75 gal suddenly cloudy?

I went to petsmart. No filter floss. The only filter they had that said anything about "micron" on it was a Magnum HOT, which was $100. And I cannot afford that. So... what to do next?

I'm going to hunt the web to see if I can buy filter floss online. In the meantime, is there anything else I should worry about? I tested levels again, just to make sure I'm not spiking anything, and all is still the same - Ammonia - 0, Nitrites - 0, Nitrates <5. So at this point I am somewhat stumped... I could do a bunch of water changes, but then I am worried about my plants since the nitrates barely register as it is. I don't want to kill them off trying to get rid of the cloudiness that does not seem to bother the fish nearly as much as it bothers me.

More suggestions welcome.
 
If you can't find filter floss at your local fish store, you can substitute polyester quilt batting instead. It comes in both sheets that you can cut, and loose pile (so you could stuff it into a media bag, or just put it into a tray). Most fabric stores carry it and you can buy a lifetime supply for $10 or so. I've even used fishing line to tie it around the core on a magnum 350 and it does wonders for catching particulates.

I had the same problem in my 55 though (not the one with the 350 on it) and I noticed that it would clear after dosing with Flourish Excel. It did come back for a while, but it may have something to do with the plants since I started encountering it once I went more heavily planted.
 
rainbowcharmer said:
I went to petsmart. No filter floss. The only filter they had that said anything about "micron" on it was a Magnum HOT, which was $100. And I cannot afford that.
Click to expand...


$100.00?!?!?!

It cost only about $50.00 at Doc Foster and Smith!!
 
What is the difference between the fluffy white filter fiber I bought at the LFS a while back (and use in my filters) and the fluffy white filter floss that I should be getting? Or are they the same thing with different names??

Help?
 
Just my 2 cents, you mentioned something early on that clued me in, "The fish eat spirulina algae flakes, tropical flake mix and sinking algae wafers. The flakes are usually gone within about 20-30 seconds, and the algae wafers are gone by morning (I put them in before bed for the cories).", and you mentioned that the algae wafers are usually gone by the morning. You also mentioned that there was a funky smell for a time before chatcoal. Sounds to me like the algae wafers are not being consumed fast enough and some of it is entering the water column, and yes I agree that by now you have a small algae bloom. Try cutting back (as in not using them for a few days) on the algae wafers and leave the charcoal in and see how fast the water clears. (I had a similar problem with algae wafers a while back). With the fish you have, you really don't need to use the algae wafers.
 
I give algae wafers once or twice per week (Max). And I haven't given any this week, hoping to help clear the water that way. I've also reduced flake food to every other day at this point, also hoping to lower the cloudiness, but still no luck so far...

Also, I feed similar quantities to my 46 gal tank (algae wafers once or twice weekly, flakes daily), and I do algae wafers once per week in the 10 gal shrimp/snail tank, with none of the cloudiness, even though in the 10 gal tank the algae wafers usually take 2-3 days to be fully eaten. Any idea why that might be?
 
I think that issue is simply because the snails and shrimp don't devour it as fast...that's normal

I'm almost 100% sure it's a bacterial bloom

Were the nitrates <5ppm when you added the 4 corys? cuz that alone should be enough extra ammonia to throw it into another cycle

I know you said your nitrites were 0...but at this point this is the only thing that makes any sense

Unless somehow there is an ungodly amount of decomposing food material wedged between your sand and the clay pots you have in the tank...but the MTS should be on that like white on rice

Edit: I missed the stocking in the original post...my bad
if anything it seems understocked so this REALLY doesn't make sense
 
I agree that it is understocked. I am adding one more fish (I think the sev will be in tomorrow), and I'm worried about adding it to the tank in it's current condition, although everything seems hunky-dory as far as the parameters go. It's just the stupid cloudiness that I can't seem to fix.

I'm still on the fence about massive water changes. The params are a little low for the plants, and if I bring them down further (well, by them I mean nitrates), how long until my plants begin to suffer?

And I'm still wondering if the filter fiber I bought (fluffy white and reminds me of quilt batting or pillow stuffing) is the same thing as filter floss? If so, I'm already using that in both the filters and I put NEW filter fiber in (replaced the old which was pretty gross) when I cleaned out the Eheim earlier this week. Still no change. I'm so lost. :(

I guess at least the fish seem perfectly content, even if they're blurry from outside the tank. But it's bugging the crap out of me since this is the main tank that I look at every evening. And I've got company coming over either this weekend or next and I'm sure they're going to be wondering what on earth I'm doing wrong to have such a cloudy tank.
 
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