Water clarity

[ecancienne1983]

I was looking at my 55 gal and if i look on the side straight through it its so cloudy but straight on its clear as day is there a way to make it clear straight through or any ideas on what might be causing this i did a 20 gal water change about a week ago

 

[Supergummy]

It might be the way the light reflects on one way but not the other.

 

[hackteck]

do you run carbon?

 

[ecancienne1983]

Yea i do

 

[jeremy upshir]

how often do you change your carbon and how much do you run?

 

[ecancienne1983]

Well i have a marineland biowheel 400 and the filters have carbon in it and i have two meadia baskets and i put carbon in them is that to much?

 

[ecancienne1983]

And i change it once a month

 

[jeremy upshir]

that's to long for the filter.. you should change the carbon once a week, it will make a huge difference

 

[jeremy upshir]

do you have floss pads in that filter also?

 

[ecancienne1983]

I dont know what marineland has in those filters other than activated carbon

 

[ecancienne1983]

So i need to change it once a week and what about the amount is that to long?

 

[ecancienne1983]

I meant is that to much carbon or should i be running something else in my media carts

 

[jeremy upshir]

usally there is a floss pad and a carbon pad in each basket or something similar, if there are other pads then you should usally change those once every two weeks.. no I wouldn't say your running two much. I have a reactor and I am running about half of cup of carbon

 

[ecancienne1983]

I thought carbon just took bad chems out of water not made it clear though?

 

[jeremy upshir]

how is your nitrates?

 

[ecancienne1983]

A week ago it was .15ppm

 

[jeremy upshir]

no all carbon is used for is it reduces ammonia and makes the water clear, it does nothing else or does not prevent anything else

 

[jeremy upshir]

yeah I would just change your carbon.. if your levels are good on that size tank you may get away with once every two weeks but I would not go any longer.. generally you want to change it once a week but if you are running larger amounts in a reactor you can go every two weeks