cloudy water 265 gal

R

rmdjr01

Registered Member
Apr 3, 2009
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Hello all, I purchased a Perfecto 265 a little over a month ago at lfs. Salesman set me up with 240 lbs of cichlid substrate which is mostly small shells and pieces of coral he also sold me 150 lbs of lace rock. I set up aquarium and let it cycle the past 4 weeks. I have around 25 africans in it now. Water has a white cloudy look with a thin film on surface. i called another lfs and they told me to remove half of the lace rock so I did, it didnt help. Oh, and here is a biggie, The store that sold me the substrate told me it was not neccessary to wash it before putting in tank. I have cleaned it twice with python but water is still cloudy. Amonia, nitrate are both at zero. Is ther an easy fix to this problem?
P.S. for filtration I have Fluval FX5, Rena XP3, Aquaclear 500, Emporer 400, and 2 powerheads for surface aggitation.
 
time...and a little more time....and then a little more time..till all the dust goes away...or if in a hurry water clarifier...if u dont mind chemicals....it will end up being almost entire little bottle;
or daily gravel wash...and.hookup another filter and put a real real real fine mesh in prior to the water return (I find panty hose...or a piece of 1000 thread bed sheet works well...or if u dont want to get divorced or orphaned, might try one of those micro fiber towels.or unbleached coffee filters work (cheap and u can get the size u desire for your filter.... as well...run the water thru that before it leaves the filter...

I am old, cheap, and lazy....so sorry for not giving high tech answers.
 
Wow! Its been more than 10+ yrs since I had 265G. Although I might understand why lfs did not prewashed the substates (calcium powders from the substrate) but still would/should've washed the substatrate.
From what I learned using Lace Rocks, the rocks may have certain things of the rocks (some orangish to brwnish colors, at least when it first came out on the maket some 10 + yrs ago) which caused the whitish fungus/mold developed around those colored areas causing cloudiness which persisted.

How about scrub those rocks you already took out/rinse well and replace the rocks in the tank. Then scrub the rest of rocks a bit before putting them back to tank. I would definitely use all the rocks that you have for african cichlids. More rocks, better chances for frys to survive.

I know it's a work but who says maintaining fish tank is easy/workless. LOL! Eventually it will be more pleasure than work. All in time. Enjoy.
 
how did you cycle the tank? It might just also be a bacterial bloom

but I would also do what everyone else has said here, give those rocks a good scrub down, and just keep up with those water changes, it will go away eventually.
 
i'm thinking its the bacterial bloom too. i'd stick with some water changes (around 25% although im sure that can be pretty hard with a 265 gal tank!) every few days. i probably wouldn't scrub the substrate too much, you want to keep some of that beneficial bacteria growing on there to help complete the cycle. what are your water params?
 
Thanks for everyones advice. I cycled tank with a few fish and added a couple bottles of bacteria. I assume its cycled because everything looks good on water test. Ammonia=0 Nitrite=0 I had 2 55gal and one 125 about 20 years ago and didnt have this much aggrevation. lol
 
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