55g Water Wont Stay Clear..New Filter!!

Ok, ive had my 55g running at my new apt for 3 months now and i cant get the water to stay clear. It used to be if i did a water change, the water would be cystal clear for a few days, then start to fog up a bit, now it goes back to a foggy/green hue within 24hrs. I have a Marineland Penguin 350 HOB filter, and just installed a Eheim 2217 on wensday along with the 350 and it still isnt clear.

It doesnt look like algea, my walls are clean, and not sure if its greenish looking cuz of bact, or it might been that all the decor, piping, and air stone are green, but the water isnt clear, thats for sure.

I bought the 2217 to replace my 350, which im going to take off today since its so damn noisy. My question is, why is my water not staying clear? Could it be something to do with the new 2217 filter?

My tank stock now is :

1 pleco
2 small cory cats
1 medium blood parrot
2 smallish electric chiclids
1 medium size goldfish
1 medium to large shrimo

The ph is 7.6 and the ammn is at 0. Thats all i know. Im prob going to do a good tank cleaning when i get gome, remove all the decor, clean the sand good, and see what happens.

Moloch;4523570; said:

As long as you're only planning on cleaning your stuff with tank water that might not be a terrible idea, but its probably not necessary.

When's the last time you cleaned your 350? What media do you have in it? Are any of those fish new? What are you feeding? Are you leaving food in the tank after feeding time?

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The 350 filter pads only last about 2 weeks before they are so clogged that water will flow over or around the filters, making it usless. Ill clean them off sometimes and they will work for another week or so, its pretty dirty right now, but i dont want to but more filters since the 2217 was supposed to replace the 350.

no new fish, i just use the media that comes with the 350, the filter bads with carbon. I feed the fish some chiclid flakes and sinking pellets in the morn, and the same at night with a desert of some frozen blood worms.

There are some either food or poop remains in one corner of the tank that doesnt get cleaned by the shrimp or the corys, the blood parrot wont let them over there, but its not a whole lot.

Moloch;4523660; said:

Good point...maybe he's got enough bacteria to keep the ammonia at zero even with food decomposing in the tank, but there's still enough food there to cloud the water?

I don't know if thats even possible, just a thought. This is beyond my experience level

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IDK

stewnew;4523776; said:

My guess is that even though you dont have algae on the walls of the tank, you could still have algae suspended in the water, and if you have a greenish hue to the water this is probably the issue. Really, the only way to get around it is to get a UV sterilizer or reduce the light getting to your tank. is it by a window? also high phosphates can give algae i think.

Doing a water change will reduce the color your able to see, which is only because you are diluting the colony of algae and thus seeing less chlorophyll. And if you can't see algae on any surfaces then scrubbing them will only take time.

If your water is just cloudy, then try to up your carbon filtration. If you don't have carbon then get it. But if it is in fact green, algae is the culprit

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It is kinda close to a window, but i keep the blinds shut in the day when im not home, and its in a breezeway, so not much light gets there. What and where can i buy said UV sterilizer?

ar0wan;4523854; said:

I hate these HOB overflow filters.
That being said, those are getting clogged fast.
Upping your filtration is going to fix your water quality.
You don't LOOK that heaviliy stocked
How big is a 'Medium' fish?

Please tell me you're not using Play Sand

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The pleco is about 7"
Goldfish 5" but fat
2 corys 1.2"
2 chiclids 3"
blood parrot 5"
shrimp 5"


Im using Black Diamond blasting sand. Got it from the local hardware store. and yes i clean the F out of it. When i first setup the tank at my apt (it was not well taken care of at my dads, water was nasty and smelled like sewer) so i gutted the tank and started over, cleaned everything and got all new sand (black diamond), the water was clear, for about 2 weeks, then started to get foggy, so i was doing water changes and it seemed to get better, then instead of milky, it became hazy and with a greenish hue. Thats where im at now.