jmeunier
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
My 150G Cichlid Tank (see specs in sig) is continuously cloudy. It's a mature tank, water chemistry checks out a-ok, and all the fish are doing well (and my convicts breed like rabbits, unfortunately!!!), but the water is a bit cloudy.
I know that Cichlids require a lot of filtration (see my specs below, again). For media in the AC500, I've got the the filter sponge (cut in half lengthwise), a full AC carbon bag, two bio-max bags, and a filtration bag filled with Purigen. For the eheim, I'm just using the recommended media that the manual for the filter says to use. It's still cloudy.
At this point, I'm running my Vortex diatom filter on the tank for about 12 hours every two weeks. Polishes the water nicely, but it very quickly goes back to murky.
Should I just live with this, and accept is as a fact of life with Cichlids, or is there something else I could do to improve the appearance of the water.
As an aside, personally, the water appearance doesn't bother me a bit. The tank happens to be in my wife's office, to which she has lots of visitors. She's constantly complaining that the tank is 'dirty.' At this point, I just don't want to hear it anymore, so I'm at my wits end trying to find out if there's anything I could do to improve the water clarity, short of selling off the cichlids and converting the tank to a SW reef.
Jay
I know that Cichlids require a lot of filtration (see my specs below, again). For media in the AC500, I've got the the filter sponge (cut in half lengthwise), a full AC carbon bag, two bio-max bags, and a filtration bag filled with Purigen. For the eheim, I'm just using the recommended media that the manual for the filter says to use. It's still cloudy.
At this point, I'm running my Vortex diatom filter on the tank for about 12 hours every two weeks. Polishes the water nicely, but it very quickly goes back to murky.
Should I just live with this, and accept is as a fact of life with Cichlids, or is there something else I could do to improve the appearance of the water.
As an aside, personally, the water appearance doesn't bother me a bit. The tank happens to be in my wife's office, to which she has lots of visitors. She's constantly complaining that the tank is 'dirty.' At this point, I just don't want to hear it anymore, so I'm at my wits end trying to find out if there's anything I could do to improve the water clarity, short of selling off the cichlids and converting the tank to a SW reef.
Jay
