Filter suggestion for cloudy tank

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Springbank

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Messages
5
I used to keep a pretty fair number of tanks 30 or so years ago, and got started again in the last three or four years. I made the mistake of buying one of those little baby plecostomus for my 40 gal community tank. Back in the day, I never had one live long enough to get big. I was have clouding problems in the 40, and six months ago moved it and the rest of the fish into a 75. Now, I'm back to having cloudy water. The pleco is about 18" long. There are 3 corys, a couple of white clouds, a half dozen live bearers, one red tail shark, and 3 clown loaches in the tank. Aside from the pleco, I don't think that's too many fish. I used to keep some pretty crowded tanks, but never had this kind of trouble. I'm using a HOT Magnum 350 with two biowheels and the micron filter, change about 25% weekly, and dosed the tank with one of the water clearing flocculants two days ago. A bit clearer, but still cloudy.

Aside from fileting or giving away the pleco, is there a better filter out there that might help? My problem is that I'm just not that familar with the newer filters. Any suggestions appreciated.
 
A Magnum with the micron filter does a good job of removing particulates. Took maybe a couple of hours to get my tank crystal clear.

If you micron filter is actually working (in heavily particulated tanks, the filter will clog in an hour or two & stop working), the tank cloudiness is prob a bacterial bloom (which no filter can remove).

You need to get at the root cause of the problem. What is your nitrate levels? Anything dead or decaying in the gravel? (maybe a hugh amount of pleco poop?) .....

If you are getting a bacterial or algae bloom from poor water conditions, you need to correct that. With a hugh pleco (aka poop machine!), you need a hugh tank or a LOT of water changes (maybe 50% weekly or twice weekly ... or more, your NO3 level will guide you in that), and make sure to gravel vac out as much of the poop as possible.

You can consider adding some fast growing plants to soak up the excess waste, but that adds a whole layer of complexity to your tank.
 
It's cloudy white. I checked the water, everything but ammonia since I ran out of reagent, and all the levels were fine. I suspect it is the pleco, and will try to do a bit more vacuuming. Plants are probably not a good choice, since the pleco eats anything I put in the tank. Thanks for the help.
 
Please go out and get another ammonia test kit, or if your tests are older than a year, its a good idea to get a whole new kit. FW Master Test Kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals is a good one that many of us use.
 
Not much help for you, but I find that when my water clouds up, if I put an activated carbon pack in my AC 50, the problem goes away overnight. The only time this really ever happened was when I added some driftwood to my tank and apparently hadn't soaked it long enough. The water went cloudy and yellow, but a 30% change and plopping in a carbon pack, and when I got up the next day, crystal clear again.
 
I'm not suggesting this is your problem but my step mom had cloudy water for 6 months. I finally figured out that she was overcleaning the filter, essentially causing a bacterial bloom constantly. Once she let the filter get a bit dirty, the cloudy water was gone. How often and how well do you clean your filter?
 
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