water problems please help me!

[muskieswen]

I came home from work today and discovered cloudy water in my tank. Between the algae on the glass and now this I am starting to doubt myself. My tank is a 55, Ehiem canister filter and community fish. I have live plants. I checked ph, nitite and nitrates and every thing is good. Kh and gh were at round 2 drops to turn color on the tetra test kit. I change about 25% to 30% of water each week and i dose 1.5 ml of iron every day. I feed only once a day and it is gone in a heartbeat. Lights stay on from 9:30 am to 8:00 pm. Wattage is about 1.5 watts per gallon. I also am having algae growth on my glass that starts about 4 days after my weekly water changes, which is also when i scrape the glass. One more thing that is annoying me is that i get alot of very small debris that floats around in my water column. I am almost positive that it is coming from the bottom like it is getting stirred up. The particles seem worse in the evening (more fish activity stirring up the bottom after the feeding?) I feed pellets or frozen brine shrimp or glass worms. Can anyone help me please. All I want is a clean clear tank to view my fish. The ehiem cannister filter is a pro 2224 model. Is it too small for a 55 gallon. It seems to me that my mechanical filtration is inadequate. Please someone help my tank!:(

[Oakley]

do you vacum your substraite? if not that might have something todo with the floating particles.

[JSchmidt]

The cloudy water may or may not have anything to do with the junk you notice floating in your tank. I'd agree that it sounds like some add'l mechanicl filtration might be in order.

The cloudy water, if white, is often a bloom of normal microbes in the tank, freshwater plankton, if you will, whose populations have become unbalanced. They usually go away on their own, without treatment.

If the water cloudiness is green, you have a unicellular algae bloom. If that's the case, let us know and we can help with that too.

Unfortunately, algae tends to grow inside aquaria. You may be able to get some type of fish to eat it, or you can just accept that a swipe of the glass every 4 days or so is the price of a beautiful tank.

Jim

[muskieswen]

oakley,
yes i vacumn the substrate

JSchmidt,
Any recommondations on a better filtering device
the cloudy water is white

thank you for the advice

[JSchmidt]

On a 55, I think a HOT Magnum with a sponge prefilter is a great choice. The FilterMax III prefilter would be perfect. The HOT could be run with the micron filter 24/7, or if it clogged too quickly, you could pack the media container with floss. Either should work well.

Good luck!

Jim

[Duke107]

I have a eheim (forget the model) canister on my 90 G tank but I found dropping in a underwater filter (Fluval) filled with carbon and foam or floss keeps my tank clearer than spring water. I also found with my eheim that I could go with just 2 cleanings a year because I can quickly change carbon and foam/floss in the underwater filter. It will reduce the amount of mechanical filtration your eheim is performing and let it focus on the real job it should be doing which is bio filtration. Tank always looks beautifull.

[muskieswen]

Js and duke ,
Thanks for the suggestions. I will price these out and give it a try.:) :)

[mdfwhite]

Is it summer where you are,because in summer algae spores can cloud your tank, use a store bought water clearer,cant remember any, as i dont have problems with algae

[xytrix01]

You could also look at the pengiun bio-wheel 330, or the emporor 400... These provide excelent mechanical filteration, as well as having the added biological filtration of the bio-wheel. I run one of the 330's on my 45gal in addition to my fluval 303 canister. Even after I stir everything up doing cleaning and such, the water is crystal clear again within the hour. Admitedly you do have to clean the mechanical media on the marienland filters rather often (with every water change), but that tells me that it must be working. I figure that all the crap stuck in my filters is no longer in my tank, and thats a good thing. I get suspicious when people say that the like another brand cuz you don't have to clean the filters as often... If the waste isn't caught in the filter, then where else is it?? :confused: in the tank still would be my bet. Plus they are cheap! http://www.thatpetplace.com sells the 330's for about $20!! Ok, thats my little sales pitch for marienland... teehee :D I don't know anything about the magnums, but they would probably work too...

[Hound]

Out of curiosity have you ever tested the iron level in your aquarium? Dropping back your lighting to 9.5 hours might help with your algae growth. I have a 50g planted community aquarium myself. As the back and right sides of my aquarium have a dark background anyway I don't normally scrap the algae off of them. As for algae growth on my plants I have 3 otos in my tank that seem to be very active in keeping it down to a respectible level. I figure algae is a natural thing and as long as I can see into the aquarium and it isn't out of hand I can live with it.

For my tastes the Eheim filter you are using is a bit small. An intank filter can be a good solution as they are quiet and can be set up to sit on the substrate, but they take up room in the aquarium and I'd rather look at fish than the filter. I believe in your case you have a couple of basic choices. You can get a second cannister filter and set it up in the opposite corner of your aquarium from your first. The second (less expensive) choice would be a HOB filter. Say an AC 300 or bigger? I find them quieter than penguin / emporers and isn't that part of having the cannister in the first place?

As for your cloudy water it is probably a bloom of some sort. If you take some water out and hold it up to a piece of white paper you should be able to tell if its bacterial (white) or algae (green). If it is bacterial you should be able to just wait it out. If it is algae you will probably have to use a chemical solution.