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July 25th, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Fluffy Stuff at bottom of tank
Hello there. I am pretty much a fish novice and I am unemployed at the moment, so I have a very basic setup.
Anyway, there seems to be fluff at the bottom of the tank. I will attach pictures, but the tank is rather cloudy, you might not be able to see it.
What should I do? | 
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| Hi, you have found a brilliant site to help.....
How often are you changing your water?
do you know why it is cloudy? ( ammonia...etc?)
There are lots of very experienced people on this site hat will be able to help. | |
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Welcome to Fish Lore Spiceboy. More than likely what your tank is experiencing is white hair algae. It's very common especially in new tanks. There is nothing to worry about. It will eventually go away on it's own as the tank ages, with water changes and gravel vacuums.
Here is a link concerning the nitrogen cycle that is crucial to fish keeping. Check it out when you have the chance and if you have any questions by all means don't hesitate to ask. Have fun and enjoy the site. http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm | 
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Welcome to Fishlore  Great information from Aquarist48! | |
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Welcome to Fish Lore 
I'm sorry, I can't tell what it is from the pics.
How often to do a gravel vac?
Left over food can get moldy if not removed from the tank. | |
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Thanks for all the help.
I change the water once a week, I change about two jugfuls, so as to keep good bacteria in.
I don't know why it's cloudy and I don't have an amonia testing kit. 
I can see white stains on the inside of the tank, aswell as the fluff at the bottom, so maybe it is algae. How do I be sure of this? I really want Bugsy to be all healthy.
If it is algae, could I get an algae-eater friend for Bugsy? Would it eat the white hair algae and will it co-habit with a black moor?
EDIT: I've not cleaned the gravel. How do I do this? | |
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| welcome to fishlore!!
great advice from the others and it sounds like leftover food to me as well..do you have a gravel vac? or do you just change the water? you need to suck the gravel clean with an aquarium vaccuum...the cloudyness is probably from the tank going through the cycle process...you need a test kit asap to find out the readings so the fish dont die..with it newly setup, the ammonia and nitrites will kill the fish as they rise....see if you can find some prime and do daily partial water changes until you have a test kit to know for sure what the readings are...an API liquid master kit has everything you need and will do 100's of tests...what fish are in the tank? what size is the tank? good luck!
ps...NO on the algae eater as the tank isnt ready for one and not sure its big enough for one either  | |
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| It would be a really good idea to get yourself a good test kit. I like the API mater kit, it's very reliable. I'd suggest staying away from the strips, they tend to be inaccurate.
Walmart and fish stores sell gravel vacuums. This will help getting the leftover fish waste and food out of the tank and it'll make water changes easier by sucking out some water.
Here's a good video showing how easy it is to use. 1-2-3 easy aquarium siphon instructions
Without knowing the size of your tank, it would be hard to recommend any algea eater.
I'm not sure about any that prefer cool water like Bugsy.
However, it's usually best to figure out why you're having a problem and deal t=with that rather than adding anything just yet.
If you post the dimensions, we can figure out what size the tank is or you can figure it out here: Aquarium and Fish Tank Volume Calculator | |
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Fish Addict
| Welcome to fishlore! We hope to help you figure this fluff thing out with more info.
Your aquarium info says you started your tank a "fortnight" ago, meaning 14 days?
Also, you have 1 black moor in your tank. How big is Bugsy (approximate inches in legnth)?
If you list your tank's dimensions:
legnth (side to side) depth (front to back) and height (top to bottom)
we'll help you figure out it's "size" or gallonage.
Are your 2 "jugfulls" that you change weekly like a gallon milk jug or something?
Do you add dechlorinator to the addition water?
We don't want to give you advice about algae eater additions until we have more info.
alicem | |
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| When I first started out in fishkeeping I found the strangest 'fluffy' white stuff on the gravel.. I really wondered what it was too.. 
I agree with Lucy and Shawnie above that what you are seeing is fish food rotting on the bottom of the tank. You really do need to vacuum the gravel and get it up, I bet your water would clear up after a few gravel vacs.
What are you using for filtration? Also, do you have an air stone going in your tank to keep the water from stagnating?
Best of luck! | |
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July 25th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| To use a gravel vac...you put the end in and siphon so it starts sucking water out.
The next steps is to dig the vac into or drag through gravel so handfuls of gravel go into the vac, then u let the gravel fall out..in doing this the debris gets sucked up the tube as the gravel falls back into the tank.
You do this to the floor until the desired amount of water is removed.
I like to be of help. | |
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July 26th, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| I am afraid that I don't have a gravel vac. I don't think I can afford one either - I have £10 to last me until the end of August.
I don't know what prime is, but I will give him daily water changes.
The tank has been set up for about a month or so (I joined at the start of this month). I have no idea the size of the tank, because it is hexagonal in shape. I think Bugsy is 2 inches long. He has started going into the fluffy stuff for food.
I usually change between 1400 and 2100 ml a week. I don't have any dechlorinator.
I have an undergravel filter with an airstone. | |
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July 26th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Simple gravel vac's aren't expensive.
I'm pretty sure you can make a makeshift gravel vac with a simple peice of hose.
Just start it like the video shows.
If the white stuff is moldy food, Bugsy can get sick if he tries to eat it. | |
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July 26th, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| I will ask my mum for a loan of some money and pick up a gravel vac ASAP. Thank you very much for all your help guys. I will keep on with the daily partial water changes until I can afford a testing kit.
I hope Bugsy stays well. | |
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July 31st, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
|  I got my gravel vac, it didn't clean the gravel at all, when I started up the syphon, it sucked a lot of water right out the tank.
Help?
EDIT: it also made my floor very very wet.
Last edited by spiceboy; July 31st, 2009 at 04:09 PM.
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July 31st, 2009
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| | Fish Addict
| lol ur suposed to put the outlet pipe in a bucket. at the bottom of the gravel vac is a plastic chamber like thing what you do is turn the vac on and push that chamber into the gravel it will then suck up the water and the gravel with move around in the chamber and any bits of left over food or fish poop with get sucked out as its lighter than the gravel just keep doing that over ur gravel | |
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July 31st, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Did you follow the directions in the video linked above?
If you raise you bucket, it'll slow the water flow down but still give you the sucking action you need to clean the gravel.
I put mine on a chair.
Did you figure out what size tank you have? I use a small vac for my 5 and 10g's and a medium one for my 30.
When I first started using a gravel vac, I would get soaked and there would be water all over the place!
You'll get the hang of it | |
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August 1st, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Just a thought on how you might determine the tank size... How much water did you put in when you filled it up? If you counted the amount of litres/gallons/whatever you want to measure in when you filled it you should have a good idea of how much water it holds. If you didn't measure when you filled it, then what are the dimensions of all the sides? I don't know how to measure the size of a hex tank from the dimensions, but I'm sure some of the really clever people who haunt this forum will.
You said you only have £10 till August... Well, today is August!  I guess you don't have the cash right yet, but soon you will have it, right? As soon as you can, you should get a test kit for nitrite, nitrate and Ammonia. You can often get master test kits that pack them all in the same box along with a pH test kit as well.
I have 3-4 Gravel vacs (I call them siphons usually). Since I have sand in 2 of my 3 tanks, I just suck water out. However, with gravel I plunge the vac in the the gravel and it sucks the detritus up, and leaves the gravel. When you replace the water, you must dechlorinate the water with dechlorinator. Prime is as rare as a living Dodo in the UK - I've never seen it; but you should be able to find Stress Coat (my dechlorinator of choice) or Aquasafe easily.
Also, I might have missed this - but do you have a filter? You WILL need one. If you don't have one already, then I would like to reccomend the Fluval + range. I have them in 2 of my 3 tanks - and the only reason my Juwel tank doesn't have one is because Juwel use glue of a similar level of stickyness as superglue to glue the filter that comes with the tank in the tank and I'm clueless as to how to get it off...  If I could I'd get a Fluval + though, I find them to be silent, efficiant, and the big ones have lots of cool options. | |
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August 1st, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Aldric  lol ur suposed to put the outlet pipe in a bucket. at the bottom of the gravel vac is a plastic chamber like thing what you do is turn the vac on and push that chamber into the gravel it will then suck up the water and the gravel with move around in the chamber and any bits of left over food or fish poop with get sucked out as its lighter than the gravel just keep doing that over ur gravel | I did that, but the end of the pipe curled up and shot two inches of fish tank water all over the floor.
It wasn't a vac that I could turn on, it's a manual one. Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucy Did you follow the directions in the video linked above?
If you raise you bucket, it'll slow the water flow down but still give you the sucking action you need to clean the gravel.
I put mine on a chair.
Did you figure out what size tank you have? I use a small vac for my 5 and 10g's and a medium one for my 30.
When I first started using a gravel vac, I would get soaked and there would be water all over the place!
You'll get the hang of it | I didn't follow the video, as I thought that was for a bit of hose. The vac that I bought came with instructions, but it took out a LOT of water from the tank. I'm terrified to use it now.
I don't have anthing of a level between the fish tank and the ground that I can use - my chair is the same height off the ground as the fish tank. Quote:
Originally Posted by Blub Just a thought on how you might determine the tank size... How much water did you put in when you filled it up? If you counted the amount of litres/gallons/whatever you want to measure in when you filled it you should have a good idea of how much water it holds. If you didn't measure when you filled it, then what are the dimensions of all the sides? I don't know how to measure the size of a hex tank from the dimensions, but I'm sure some of the really clever people who haunt this forum will.
You said you only have £10 till August... Well, today is August! I guess you don't have the cash right yet, but soon you will have it, right? As soon as you can, you should get a test kit for Nitrite, Nitrate and Ammonia. You can often get master test kits that pack them all in the same box along with a pH test kit as well.
I have 3-4 Gravel vacs (I call them siphons usually). Since I have sand in 2 of my 3 tanks, I just suck water out. However, with gravel I plunge the vac in the the gravel and it sucks the detritus up, and leaves the gravel. When you replace the water, you must dechlorinate the water with dechlorinator. Prime is as rare as a living Dodo in the UK - I've never seen it; but you should be able to find Stress Coat (my dechlorinator of choice) or Aquasafe easily.
Also, I might have missed this - but do you have a filter? You WILL need one. If you don't have one already, then I would like to reccomend the Fluval + range. I have them in 2 of my 3 tanks - and the only reason my Juwel tank doesn't have one is because Juwel use glue of a similar level of stickyness as superglue to glue the filter that comes with the tank in the tank and I'm clueless as to how to get it off... If I could I'd get a Fluval + though, I find them to be silent, efficiant, and the big ones have lots of cool options. | I will find some measuring tape later and get the figures for you. If someone could work it out, that would be great, as my fiance thinks Bugsy is lonely when we are out and he needs a fishy friend. I will buy a testing kit as soon as payday hits.
I will also pick up dechlorinator. It has a filter in the middle of the tank and I don't think I can disconnect it. It doesn't appear to be very good though.
Thanks for all your help everyone, I will ask my parents nicely for some money to go find an automated gravel vac.  | |
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August 1st, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by spiceboy I did that, but the end of the pipe curled up and shot two inches of fish tank water all over the floor.
It wasn't a vac that I could turn on, it's a manual one.
I didn't follow the video, as I thought that was for a bit of hose. The vac that I bought came with instructions, but it took out a LOT of water from the tank. I'm terrified to use it now.
I don't have anthing of a level between the fish tank and the ground that I can use - my chair is the same height off the ground as the fish tank.
I will find some measuring tape later and get the figures for you. If someone could work it out, that would be great, as my fiance thinks Bugsy is lonely when we are out and he needs a fishy friend. I will buy a testing kit as soon as payday hits.
I will also pick up dechlorinator. It has a filter in the middle of the tank and I don't think I can disconnect it. It doesn't appear to be very good though.
Thanks for all your help everyone, I will ask my parents nicely for some money to go find an automated gravel vac. | Cool. Dont go buying new fish until we know how many gals the tank holds, BTW. As soon as you have your test kit, we can start getting the tank cycled! | |
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August 1st, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| I went out and bought the most expensive gravel vac I could provide with money that my parents gave me. I spent £16 on it and it's an electrical one. That came with no instructions and doesn't work either.
Is there any possibility that there is not enough gravel? | |
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August 1st, 2009
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| | Moderator
| What size tank are we talking about? Measure Length, Width and Height, lets figure this out.
It's possible it's too small for such a powerful vac.
It's electrical? Is it safe for aqaurium use?
You do have to make sure the hose doesn't pop out of the bucket. I've done that several times. lol Sometimes I use a clothes pin to hold it onto the bucket.
Edit: This is what I use....the video posted above knows how to use it. Gravel Vacuum Quote: |
Originally Posted by spiceboy[quote I didn't follow the video, as I thought that was for a bit of hose. The vac that I bought came with instructions, but it took out a LOT of water from the tank. I'm terrified to use it now. | I don't know why you didn't watch the video, the post clearly said the video shows intructions on how to use a gravel vac, not a hose.
Last edited by Lucy; August 1st, 2009 at 11:19 AM.
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August 1st, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by spiceboy I went out and bought the most expensive gravel vac I could provide with money that my parents gave me. I spent £16 on it and it's an electrical one. That came with no instructions and doesn't work either.
Is there any possibility that there is not enough gravel? | I've found Electric ones aren't all that brilliant and the best ones are just a flexible clear pipe with a special nozzle on the end that you pump up and down to start. | |
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