Ok so I've have been running a 500g 8 ft long / 2ft wide / 4ft tall with medium stocking for about 7 months and I'm having issues with reddish colored cloudy(ish) water. The stocking is 1 8" Midas Cichlid, 1 24" Silver Arowana, 1 10" Ghost knife, 1 4" Jewel Cichlid, 1 8" turquoise Severum, 1 9" Upside down catfish, 1 9" dwarf striped catfish, 3 Common Plecostomus 14"/10"/12" , 1 5" common bichir, 1 6" albino bichir I am running 2 FX5's Both intakes are run to the middle of the tank area with the outlets running up toward the top and down toward the bottom. I am running pre filter media in the bottom basket of one with in the top 2 baskets and in the second I am running bio media in the bottom 2 baskets and occasionally charcoal in the top basket with a fine filter pad. When I run the charcoal and a fine filter pad the tank is clear but the filter clogs up within 2 days. But when I don't run the charcoal and filter pad the cloudiness and reddish tinge come back. I have considered more filtration but I figure I should be able to make this work with a different media selection. Thoughts? / My other thought was to swap the Ocean Clear and little giant pump from my 130 with one of the fluval's and see how that goes. I am BEGGING for suggestions. Nice, not so nice makes no difference. I have NO room for a sump though so even though I would like to run one I don't have that option there is barely enough room below the tank for the Fluval's.
500 Gallon Filtration / Need Help with FX5's
- Thread starter aznewbie
- Start date
I have a 450 that is 8' x 2.5' x 3' with 3 fx5 on it. I don't think 2 will be enough for your tank. I also run the coarsest filter media in the the top basket and the finest in the bottom. Also try feeding a little less to see if that helps with water clarity. Have you taken a nitrate reading? HTH