brown water problem for months...

[cappieBridget]

I have a 55 gallon tank

water is:
78 degrees
no ammonia
no nitrites
nitarates at 5 (did almosT FULL TANK WATER CHANGE YESTERDAY)

ABOUT 15 fish, groups of gouramis, danios, rosy barbs and kribensis, 1 candystripe pleco adn 1 otto

My tank has been running since august, cycled within 2 weeks tops with already used filter media.

I have a few fake plants, a strip flourecent light with 2 32 watt bulbs in it.

my gravel is brown neutral rocks.

I have been doing 50% water changes weekly for 2 months now to get the water clean. I have a total of 3 filters; 2 are internal whisper for 10-30 gallons and 1 is a HOB aqua clear for 10-20 gallons.

My water looks good only when I change it, then within hours isbrown again. I only feed 1 time daily, I gravel vac half the tank with every 50 gal water change.

It is getting very frustrating.

I am thinking either too many fish, not enough filtration or my gravel sucks!

Any help, please?

 

[Umberle]

Have you tried putting tap water in a glass and seeing if it turns brown without the fish?

if it doesn't the next thing I would try is putting some of your gravel from the tank in a glass and filling it with fresh tap water and see if that changes. If it does, it's not the fish.

It's possible it's a form of algae...but all I could say is try a couple of experiments and see if we can narrow it down a bit more.

And you didn't mention it but to make sure, you don't have any wood decorations in there?

 

[cappieBridget]

I did have a wood decoration but took it out last month as one of my ways of getting the water clear. I was thinking algea, could it be brown algae? It would make sense because algae worsens with water changes. I have tried blackouts also, they didn't work. It is a cloudy brown, never has been crystal clear. I'll try the rocks and get a pic on here.

 

[jamesrm]

I had something like this happen in one of my tanks, I fixed it with adding a canister filter to my setup. I went with an Enheim using a lot of mechanical and activated carbon. It cleaned it right up for me. I think you would be a lot more pleased with a Cannister filter than all of those HOB and Internal ones you have now.

 

[cappieBridget]

I know I'd fare better with a nice cannister filter, but that's not in my budget. I just found this:
http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/cloudy_water.htm
I'll follow it's recommendations and see what happens. Thank you for your post

I'm feeling like it is a bacterial type bloom because it's like a cycle;
1.water change
2.clean water for a few hours
3. next day white cloudy water that progressivly turns brown
4.repeat

I'll update when this ends, lol.