I have a 55 gallon tank and a 35 gallon hex tank. The 55 has been cloudy about six months. Sometimes less than others, but overall, very cloudy. Can hardly see the back wall when looking in the front. I have tried several different water clarifiers and none of them work. The fish are doing fine, so not getting to worried about it, but not real fun to look at. I normally do a 50% water change every two weeks and lately have been adding a 20% change on the opposite weeks. I have two whisper 60 filters, so I know I have plenty of filters. I also have a air pump set up with two air rings. The tank is actually understocked right now. The water tests at no ammonia, no nitrites, and about 5 nitrates. The tank has been set up since this last February and I can only think of about a months time that the water has been clear. The tap water has a great deal of minerals and comes out of our tap white in color. The last couple of weeks I have been doing my changes with filtered water and doesn't make any difference. Please help!!!! The hex tank gets cloudy at times also. Any suggestions appreciated. steph :sad:
cloudy water - what to do??
- Thread starter skritz
- Start date
what kind of substrate are you using, also what type of clarifiers are you using? most of them are a snake oil type of thing, basicly companies trying to get money. I would do an 80% water change and see of it helps, another thing you can look at is pull some tank water and use a white piece of paper and put it some water in a glass on it and see if it's green tint or white, white is usually a bacterial bloom from a cycle. if it's greenish then it's algae and you should do a through cleaning of the gravel/sand and limit the photic period of your tank to 8-10 hours only. Timers are wonderful for this if you dont use them..
if both tanks use the same tap water, im gonna say theres a problem with the substrate in the 55. what is it as asked before?
I use a water clarifier that I picked up at petsmart made by topfin. The substrate that I have is aquarium rock, that you can buy at any LFS or walmart or numerous other places. I checked the water and it is clear next to a white sheet of paper. I have noticed that first thing in the morning the water is cloudy, but not as cloudy as by evening. I have a timer set for 10-10 daily. I will lessen this to 10 hours and see if this helps. I will also try to do a big water change on Thursday as this is my next day off.
I have carbon in the filters. I have 2-Whisper 60s. Each container has two filters for a total of four filters. All four filters have carbon in them. I am considering adding a diatom filter. Any pros or cons to this?