What would you do...

[Leptar]

Hello, I am experiencing cloudy water and i can not enjoy the beauty of the coloration of my fish...


Ok, Let all comments fly... I seriously forgot allot of information... am at a total loss with canister filters... wet/dry is not an option for me...

Currently i own a 65 or 70 US Gal tank, it is 20Wx24Lx36H, was bought brand new but it didn't have a label other then the MFG sticker... anyways it was perfect size for the room it is in...

Originally it had an Emperor 400 Filter using 2 toss away inserts (once a week replacements) and using 1 of the empty cartridges with Hagen Bio-cells and the other with just floss material.. It wasn't enough...

Picked up a Hagen AquaClear 110 using floss sandwiched around the sponge still having a cloudy issue...

Water specs are as follows according to Jungle labs 6in1 test strips..
Nitrate = 0 +-2
Nitrite = 0
hardness = 75
Chlorine = 0
Alkalinity = 80-120
PH = 6.8-7.2

New as of December...
Tank was established/Cycled in Febuary with the Emperor filter... Nitrate reached 200 and Nitrites were 10 then over the span of 18 hours or so it went perfect...

little spike in Nitrate hit the 20 shade... after the bio-cells established in the Emperor filter it went back down to 0...

ok now for the fish...

1 Red Tiger Oscar 5months old
1 Jack Dempsey 6 months old
2 Pleco 4 months old
1 SA Bumble Bee Catfish 6" long

Tank running 5 months with Emperor 400 filter just added a AquaClear 110.

The Hagen is new as of Tuesday but my water is still cloudy...
The Oscar and Jack share a corner under the Emperor, the bumble bee does his thing on the other side in a modified terracota pot he calls home...

I feed them quality foods from Hikari like Cichlid gold, Tropical carnivore pellets, algae discs and give them a treat from time to time with some freeze dried krill... once a week i give them some tetrachichlid sticks instead of what they normally get... It is usually consumed in 2-3 minutes with nothing left over, the oscar will look for tid bits for another 5 minutes but then gives up... I wont feed him any more because he will just crush and spit his food out his gills just because he can.

Once a month i will give them feeders but haven't in the last 2 months because i want to solve this cloudy problem i am experiencing.

I do a partial water change every 3-4 days and vacuum the gravel every other water change only 1/3 of the tank at a time...

All input will be greatly appreciated...But I really don't want to go the chemical route...

Thank you,
Paul



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[Hawkfish3.0]

Do you leave the lights on for extended periods of time?

 

[Leptar]

no i do not... between 5-6 hrs per day.

 

[jcardona1]

yeah stay away from the chemical stuff. i would add a moderately sized canister filter, perhaps a Fluval or Rena. and if you want the most crystal clear water possible, use a diatom filter.

diatom filters are meant to run only a few hours a week, for 2~8 hours depending on how long it takes to clear your tank...

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Cloudy water is usually caused by suspended particulate in the water. It's just too small for your current filters to catch. As jcar mentioned, diatom filters work great for this. You could also try polyfilter to polish the water.

 

[Leptar]

This is what i see everyday...

With the canister filters using the diatom for only a few hours per week as needed will it be ok to just keep it hooked up and turned on when needed or should it be on a daily timer for an hour or so every day after i get it crystal clear?

I am using the poly (not floss as i had said) now sandwiched in the other filters.

 

[jcardona1]

i dont own a diatom filter so im not sure about leaving it hooked up as they need to be backflushed and recharged. and theyre pretty unsightly so it might be best to just hook it up once a week.

im in the market for one and i plan on using it after i change my water every week