Pepere

I have a fluval 107 on my 20 high. I use the fluval spray bar positioned on;the back of the tank right below water level with the flow aimed at the front of the tank. This sets up a gentle circular flow across the top, down the front and then back torward the back of the tank and up to the flow bar. sometimes fish will surf the current near the front if the glass, but they know that setting back an inch or so from the glass is fairly calm water. what hob do you have currently?

The fine pore sponges on the double sponge filters I keep cycled gets squeezed out in a weekly basis. The difference in water flow before and after is noticeable. Coarser sponges should go at least a month. While some people go longer with coarse sponge, I like cleaning them out to get the trapped detritus out of the tank thereby reducing waste organics in the tank. I dont use ceramic type media myself. In my zfluval canister filters I use theprovided foam pads, the a quick lear pad on top of the biofoam then instead of ceramic type media I use cheap nylon pot scrubbers in the next two chambers and pack some polyfill in the gaps in the corners to prevent water bypassing the scrubbies,amd a purigen packet last of all. I cant say this is the “Best possible” filtration setup, but I am pleased with the results it gets me.

Right. You have plenty to nitrify ammonia and nitrites. what you need is to build the population of heterotrophic bacteria for crystal clear water. The amount of surface area for nitrifying bacteria is less than that needed for sufficient heterotrophic bacteria to clean up the water. search the phrase “heterotrophic bacteria and crystal clear water”. My gut feeling is that it is bacteria Not throwing out your polyfill should help. I am not personally sold on the ceramic type biomedia. On paper they have LOT of surface area but in practice, I suspect their pores get clogged with biofilm and functionally the surface area is not so great. In any event, I dont suspect it will hurt anything….

It might be worth running a sponge filter in the clear tank for two weeks to seed it well and then transferring to the problem tank. What are you using for biomedia? in the meantime rather than replacing polyfill when servicing I would simply squeeze it under tank water and replace. It will be home to a nice amount of bacteria. these are the sponge filters I keep cycled to transfer to a tank in need of extra care. They attach to tank wall freeing up valuable substrate real estate. 4 pack for $14.00 at Amazon… https://www.amazon.com/Aquaneat-Sponge-Filter-Aquarium-XY-2831/dp/B06XZZ2BXY/ref=sr_1_5_pp?crid=3A8V5IEXVW0GZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZW-31rmKFgCEWbZD6E2tjautoT-G0Z9xscsppuhEDsvJsrshhSsx6ibuRQC73wtEfQbrfRCkcjj3F3vziQIi32fFKzbHycIcaGOIpeRALboXGSVzQGAbjI9qYLtQtn-O6UlEVOjaAEgD3dB5Xl8o4Mi_JY5qNnBtgsb9IEF-aWOZl8lFvZim4XQUe_3i3KZ4jHMDg7Ajk1vO7rlKvglGKFn5LNnEWF7ZbY6qyZ5OhpBoJHCuG0TyMYTN2cJD3LjbSKD9PR6p52mBB8QdoB30DcL_D7TigIlqVt8n-1A-94k.ydMKvHFtMYaVH4JcpyNBSQ2HRjZPYE6LDGmYMvkAzlg&dib_tag=se&keywords=double+sponge+filter&qid=1711579082&sprefix=Double+sponge%2Caps%2C347&sr=8-5

How long have you had this tank set up? Do you have any other tanks in the house.. If you put a sample of water in a white container is there a green tinge to it? If yes could be green algae water starting… I had similar happen in a 17 gallon fish bowl that at the time was bare bottom and youngish after putting new fish in it and treating with quarantine meds. I went to bed thinking it looked a rad foggy and woke up to the bowl looking like the glass was completely frosted over. testing parameters showed no ammonia or nitrites and ph normal… I placed a spare sponge filter that I keep in a display tank to keep a cycled one on hand and 12 hours later the tank was much clearer, and by 24 it was as clear as any of my other tanks. without question it is frustrating…

Rather than plywood, you could just run an extra 2 by lengthwise front and back and voila, the stand is now 21 inches front to back.

Did you ever hear back results from your inquiry on this @Cory?

Try reading this thread. https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/26604-finding-the-problem-with-aco-ammonia-test-strips/#comment-244204

This one has a way to go…. I am basically starting over with a blank slate and current plants are what I saved from previous iteration. My goal is to stabilize it eliminating the algae issue before adding new plants.

Well, tank suffered from a greasy brown growth predominantly on the Cardinal Lobelia , but also was staining the rocks and on the glasswork…. This condition was predating the rescape. This weekend I gave it a going over. I gave the canister filter a good cleaning and left the media in a bucket of dechlorinated water and put the filter back in operation without any media in it and then dosed the tank with peroxide at a rate of 60 ml per 10 gallons with filter pump circulating everything well and let it run for 15 minutes. I then scrubbed the glass and glasswork and did a deep water change to dilute the peroxide. I pulled the cardinal Lobelia, Ludwigia Repens and Anubias and soaked them overnight in seltzer water and replanted the next morning. I also pulled out the rocks, sprayed them with peroxide, let set, scrubbed, rinse repeat, repeat all three times, put them back in the tank. Lets wait and see what that did to the stuff…

Another week, another picture. The Lidwigia was emersed before trimming. Yes, I could have did a better job trimming and shaping it, but it has been an exceedingly busy week and weekend… cardinal Lobelia trimmed and replanted, should return to a good height by next week. the Corymbosa Compacta floated to the top, so I replanted it a bit deeper. We will see what it does…

Well, worst case scenario, having extra spare parts on hand is not a bad thing.

If they are standard penn plax type ugf, adapting is very easy.

Without question, replacing the stock air riser tubes with Easy Flow kits with DIY adapters will significantly increase flow…. Now if you want increased flow for the sake of increased flow, great… But Iirc, I read where replacing standard air riser tubes with powerheads that significantly increases flow well over what an easy flow kit does, you are only increasing effective biofiltration by about 20%. Ie, increase. In biofiltration is not linear to increases in flow.. Fwiw I run my ugf in my 29 with a uniclife UL 40 dual output pump. One output per air riser.

If anything it was worse before.

Except it was present for a month or so before the rescape.

No, the plants used to be on the other corner and had it there too. filtration wih fluval 207 with new quick clear polishing pad every month.

closeup view. no changes prior to this first occurring. I did do a significant rescape after battling it for a bit, no real change since.

Yes, there is a glass skimmer intake pipe and good surface rippling. Nope, over a year old. Appeared about a month or so ago.

I am guessing it is some sort of Algae. It is mostly only forming on the Cardinal Lobelia plants and glass. I have been rubbing it off leaves and snipping the ones more covered. I have cut off clean top growth and replanted while discarding lower coated growth. None of the other plants seem affected. It is only in 1 tank. does anyone know what it is?

It looks much better right side up! 😜

Cories will stir up the stuff on the substrate as they forage for sand giving the filter 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chances to suck it up…

I did both of these at first. It worked, but the internal filter with a spray bar needed to be cleaned weekly. And neither that or the wavemaker were exactly beauty points in the tank… The wavemaker pretty much needed to have leaves cleared from the grate every day or so,.. I ended up going with a canister filter with a spray bar and an inline diffuser. No regrets. Cost more upfront, but works the best… before you choose a tank, check with local refill shop for their price. For me it was cheaper to buy a swap tank from them, than buy from Amazon.. with my refil shop, a 20 pound tank only costs $10.00 more to fill than a 5. The tank itself cost twice as much…. A 5 pound tank lasted me about 6 weeks running 2, 29 gallon tanks and a single 20 high…. The 20 pound should last me 6 months. The tank upgrade ends up paying off for me in 1 year… your mileage may vary. It is worth finding out what the various options cost.

Some tap water can have nitrate in it. It would be reasonable to test tap water to know. If your tap water is free of nitrates, than you definitely have a beneficial bacteria colony. knowing how big a bioload it can handle is another thing. That is why it is good practice to increase livestock slowly and allow tank to accommodate to new load.