# Help, small particles floating in tank water?!?



## meeems (Aug 11, 2008)

hi, i recently changed my substrate from gravel to sand and ever since there has been small white particles floating around in the water and not settling.
origanaly i thought the filter may have been sucking the sand up and cycling it so i moved the filter right to the top of the tank and have the same problem.

i have done a few 15-25% water changes.

do i need a new filter or special filter pads? any ideas guys!?!

cheers


----------



## kingdave (Mar 9, 2007)

What kind of sand are you using and how long ago did you make the switch? Did you rinse the sand first?


----------



## meeems (Aug 11, 2008)

not sure what sand it is, i bought it from my lfs and it is designed for fish tanks, i rinsed it aswell maybe not as thorough as i should have though. when it first went in it was cloudy but that settled down. I'ts been in there for about 2 weeks now and i still have these little white particles floating round.


----------



## kingdave (Mar 9, 2007)

It may be possible that small air bubbles are still adhering to some sand particles, causing them to float about in your tank. If that's the case, it should work itself out over time.


----------



## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

I have had something similar ever since I setup my tank abotu 4 months ago. It's hard to say if its the same thing you are seeing. I haven't been able to figure out what it is nor have I spent any effort trying to get rid of it. At some point I imagine I will. Basically my tank looks like a snow globe that was shaken. You can only see it when you stand up close, but its still annoying. It's not air bubble, but its too fine to be sand - although it may have been something that was in the sand. It's even possible that its a living organism.

Right now I don't have any fine filtration mechanism and I am assuming thats why it hasn't gone away. At some point thats probably what I will do to try to get rid of it.


----------



## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

Say you ran your fish net through the water, are the particles too small to get caught in that? If they're big enough, it might be worth a shot.


----------



## meeems (Aug 11, 2008)

boredatwork yours sounds very similar to mine except i dont think there living organisms, i put some finer filter pads in two days a go (can't remember what they are but they are designed to get rid of small suspended particles) no change yet though hopefully it will get better with time.

yeah iv'e tried using a net but the particles are too fine to be scooped.


----------



## Zack2112 (Jul 11, 2008)

I think what you guys are seeing may accually be very small air bubbles. As i was reading this I made the connection that my tank has the same thing, i always assumed it was tiny air bubbles from my filter. My tank is litterally 2 feet behind me right now so i looked at it and i do see the tiny particles you guys are talking about. They have never bothered me at all and are only visible when right at the front glass. To test that they were bubbles i just turned off my filters and let the particles go to the surface. watch them as they rise. I noticed they all popped when reaching the surface for a moment. Hope this helps. Your case may be different from mine but i thought i would mention it. I suggest turning your filters off for a minute and watching the particles as they float to the top. if you watch closeley you may see them pop or dissapear. hope this helps


----------



## malawimix (Oct 8, 2008)

The last tank I set up came without an undergravel filter so I figured it was a good time to try the sand thing. I had not found this site yet and did not know I had to rinse the sand over and over an then some more, lol. I had just rinsed it in a 5 gal. bucket for a while, constantly stirrng it up.

When I set up the tank it was quite cloudy but cleared up significantly in an hour or so. But I still had the tiny particles floating around for days like you're talking about here.

I actually went out and bought a new filter thinking the used one that came with the tank may have been failing. That did not help at all.

I did water 25% changes a few times with no results.

Thinking it must be something about the sand, I drained the tank of all but a few inches of water, took out all of the sand and replaced it with gravel but still with no UGF. I still had cloudy water :x

I finally went and got a UGF and again drained most of the water out to get the filter under the gravel. After filling the tank it was still kind of cloudy but by morning it had gone to crystal clear.

Now I could finally cycle the tank and fill it with fish.

Sand looks nice but I guess there's a trick to doing it right. I'm not sure my whole problem was sand either because even after starting with 90% new water with well rinsed gravel I still had cloudy water.

The UGF seemed to me to be the answer to clearing MY tank up. I know I will have to be vigilant in keeping it clean under the filter to maintian a healthy tank.

Who knows, maybe someday I'll try sand again. It will be interesting to see how it goes then. :fish: :fish:


----------

