Water looks cloudy/dirty, could I need more filtration?

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kev012in

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 15, 2017
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Hey everyone so I have a 40 gallon breeder turtle tank with roughly 30 gallons of water in it. 2 1/2 inch male red eared slider and 3 rosy red minnows. Turtles create a lot of waste but I assumed I had enough filtration especially for a baby. Running a Sunsun Hw-302 with fluval prefilter media in the bottom of the canister. Bottom tray has 1 coarse pad followed by 2 fine pads. Middle and top tray are all bio media. Supplementing this I also have a fluval U3 with marineland blue bonded pad on both intakes and more bio media in the middle of the U3. Between the 302 and the U3 I'm at least at 250 gph passing through media which is turning my tank over 8 times per hour. So why does it look like crap? I did a 25% water change a couple days ago. Should I do more? Tank is fully cycled.

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As a general rule it can be an algae bloom, a bacterial bloom or dirt / sand left over from filtering or not adequate washing of substrate.

In your case, since this tank has been up a while (2-3 months?) and you've done a lot of WC, I think it could be algae or bacteria. What is the color?
 
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Yes its been up for 2 months now in its current state. It does have a greenish tint. Leaning towards an algae bloom. I don't want to treat with chemicals so what would be my options? UV sterilizer?
 
People who use UVs get great results... some in hours. That would be one option.

Reducing lighting, changing the type of lighting, or changing what chemicals are added to the tank could be a solution as well.

Something in the tank is obviously providing the optimal conditions for algae.
 
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Ok, I'm going to look more into a uv sterilizer, I wonder if it could be my uvb bulb. Going to look into that as well. Thanks a lot.
 
I've never had a tank with green water algae .. only in outdoor ponds. The fix for one small pond was to build a roof to block all direct sunight. For aquariums I've seen before with green water, the cause was sunlight. Does the tank get a lot of sunlight?
 
No it's on the opposite corner of the window and the blinds stay down. Which narrows it to the UV-B bulb which runs for 10 hours a day for my turtle.
 
I see that your parameters look good. How long has the tank been cycled? I had a much worse algae bloom when my tank was cycling where I could barely see through. Water changes did not help as it would cloud up again and turn green.

I put two 24w Green Killing Machine and it completely cleared in two days. It stayed clear and my tank eventually cycled as well. I still run them.
 
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Yeah that uv bulb is probably the cause. Obviously you cant get rid of it so a uv sterilizer is a good option or trying to limit the bulb shining on the water and aim it at the basking spot only.
 
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DN328 said:
I see that your parameters look good. How long has the tank been cycled? I had a much worse algae bloom when my tank was cycling where I could barely see through. Water changes did not help as it would cloud up again and turn green.

I put two 24w Green Killing Machine and it completely cleared in two days. It stayed clear and my tank eventually cycled as well. I still run them.
Click to expand...

I think the tank just finished cycling within the last week or so. Its looking more and more like a uv sterilizer is my only option. I'm looking into getting one of the newer Sunsun 704B's since I might as well get even more filtration to replace the 302.
 
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