cloudy water in my 125 looking for more filtration;

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twiggerhappy

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 31, 2010
Messages
15
Location
Washington state
So I have a 125 with a fruvel g6 3 internal 550 gph pumps and a fully planted and stocked tank with no co2 and a uv sterilizer.
it got cloudy when I installed the 3 circulating pumps and I got a fine prefilter for it and it clogs in about 2 hours and the normal one in 1 day so thinking of adding anouther filter to help this any ideas?
Water parameters 77* 7.6 ph 0/0/20 0 phostphates no algae issues 270 watts of lights and I may be over feeding slightly. Water change 20% every 2 weeks and light gravel siphon on prob 30%
Pic is slightly old ill get a new one tomorrow
 

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20% every two weeks is not much...

What color is the cloudiness? Green? Brown? White? If you can't tell for sure, put some tank water in a clear cup and place the cup on a white piece of paper. Look straight down and see what color the water looks. The different colors mean different things, and will have different remedies.

Also, are you adding any fertilizer to the water? Are any of the plants not looking healthy? If any of the plants are rotting or dieing, it can cause some poor water clarity.
 
We are having the same issue on our 210, within 48 hours our 75/25 micron cartridges @ 20gpm are completely clogged. Good luck, I am running 3 of these filters(10"x4.5") in both spun and pleated microns and having major issues.
Next step is to bring them in succession rather then on their own pumps BEFORE it reaches the UV filter. I have no plants in my tank no Co2(yet its a heavily planted with Co2 210g discus tank) just the gravel and chunks of mopani.
When the microns were flowing the water went crystal clear but as I said like yours it clogs in a day or two depending if I use the spun or the pleated cartridges.
 
Water has a slight green no ferts I do have some water sprite that are growing so fast roots are poping out on top and its ecocomplete substrate.
 
No it did have a major algae boom at one time at about a month old got the uv and cleared it up in a day tank is 4 months old now
 
Yeah I am surprised you would have an algae bloom with the UV sterilizer... You could try cutting back the light for awhile. And cutting back the feeding.

Also, doing 50% PWCs a week would help export excess nutrients, if it is a poo problem :)
 
Let's go back again to your lighting. I missed it on the first read... you have 270W of light of the tank, and you are not running CO2. That is a lot of light. What kind of lights are they? (type of bulbs, color temp of bulbs)

I would say that you may need to look closely at adding CO2 and macros (PO4 testing at 0 in a higher light tank is not good). If you are getting 0-10 nitrate readings and are only doing PWCs at 20% every two weeks, you are darn close to bottoming out on N as well. K is probably the same story...
 
What I would do: Cut the lighting back to 8 hrs. See if that helps. If not, you may have to look at doing a black out, or at least cutting the lighting completely for a few days.

Consider the ferts issue... bottoming out on 1 or more macros could contribute to this problem. Algae can capitalize on deficiencies as well as excesses of nutrients. If you don't get the macros in balance and consider CO2 injection, the algae might continue to return...
 
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