Pulling out hair!!!!!!

[Skittyfish]

I am just about ready to scream. Here's the deal.

My tank is just at a year old. ph is 7.0 kh is 2. I have hazy water. It is fully planted, with a low number of fish. There is no carbon, only ehfimech, ehfisubstrat, fine and coarse filter pad, there is also a quickfilter on the powerhead. If I do a water change the water is clear, but in 24 hours it is back to hazy. My 10 gallon has perfectly clear water, but the 72's is awful. I also seem to have a lot of algae on the glass and some plants.

Any ideas on how to clear it up will be GREATLy appreciated.

TIA

[ChilDawg]

Try changing the filter pad. That usually works for me. I think that your fish load is good for that tank, but the pleco is questionable. I think that he is capable of destroying your plants and that he is capable of clouding the water with his tremendous quantities of excrement.

Replacing him with some more Otos is probably your best bet if the new filter pad doesn't work.

[OrionGirl]

Hazy white or hazy green? Best bet is to get a few cups of water from a healthy planted tank. You need to increase your supply of micro-organisms to help consume the other wastes. Another option is to reduce feeding--if it's a bacteria bloom, it means you have some dissolved nutrients that are feeding free-floating bacteria. Usually, these will exhaust their food source and die off.

[wetmanNY]

Take three gallons or so of clear water from your ten-gallon and top up your 72 with it. Perhaps a founder population of plankton is needed to clear the water in the 72 gallon tank.

I found that potassium chloride (as "Nu-Salt") added to my planted tanks helped clarify the water.

You aren't getting up in the middle of the night and furtively adding phosphate buffer or conditioners etc to the big tank are you?

[Skittyfish]

(snicker) wetman I don't think so, but boy am i tired. Maybe I am walking in my sleep.

It has been a couple of months since I changed the pads, but I rinsed them in tank water about 2-3 weeks ago and they really didn't seem to be that dirty.

I am going to trade my pleco in, but he is doing a wonderful job cleaning up at the moment.

The water doesn't really look green, just hazy. I put some in a baggie and laid it on white paper, either it wasn't enough water or it just looks clear. So then I siphoned off a couple gallons into a white bucket, and low and behold its....faintly green.

So, now what? just turn off the lights for a couple of days or what? I have never had green water before?

Also, I don't want to use water from the 10 right now as I am treating my Angels for fin-and Tail rot. don't know where it came from, but they are almost ready to go back to the other tank.

[Heady]

I have a 12" pleco in a 55 gal just with a UGF, and have never had problems with hazy water. I don't think it's the pleco.

[hatton3]

I feel your pain skittyfish, I practically have the same setup that you do. The tank has been setup for the same time as well. Same filter. We had a power outage for 2 1/2 days here and since that time, I've had nothing but trouble. In fact, I've done a lot of the same things that you have to help alleviate the problem. I've tried to wait and let it take care of itself, but it just keeps on getting worse.
Interesting thing, it looks white hazy from the front, but a green hazy from the side of the tank. I don't know if it is just refracting the green from the plants or what. I even did what you did and looked at the water out of the tank with the same results.
Arrgh!
I just might go buy a UV filter and be done with it. I can't stand to have my tanks hazy. Anyone want to sell a UV filter? email me if so...

[Skittyfish]

Hatton, unfortunately I can't blame the ice on mine,(knock on wood). Mine also lookes hazy white from the front. Maybe they are adding something new to the water (all that salt from the roads getting into the lake and so on, nah I don't think so.)

Anyway I did a 50% water change today, turned the lights to only 8 hours, and didn't feed fish. I have black background on three sides (can't see from the sides where the tank is anyway).
My pleco has cleaned off the driftwood wonderfully, and has left lots of presents for the plants. I also changed all the filter pads in the canister and rinsed the quickfilter on the powerhead (which I now have turned off, as I think this may be part of the problem).

If in a couple of days it has not cleared up I will do a total blackout for 3-4 days.

Wish me luck and thanks for your help.

[hatton3]

I did a 50% water change today, and low and behold the water was faint green when I poured it in the toilet. So I'm thinking that I've had this algal bloom from the die off when the power was out. What a nightmare. My LFS let me borrow their diatom filter tonight so I'm cleaning up the tank. Going to go lights out for 3 days and see what happens. I did end up buying a UV Sterilizer (new) from someone here at aquaria central for $45 shipped. I'll have it on hand for the future if needed.

By the way, what part of KY are you from?