"Martin" wrote in message
...
Yes Alex, you are right about the algae - there is a lot of it on the
plants
and its bright green (hair like) but again the PO4 is low and the nitrate
is
also very low. I suspect that my maximum lighting is not good
enough.....perhaps I should stop CO2 injection as I doubt it is doing any
good at the moment.

Well, now it's obvious why you have algae. What you're suggesting,
increasing lighting and stopping CO2, will certainly make it worse. I think
the aglae contributes to the sludge on the plants by acting as a hook for
floating debris. At the very least, you need to increase the PO4 and NO3 in
your tank and probably the micronutrients and CO2. Get the phosphate filter
out of there. They are useless in planted tanks. That will make the plants
grow faster and outcompete the algae. But that's a whole another topic.

I do vacuum the gravel when I perform the water change and I also vacuum
the
debris off the plants as well. The next morning its all back. I have
stopped
everything now......Gravel cleaning, disturbing the gravel and I am going
to
leave it for the weekend and see how bad it gets......Then perhaps another
150L water change on Monday when I will leave the pumps off for a few days
to see what happens.
If it is back with no pumping then it must be something other than just
dirt!

I don't know about stopping the pumps. I don't see how that will solve the
problem. My guess is that for some reason there is not enough flow in the
tank. If you can dislodge the dirt from the plants by nudging them a little,
then it seems that the flow from your Eheim should be enough to knock it off
and keep it floating. Maybe the filter or the intake pipe is clogged.

This is all leading me to the conclusion that Eheim filters are crap! and
useless.

I really doubt it. I don't use one, but I have heard only good things about
them.

My tank is a an Effect Line and there is only one place for in/out tubes
and
that's at the top left. So the inlet is at the top about 1/3 way across
and
pointing horizontal (under the surface with minimal surface agitation).
The
outlet is towards the bottom (at the back and midway in the tank), it is
only about 3" long 1" diameter. Water is moved to hit the far side (right
side) around the side and then back along the front - it moves down in
doing
this as well.

I don't know how canister filters are supposed to be set up, but hang-on
power filters are arranged in the opposite way: the intake is at the bottom
of the tank and the outlet is at the top, releasing the water horizontally
so that it flows in a cycle. Both are on the same wall. Maybe you could use
a powerhead for extra water movement. That's all I can think of now.
__
Alex
pcalex (at) hotpop.com