Clear water help?

[th08tu]

Does anybody know how to get water clearer? My tank has been setup for about 6 months, and it has gone from cloudy to super super clear, and now it is almost perfectly clear. Does anybody know how to get the water even clearer? It is a 20g tall, with a HOB aquaclear 30 loaded with bioballs and the foam that comes with it. Also I have a marineland HOB, not sure the rating, but it is for 20g running. So I don't think filtration is a problem. The tank is fairly heavily planted with all the plants doing fine. It is not overstocked and has 3 guppies with several fry, 2 corys, and 1 apple snail. Also it has probably 40 or so snails that hitched a ride with the plants, and I am going to get some loaches to eat them soon once I figure out the water issue. Thanks everybody!

 

[exodon king]

first things first. bio-balls are not an ideal bio media for your HOB. it takes up entirely too much room in the basket, which could be used with a more dense media (such as the bio-max pellets that come with the filter which hold 6x the surface area)

moving on.

your best bet for polishing water is to add a fine filter media to your aquaclear filter, such as a poly-fill or quilt batting. the media itself is extremely cheap, and easy to use/replace as needed.

 

[supradupafast]

Hey.. I'm also from Ontario Canada.. Ottawa to be exact.

As to get your water 100% as if it came out of your tap, is highly unlikely.
I am also running planted Tanks and water always seems to be 95%. How clear do you want your water to be? You're saying your water is now super super clear.. lol
Also, when water becomes extremely cloudy during the initial set-up (cycling), it is caused by a bacterial Bloom in the water. (A good thing).
Once the tank is established, you can always run a carbon for a few days on one of your HOB (Since you have 2).
Just my 2 Cent.
Hopefully someone with much more experience can add to this.

 

[th08tu]

Hey thanks for the replies! I am from the hamilton area so pretty far from ottawa but ontario none the less. Anyways I will try and take of the bio rings, and replace them with the pellets. Also the water to be more specific I would say the water is about 80% clear if you compare it to the tap water, and during the bacteria bloom it would have been about 20-25%. Maybe I am just getting greedy trying to get my water even clearer, but it would be nice...

 

[supradupafast]

Ah.. I go up to Burlington quite often (Family up there).
As for your water. I forgot to ask about the lighting? If it's very bright, water almost always appear to be cloudy. Reflection of your substrate (if white) or tiny air bubbles in the water from the current/flow.

 

[th08tu]

I think you might be right, I have white gravel substrate on top, with 40 watts of 6700K above. It is pretty bright and makes the colours really stand out nice. I think that might be why it is a little cloudy.
Great to here you come down here often. I work in Burlington. I go threw ottawa about once a year, but honestly I have never been there for any good period of time.

 

[mfdrookie516]

i almost bet if you but a 10,000k bulb in there it will look alot more clear. 6700k has an almost pinkish tint imo

 

[th08tu]

OK sounds good, what do you recommend for a 10 000L bulb? I have a hood that fits one 18" T8 bulb, and currently I have a life-glo bulb in there. I will eventually be upgrading the hood to hopefully two 24" bulbs, so I don't really want to go crazy. The upgrade will be next summer. Anyways is a coralife 10 000K bulb going to be bright enough to keep my plants alive? oh I alose have one of the 15W screw-in compact fluorescent bulbs, (the U shaped ones) that I put in a desk lamp and sit over the tank to provide a little more light, so maybe the switch will be ok for a little bit...

 

[mfdrookie516]

if you just need a bulb, go to lowes or home depot and get a phillips daylight bulb... i think theyre $4 or so... that will give you a nice white light

 

[th08tu]

can I still grow plants with it though? well not really grow, but keep from wilting lol, I like the idea you had of a 10000K bulb, I just am new to this so I want to make sure it will keep everything healthy in the tank.

 

[mfdrookie516]

yep, ive got phillips daylight bulbs in both my planted tanks, all is well... ive got a 15w light over a 10g tank (1.5wpg) and im growing plants that most people say only do well in medium to high light... of course i wouldnt recommend trying it

 

[th08tu]

lol that gives hope to me, I have a 20 gallon with all low light plants and some are growing incredibly, were some are just stable, however my algae looks like it is pearling lol. It isn't out of control and the amount that is there looks ok on some of the rock, giving it a more lived in look i guess, but I am starting to get a little worried about how fast it is growing, so maybe I will pick up one of those bulbs of my way home from work today.

 

[dkpate]

I changed from the filter that came with the tank (Aqua Tech, blegh) and put a new one on (Marineland) and my water is 200% clearer (if that's possible lol).
Good luck with the lights!

 

[mfdrookie516]

my aqua-tech 30-60's (2 on my 55) do a way better job than my junky marineland ever did... different people have different luck with filters.