55 Gal Freshwater with Hazy Water

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alsatropine

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Sep 10, 2015
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Hey guys and gals! New to the forum. Here is my question. We 've had our 55 gal freshwater tank for about 3 months now. We allowed it to cycle 30 days .Our fish are very healthy and our water tests within normal limits using the master test kit. We have an undergravel filter with two Penquin 660 powerheads, 2 Marineland 350 B filters with 4 bio wheels total. I have 4 cartridge filters installed. Our fish are happy and healthy, but even with 10 to 15 % water changes weekly along with maintenance, we can seem to get clear water .It's hazy and not clear. I've tried everything from 50% water changes every other day for a week, cleaning gravel with a gravel cleaner weekly and I'm at my wits end. Is there anything else we can try to clear the water??

IMAG0405.jpg
 

tanker

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It could be algae. Are you over feeding? Hold something white in the tank (a plastic sheet is best). Is the haze green, brown, or blue?
 

alsatropine

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Sep 10, 2015
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Not over feeding. We only feed every other day. I stuck a white plastic sheet and there is no color against the white plastic
 

Duckie

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Mar 14, 2015
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If carbon doesn't clear it (my assumption since most stock cartriges have some carbon), and all the fish appear healthy, no overfeeding (even though feeding every other day can still be too much depending on how much you feed), no discoloration and no visible algae anywhere else in the picture, test kit is in normal range and tank is done cycling (please give numbers as well including ph, "normal" differs person to person) - all this combined leaves not a whole lot other than maybe high TDS. Possible your source water is already high in TDS (e.g. very hard alkaline water). Try a big waterchange with RO water and see if that clears it up.
 

alsatropine

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Sep 10, 2015
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What is RO water? I might need to mention that when we first set this up to begin cycling that the water was Crystal clear. I'll get you numbers this evening when I get off work. I'll go ahead and do a 50% water change as well. We do have live plants in there, was told to stay away from algae eaters ( I don't know why, just advice from pet smart) and I should mention we did have a spike in nitrates when we did the 50% water change every other day which cleared up. The Ph is staying around 7.0 and our tank is not overstocked. I might try fasting the tank for 5 days ( we have been feeding every other day) which after reading the forums does seem to be a little too much. When I vacuumed the gravel, there was very little (trash) in the gravel. The two powerheads do a wonderful job.
 

wesleydnunder

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Dec 11, 2005
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If carbon doesn't clear it (my assumption since most stock cartriges have some carbon), and all the fish appear healthy, no overfeeding (even though feeding every other day can still be too much depending on how much you feed), no discoloration and no visible algae anywhere else in the picture, test kit is in normal range and tank is done cycling (please give numbers as well including ph, "normal" differs person to person) - all this combined leaves not a whole lot other than maybe high TDS. Possible your source water is already high in TDS (e.g. very hard alkaline water). Try a big waterchange with RO water and see if that clears it up.
This is not a good idea, Duckie. A large-scale water change with RO water will likely cause osmotic shock to the fish.

To the OP...RO is short for reverse osmosis, a type of filtration that forces water through the pores of a semi-permeable membrane to remove virtually all total dissolved solids, down to bacteria, from the water; lowering the total dissolved solids to something approaching distilled water, depending on the efficiency of the RO system and pore size of the membrane.

Water can cloud for several reasons, typically an algae bloom (all of which are not green). I'd keep up the maintenance routine, including heavy gravel vacs weekly along with minimum 50% weekly partials. You might try decreasing your photoperiod; the amount of time a day your lights are on, by a couple hours. Be patient. Also, persistent cloudiness can sometimes be reduced by putting some filter floss in your HOB filter(s).

Mark
 

alsatropine

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Hey Mark, thanks for replying. As far as lights go we are running LEDs usually on a 12/12 cycle .Do I need to shorten that cycle?
 

wesleydnunder

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I would drop it to 8 or nine hours if it were me. I use a plug-in timer on my lights timed so they're on when I get home from work.

Mark
 

wesleydnunder

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Your high nitrates point to a possible cause. This provides food for algae. You may need to increase the weekly partial volume to 60% or 75% weekly. Also, more live plants will consume nitrates and leave less food for algae.

Mark
 
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