Cloudy Water since day one, and i am cycled, Why?

[Hagermanfd]

I started my 55 gal. tank on Dec 29th waited 7 days till my tank was warm, no ammonia ect. i added a few fish waited a month, my tank completley cycled added more fish and so on. As of now my parameters are: Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 10, Ph =6.8, Temp = 78-80. My water began to get a little clearer (nothing like it ever was on first day of setup when it was crystal clear). I do 25% water changes weekly maybe a bit more if i cant finish vaccuming the entire bottom. I add all the water dechlorinators ect. I am sure i am doing everything right but my water will not clear up. I have a tetra power whisper 60 and 30 hang on back filters running with the activated carbon in them. I have been debating on whether or not i should get a cannister filter and run that instead of both of these. Could i be having a bacteria bloom due to my water changes? Should i add some bio-spira to the tank to try and add more bacteria. Oh when i vaccum, i have gravel substrate, i stick the vaccum in and i see all this white gunk and leftover food, i am not getting rid of the bacteria when i suck all this stuff out am I ? I feel that could be it, but your advice could help. Thanks

[Squawkbert]

I started my 55 gal. tank on Dec 29th waited 7 days till my tank was warm, no ammonia ect. i added a few fish waited a month, my tank completley cycled added more fish and so on...
Could i be having a bacteria bloom due to my water changes? Should i add some bio-spira to the tank to try and add more bacteria. Oh when i vaccum, i have gravel substrate, i stick the vaccum in and i see all this white gunk and leftover food, i am not getting rid of the bacteria when i suck all this stuff out am I ? I feel that could be it, but your advice could help. Thanks

You probably weren't totally done cycling at 1 month, but that doesn't much matter now...

What's your stock list?

1st guess: Insufficient filtration & circulation. Get a canister filter. A 55g should use an Eheim 2215 or larger one (Via Aqua makes cheaper, comparable filters - some also like Rena, Fluval etc. etc.).

You shouldn't need any biospira (or carbon, for that matter).

If you're seeing leftover food when you vacuum gravel, you're overfeeding in a big way. Fish should generally be given all the flake/etc. they can eat for about 5 minutes per day. You can break it up into as meny feedings as you like, but none of the fish should spend more than about 5 min/day eating.

(pellets are exempt as pellets provide a lot of food per swallow, so it's pellets/fish, depending on the size of the fish - catfish are free to graze on whatever algae they can find but this should be supplemented w/ occasional algae wafers).

Overfeeding will lead to problems no matter hwo much filtration you provide.