Cloudy water

[rjcatlin]

After my most recent water change my water has become cloudy. Since the water change I have rinsed the filter media. That seemed to help. I checked the basic water chemistry, the only thing that was really out of line was my nitrate level 40 ppm. That is really normal for my tank. I have a 60 gallon African Cichlid tank, with a Fluval 304 filter. I feed them once a day, as much as they can eat in a few minutes. Could it be from my carbon being worn out in my filter? Or could it be I need some more biomax? or even more carbon? I have carbon in four of the basket sections, but there is a lot of room in each to add more.

 

[FishEggs]

Did you forget to condition the water?
Why running so much carbon? I would put more bio media in instead of the carbon.

 

[BBradbury]

Cloudy Tank

After my most recent water change my water has become cloudy. Since the water change I have rinsed the filter media. That seemed to help. I checked the basic water chemistry, the only thing that was really out of line was my nitrate level 40 ppm. That is really normal for my tank. I have a 60 gallon African Cichlid tank, with a Fluval 304 filter. I feed them once a day, as much as they can eat in a few minutes. Could it be from my carbon being worn out in my filter? Or could it be I need some more biomax? or even more carbon? I have carbon in four of the basket sections, but there is a lot of room in each to add more.

Hello rj..

I know when I do my water changes, small particles in the gravel get mixed around in the tank and that will cause cloudy water for a few hours. I went to a little thicker biological medium (polyfiber) and that helped.

If you do large, water changes every week or so, you don't need the chemical medium (carbon). Water changes do so much more for keeping the tank clear than carbon. I don't use it anymore in my tank filters.

Depending on the nature of your carbon, it can also limit the effectiveness of your fertilizers if you dose those.

Just a couple of things that occured to me.

B

 

[BillD]

I too, would lose the carbon and replace it with something else, such as more bio material or fine filtration media such as the mentioned poly floss/batting. If you are showing high nitrates, and the ammonia and nitrite are 0, the filter is working as intended. To reduce the nitrate, water changes are necessary, and they need to be large enough to significantly reduce nitrate levels. So, consider doing larger, or more frequent water changes, or both. Keeping the filter clean will also help keep the nitrate level lower, by removing solid material from the tank before it can break down.