Cloudy tank...

[Joe Peacher]

Hi guys/gals....
I have a 120 gallon African tank. The setup includes

(2) Biowheel 400 filters..with good pads
(1) 48" nova extreme t5 light (4) x 54wat bulbs..
(12) small african cichlids
White silica sand subtrate...

All my water conditions are great..however, my water is cloudy....I do have a phosphate problem. As I have green dot algae on my tank walls. (I have been cutting back on the hours that the light is on) I leave it on for less than 10 hrs a day..I clean the green algae when i do a 25% weekly water change.... this tank has been setup for about 4 months.. I have never had a problem with cloudy water in any of my tanks...but this tank has never really been as clear as i have wanted it to be. It always has a haze to the water.. any suggestions??

Ps. I dont over feed my fish and all are very beautiful and healthy.

 

[Goanna]

Hi guys/gals....
I have a 120 gallon African tank. The setup includes

(2) Biowheel 400 filters..with good pads
(1) 48" nova extreme t5 light (4) x 54wat bulbs..
(12) small african cichlids
White silica sand subtrate...

All my water conditions are great..however, my water is cloudy....it gets cloudy then will clear up...i do have a phosphate problem. As I have green dot algae on my tank walls. (I have been cutting back on the hours that the light is on) I leave it on for less than 10 hrs a day..I clean the green algae when i do a 25% weekly water change.... this tank has been setup for about 4 months.. I have never had a problem with cloudy water in any of my tanks...but this tank has never really been as clear as i have wanted it to be. It always has a haze to the water.. any suggestions??

Ps. I dont over feed my fish and all are very beautiful and healthy.

What kind of cloudiness? A white haze, brown water, green?

If it's a white haze it's a bacterial bloom. If it's brown it's just dirt (or tannins but you would need driftwood in the tank for that to happen) and green of course would be algea.

If it's brown then you could try putting Purigen in your filter. It works very well at clearing up cloudy water, and it works pretty fast. It can also replace carbon and it's reusable. Water changes through the gravel could help as well.

You could also add a phosphate remover to cut back on the algea growth, like Sea-Gel or Phos-X.

 

[2004exrider]

Do you vacuum your substrate each week, and how much and how heavy do you?

Jimmy

 

[Joe Peacher]

its a white haze... i vac half the tank each water change..... Im an experienced fish keeper...I just never seen my tank do this before..

 

[Goanna]

its a white haze... i vac half the tank each water change..... Im an experienced fish keeper...I just never seen my tank do this before..

You're not refilling with straight tap water or rinsing filter pads with tap water by chance? If you do refill with tap water are you using a good dechlorinator like Aqua-Safe?