Cloudy tank

[jnalbach]

Hi,
My 180 gallon tank is a bit cloudy. I have a piece a driftwood that may be releasing some of the yellow color, but it still looks a little cloudy. I have a wet dry filter running. The fish i have in there are not too big and I just did a water change and vacuum last week. Do you think chemi pure could help or another filter?

 

[th08tu]

few questions for clarification.
How long has the tank been set up?
Approx how much water did you change?
When you vacuumed did you also changed filter media/and or scrub the filter?
do you have the water parameters? (i.e. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc.)

The reasons for it being cloudy could be a few, so answering these questions should allow us to be able to help you better.

 

[jnalbach]

How long has the tank been set up? 3 + months
Approx how much water did you change? About 30%
When you vacuumed did you also changed filter media/and or scrub the filter? I have a wet dry filter, so i just routinely clean the felt pad on the tray below the spray bars
do you have the water parameters? (i.e. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc.)
Ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, my kit didnt have a nitrate test, ph is 7.2

 

[th08tu]

my thought would be that maybe when you were vacumming you stirred it up a bit. The tank is cycled with having everything at zero, it could be a bacteria bloom if you cleaned the felt pad a little too well and it will just take a few days and it should clear up. Don't use the chemi pure stuff, as the bacteria will then all be in your filter, because the chemi pur binds everything together. You want to have it in your tank, so that everytime you clean your filter you don't go through this. Anyways those are my ideas I am sure somebody else will be able to help too.

 

[jnalbach]

So I rinse and clean my felt pad every day. It keeps getting clogged with extra food. My return on my tank is pushing most of my food into the over flow so water doesn't flow through the pad. I guess this is not good to clean every day?

 

[mfdrookie516]

It keeps getting clogged with extra food.

that could be your problem.. you shouldnt have any "extra" food... feed what they eat in 2 minutes once every other day...

 

[BigJim]

No need to clean the pad every day. If you're rinsing in tap water with chlorine, you're actually doing more harm than good.

Try cutting back on the amount of food you're dumping in the tank. Overfeeding could be the source of your cloudy water. You can run activated carbon to remove the yellow from the water too.

 

[jnalbach]

I don't think I am necessarily overfeeding. The problem is that once I drop the flakes in the drift to the overflow box and into the filter. My return is pretty strong and it pushing everything into the box. So i have to put a bit more in there so they got food.

 

[th08tu]

try positioning the return so that it gives you a front corner that doesn't get directly hit by it, that way you can have a spot where you can put the food in and not have to worry about it getting sucked up before the fish get to it, with a 180g tank that shouldn't be too hard to do. Also I would definately not be rinsing the pads every day as I know you will find it tiring after a while, and it is actually (like somebody else said) doing more harm than good, regardless of the water you use. The food that does get sucked up will eventually break down on the filter pad, turn to ammonia, and that will influence the growth of more bacteria on the filter pad. I know many people on this site who only rinse that pad when the filter begins using the overflow, and only replace them when the pad is literally falling apart. Anyways let use know how it goes!

 

[jnalbach]

ok I will give that a shot. I noticed today that there was brown slime on in my return tubing and in my overflow tubing. I wonder if this is the excess food building up.

 

[mfdrookie516]

yes, sounds exactly like it... i struggle with the same situation.. my mbuna are pigs, and it is so hard for me not to feed them too much... all the little particles from the pellets i feed them get sucked in to the filter and under the rocks and i get this brown stuff all over the place... just watch it, i let mine get out of control a while back and had nitrates over 160ppm...

 

[jnalbach]

I am thinking of taking apart the tubing to flush them out so that it is clear. I tried feeding in a different spot tonight and it seemed to be better.