracorpus]

Thanks. I've heard it used without issues, but of course size and exactly what they carry at the moment may be a factor. Better safe than sorry. I'm going to pull apart the head of my PennPlax to see if my buildup is in there, which I'm pretty sure of.

[jarrodaden]

3 rummy nose tetra are dead this morning.

This problem has not gotten any better. The "flakes" are still there but there are not very many. Water seems a little cloudy too.

Tested the water and nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia are all ok. High PH is about 7.8.

I am stumped here and completely frustrated. I am considering a second cannister.

[cameracorpus]

Sorry about the fish. That is high PH if you don't have a bunch of limestone in the tank. Have you tested your tap water and compared it?

Yesterday I pulled apart my cannister and scrubbed it as well as possible, then used an aquarium tubing brush to get as far into the hoses as possible. Followed that with soaking the hoses/fittings in hot water, then took the hose assemblies outside for a good rinse through with high pressure water from the hose with a squirter attached. Unbelievable amount of gunk came out during these procedures. My impeller housing twisted out easily, freeing the impeller for cleaning. Of course, I used filtered water to clean the media so I didn't start another full cycle, then added some of the cut-to-fit pads I mentioned before to what was in there. When I restarted the filter, a miniscule amount of the white gunk came out vs. the usual blizzard of the stuff.

I think from what I've learned here on the box that you have a similar issue with underfiltering, possibly combined with a filter that needs service. My original post on the box was similar to your issues.

BTW, I went to Home Depot and checked on the hose. Mine still carries the stuff you couldn't collapse with a vise, but only in some sizes. The new stuff they carry is junk.
Good luck!
Mike

[Mzungu]

Tested the water and nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia are all ok.

What do you mean by "ok?" Can you post the levels you got from testing?

Rummynose can be a little finicky...

[geoff_tropheus]

sometimes water cloudiness can be caused by a pH crash. Are you running CO2 on this tank or any dosing equipment?

What is the pH of your tap?

[jeebus]

Rummynose can be a little finicky...

This is an understatement.

[mark razmandi]

What I can't understand is why the HOB is fixing a problem that the cannister can't seem to handle.

dont you know? canisters suck! )

[jarrodaden]

It is something specific to the rummy nose. I lost a total of 9 today. This is a community tank and nobody else seems phased by it.

The only thing that I have not cleaned is the hose themselves. I am thinking about just putting all new hose.

The surface film is a bit of a problem too. I have a skimmer but don't have enough hose here right now to install it. I am still thinking about adding another cannister.

I am not doing anything to "treat" for ph. It generally runs about 7.5 to 7.8 and I don't have any limstone in this tank.

[Mzungu]

When did you get the Rummy nose?

Can you post your test results?

[jarrodaden]

I got them a week ago. 9 out of 10 are dead. I don't know it was the LFS fault, so I won't point fingers here but seems like it is a possibility.

The LFS said my ph and temperature would likely the cause. temperature runs around 75 and ph consistently runs 7.5 - 7.8.

my nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia are all at zero.