Cloudy water

[ErinF90]

Hey everyone!
I have a 90 gallon planted tank (Vals, amazon sword, java fern, anubias, some kind of crypts). Fish include 2 dwarf flame gouramies, 1 opaline gourami, 11 silver tipped tetra, 6 rummy nose tetra, rainbow shark, 3 CAE, and 3 assassin snails. My water perameters are pH - 8, ammonia - 0, nitrites - 0 and nitrates - 5. I use Nutrafin Aqua Plus as a water conditioner and I use Big Al's Multi purpose plant food supplement. I have also recently (5 weeks ago) started using Flourish Excel and it cleared my algae problem in a week or so, I use it once every 3 days now. I have a dual T5 HO 6000K light on about 10 hours a day and i am running a Nexx filter with 3 units (rated for 165 gallon). I have started to have cloudy water in the last 2 weeks, its not green or milky just not clear. Does anyone have any suggestions??

 

[ErinF90]

Here's a pic

 

[BillD]

If the water is neither milky or green, is it "hazy"? Or possibly yellowish or brownish? Or does it have a lot of really fine suspended particles? Do you have any wood in the tank? I'm guessing here, but suspect the plant food additives may be what is causing the situation. The tank is lightly stocked, and the only plant that could really benefit from feeding is the Amazon sword. Having 3 CAE is likely to be problematic down the road. I would try cutting the light back to 8 hours and stop the supplementation (if I remember correctly people have reported damage to Vals from Excel) to see if that makes a difference. I would also do a large water change to begin with, in the 50% (or more) range and see what that does to the clarity.
It is difficult to offer more than suggestions without seeing the tank. I have no experience with your filtration system.
Seeing the picture, I would call the water green, if that represents what it looks like. The easiest way to see if it is green, is to put some of the water in a white container such as a yogurt or margarine tub and see if it has a greenish cast.

 

[ErinF90]

yeah, the excel has damaged my vals a bit, but has gotten rid of all my algae, i was having quite the problem. I will stop the supplements and see if there is a change and will also do a 50% water change. The water is a bit brownish/yellowish instead of green and there is wood in the tank, 2 pieces of driftwood, however they have been in there from day one when I set up the tank about 6 months ago and have never had water clarity problems before. Thanks for the advice!!