Help with Cloudy Water?!

[hghlndr85]

ok i have a 150g tank with a established fx5 on it loaded with biomax and carbon. no polishing pads. the tank has 4 cichla and a arowana in it, i feed them once a day, pellets and shrimp. i cant seem to get the water crystal clear.drives me nuts,test shows6.6 ph and just about 5ppm nitrate. i ran out of ammonia tests. water does not have a algae problem it is in a dark room. water looks cloudy not green or brown id say light grey. i recently added a ac110 on it just to overkill filtering could i be the ac110 causing it to go cloudy bc its new? i am religious with maintaining the tank, i clean up and left over food and i vac the poo prob 3x a week. i do 50% water changes each week(25% on sun,25% on wed). i also have a dual t5 light on the tank, is it to much light?
any ideas would be great

 

[Deaths Sting]

its not the light, thats for sure. it could potentially be a bacteria bloom. u need to tell us what ur ammonia and nitrite is, please buy some more test kits.

a quick fix would be to buy a diatom filter, if u don't have the money for that, then purigen is great for clearing up water.

 

[bomber]

Subtrate maybe...

 

[hghlndr85]

i posted the nitrates, also what about the substrate?

 

[Deaths Sting]

i posted the nitrates, also what about the substrate?

i know.. i can see, i didnt ask for ur nitrates, i asked for ammonia and nitrite.

did u wash ur substrate well before u put it in the tank?

 

[hghlndr85]

yea i was very anal about cleaning everythign before putting it in.

 

[Deaths Sting]

yea i was very anal about cleaning everythign before putting it in.

ok well we can rule substrate out. so it probably is a bacteria bloom or lack of fine mechanical filtration. try putting filter floss in the Ac 110 see if that helps. finding out ur nitrite and ammonia will help a lot.

 

[hghlndr85]

ok ill get ammonia test tom. if its a bacteria bloom will it go away when the ac110 cycles?

 

[Deaths Sting]

ok ill get ammonia test tom. if its a bacteria bloom will it go away when the ac110 cycles?

GET A NITRITE TEST TOO! please

it will go away when everything is cycled.

 

[hghlndr85]

i did a nitrate test,the color that showed up results to a 5ppm result on the test card