Cleaned it all, still have junk floating in tank.

[lutz493]

Hello-
This is starting to get on my nerves.
I posted a short time ago that my tank was having Micro-Bubble problems.
Well my tank right now has a combination of Microbubbles at the top and just very small particles floating all over the tank.
3 days ago, I took everything apart, my Skimmer, my Magnum 350 and my Powerheads and cleaned it all with hot water in the bathtub, cleaned the hoses out. And did a 10 Gallon Water change.
I also let the tank sit 12 hours with nothing running to try to let everything settle in the water.
I vaccuumed the Sandbed.
Only thing good of it is that my Skimmer is now skimming 50% better then it was before. Nothing else has changed.
This is driving me crazy I have 2 Black Percs and a Watchman Goby in the Tank with some shrimps and shrooms. I have a bigger tank going together next month but I wanna get this 55 fixed until then.
Why would I still have Micro Bubbles?
When I turn my Magnum on tons of junk (Looks like Bubbles) comes out of it. I disconnected and reconnected it so why is it having this problem? Can it be the hoses are not air tight and even thoguh nothing is leaking because took everything apart to clean that I have some small air coming in from the hoses?
My powerhead blows bubbles out when I turn them on, I think it is almost because I have so many in the tank they just get sucked through and not broken down.
Why would I have junk floating around tank? Is it possible that I have too much water movement that small peices of sand from the bed are just getting blown around?
Right now in the 55 I have 2 Maxi-Jet 1200s, one blowing straight across front of tank from left to right, one blowing across back (Bottom 1/2 of tank) from right to left. I have a Prizim Pro Skimmer and the Dual Bio Wheels as well. I also added a small Rio by the Skimmer because I was getting a cloudy build-up in the back corner of the tank. The Little Rio blow directly at the corner to keep it from getting cloudy.
What should I be doing here?
Thanks

 

[dburr]

DO NOT VACUUME YOUR SAND BED!
Sorry for yelling at you, but, vacuuming does more harm than good.
Scum floating on the surface is from dust in your room settling in the tank. If you don't have an overflow it builds up and is unsightly. You can scoop it out or use a papertowel to get it out.
Rest the towel flat on the suface and it will suck up water from the surface.
Power heads sometimes need to be shaken up-side-down to get rid of the excess bubbles. Maybe the magnum too? I never owned one to be sure.
Is the skimmer adjusted correctly?
BTW, how old is this setup?

 

[lutz493]

Skimmer is ok.
My set has been up since Oct. Everything is fine, I've just in last month gotten this break out of Micro Bubbles and Junk and haven't the slightest clue why.
I have a Diamond Goby in tank he probably is why I have so much crap in the tank floating but now I need to know how to rid myself of this.
I've turned the powerheads upside down and completely taken apart my Mag 350 with no luck, I am totally stumped.

 

[squidd]

Ohhh, Those Little Bubbles from H*ll
They can drive you nuts hey? Just take a deep breath and tell yourself....There just bubbles I can beat them....There just bubbles I can beat them...
I am going to assume that you have done the "simpler' fixes like opencell foam on the outputs, adjusted waterlevel to bottom of "waterfalls", checked proximity of output to PH intake,etc...?
When you turned everything off for 12 hrs, Did the tank clear?
And when you turned the equipment back on the "crap" came back?
If so, the problem is probably mechanical, so you can quit blaming the Goby
How did you "vacume" the sand bed? with a gravel type/siphon vac.?
If so you "disturbed" the bacterial layer growing onthe surface that helps "hold down" the sand. It will regrow..
I vacume small amounts of detrius, excess food, plant material with an air powered "bubble vac" (See, bubbles can be your friend)
You might have a tiny air leak in the hose fittings sucking in air, if their long enough cut off an inch or two refit and reclamp.
One more thought for now, how fast are the bio wheels spinning? The sloooower the better.
You say you just got this "outbreak" of bubbles inthe last month....What changed?

 

[lutz493]

I posted before about the bubbles and you helped me but they never went away.
For some reason now. My Bio Wheels are not spinning at all.
Water isn't getting up to the Wheels now it is just going out of the return to the tank.......
I use the Siphon Vaccuum that comes with the Magnum 350 Kit.
I turn off powerheads and everthing for 12 hours and small particles of debris just float around in the water, it seems nothing settles.
When I turn equipment back on my front powerhead blows tons of bubbles and the MAgnum 350 blows tons of bubbles then they seem to disappear.
I plan on selling my set-up and I wanna make sure everything is working right for the next person....
What should do I do? Take out all powerheads, dismantle them completely clean them completely? Submerge them, flip them upside down get all air bubbles out? Do another water change try to get the top lair of bubbles out?
Completely rehose the Magnum 350?
Skimmer will it is doing well since I cleaned it out, not going to mess with that one.
Tomorrow when the LFS opens I wanna get what I need....
Thanks for the help

 

[squidd]

Sounds like you got a couple of things going on here, and they may or maynot all be connected.
So lets just take slow, take them one at a time,start with the easy/cheap fixes first and work up to the harder/expencive things last.
First, "Bio wheels aren't turning" "waters not getting there""bypassing to return"....
You got the pro 60 HOT wheels- water comes to the center,"t's" to spray bars both sides? By rotating the spray bar you can control the speed of rotation of the wheels. When it's working, slower will give you less overspray/bubbles.
Is water coming out the spray bars? Are the holes clogged, or is there an obstruction further down the line... or are you getting enough pressure/G.P.H. from the filter?
Which brings me to my second question, you said you took it apart and cleaned it (the Magnum) That unit has a pleated fiber/paper filter in the center and a fiberous poly"prefilter".
Have you changed them lately/ever? That pleated filter even though it looks clean can become clogged/resticted enough to slow down the flow so much that ....
1. You are not sucking enough water through the filter to remove/keep up with the "crap" floatin in the tank.
2.you are not flowing enough G.P.H. to run your Bio wheel set up.
3.The restriction is causing a vacume/negative pressure which could be sucking air into the system through gaskets or hoses.
Start with that...
Keep it Simple...
One Thing at a time....
It's just Bubbles....

 

[jrein40806]

I had the same problem with my bio wheel. Try taking the filters out,don't rinse them ,just pull gently at the blue part. Do that to both of the filters,then put them back in. That might help.