Clearer Looking Water?

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xRage10

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 29, 2010
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Lake Mary, Florida
I've recently aquired a 55 gallon aquarium. With it came a Fluval 305 canister filter. I have yet to put any water in it or anything so I don't know for sure how good of a job my filter will do, but I was wondering if there's anything else I could add that will help my water stay cleaner for a longer period of time? I'm not going to avoid water changes or anything, but it would be nice to have cleaner water where you can appreciate your aquarium more often than you're working on it.

Is the only real suggestion more filtration, such as getting another Fluval or something? I'm open to whatever :)
 
Other filters are an option, but media placement and type in the canister plays a large role in water quality. Also, feeding and stock play a huge role in water clarity.
 
Have you had any luck with any certain media? I got fresh foam media for it today, and we're using some carbon to see how that works out, but would love to hear of some success stories others have had with their media :)
 
More often than not, when your water looks gloomy, it is because of lack of biological filtration. I would pack a bunch of biomedia such as Seachem Matrix or something similar in the filter. Don't worry about carbon; use that space for more bio media.

Unclear water can also be attributed to floating algae, so make sure the tank is not exposed to too much light. Get a cheap timer from Home Depot and plug your light into that, and time your light to be on 10 hours or less a day.
 
I'll have to look into that for sure, I'd prefer to find a mix that seems to claim to give the best results before starting the pump and seeing how that works so I don't have to constantly change stuff around, so I'll definitely look into that one.

Angler;4470346; said:
More often than not, when your water looks gloomy, it is because of lack of biological filtration. I would pack a bunch of biomedia such as Seachem Matrix or something similar in the filter. Don't worry about carbon; use that space for more bio media.

Unclear water can also be attributed to floating algae, so make sure the tank is not exposed to too much light. Get a cheap timer from Home Depot and plug your light into that, and time your light to be on 10 hours or less a day.
Click to expand...

I didn't listen to my dad about that when I started my 54 gallon corner tank about a month ago. I've paid for that with green hair algae, ew. I learn from mistakes though :)

My 55 actually doesn't have any lights currently, previous owner had a pacu in it (crazy) and messed up the electrical circuits and such so I have to pay for lighting myself when I get the chance.

All that said, I haven't experienced cloudy water yet cause it doesn't have any water in it yet :P However, it looks clear that biological filtration is the best way to go. I'll probably go down to my local Petsmart and pick up some more Fluval bio filtration stuff to put into the pump. Thanks for the heads up :)
 
Avoiding 'bypass' will increase efficiency in your filtration. 'Bypass' is when water is pushed through the filter but fails to be pushed through media. Canister filters are designed to have less bypass, so just ensure you are placing the media in such a way that water cannot go around the media and it must go through the media.

The finer the media the smaller the particles it will pull out. Coarse sponges are cheap and easy, but they allow small particles to pass through them. Things like quilt batting, filter floss and micron pads have very fine holes in them and catch very small particles. The downside to this approach is that finer media needs to be cleaned more frequently.

Water can also be 'tinted'. The most common culprit for this is tannic acid, or tannins. This commonly leaches out of driftwood and can cause the water to become tea colored. Fish waste left in the filter too long can similarly tint the water. Most forms of Chemical Filtration will remove tannins including Charcoal and similar manufacturered products.

The final approach is to look into UV lighting. UV lights have the ability to make completely clean water into crystal clear water. 'crystal clear' is probably not even the right way to put it. They have the abilitly to make completely clean water look like air...
 
^^^^^^^^^^^ exactly. I also do not use any chemical media. In my personal set up on one tank, I have 2 canisters for bio and 1 canister for mechanical. The smaller tank has 2 ac110s. One full of bio and the other full of mechanical. I like to have a fairly large stocklist and find that running more than one filter allows for less maintanence and cleaner and healthier water and fish!
 
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