Keeping Tank / Decor clean (Messy F8s)

[sonicfishcake]

Hi

Just found this forum after many months of searching for good sources of info and I must say this is the best place I've found (grovel).

My setup is as follows:

4' 260L bow-fronted aquarium
2 x EHEIM 2215 External Filters
18w UV sterilizer
SG 1.003-1.006 (variable)
Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10mg/l, GH 15d, KH 15d, pH 7.5
Setup running 11 months
40% water change weekly
Houses 8 x Juvenile fig8s only

My tank is decorated with sand, rocks and pot caves only.

The problem I have is that my sand/decor gets dirty very quickly. It's not algae either, it's clearly just dirt.

My filters seem to do their job very well as far as water chemistry goes and have had no sign of algae since I got the UV.
Does this cause a problem for anyone else?

I have tried larger/more frequent water changes and smaller/less frequent ones (just in case) but to no avail.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Woland]

Hi and welcome to our forum.

Using a powerful internal filter in order to introduce a notable current should solve your problem.
And provide entertainment for fishies.
And make plants happy.

I tend to overfiltrate on pure principle...

[sonicfishcake]

Thanks!

Will give it a try.