How clear is crystal clear

[Scottw68TN]

I have a 75 48inches wide. from the front it looks crystal clear but from the side looking through the tank its cloudy. Should it be clear or is more of a refraction of light thing.

 

[William]

Easy way to find out.

Syphon out some of your water into a 5gal bucket, its important that the bucket be white, and look at it.


if the waters clear it'll seem white, if not it'll be most visible.

 

[LondonGman]

Good tip William !!, I subconsciously use that trick to determine how dirty my water is and therefore how much to change, especially since I use a bucket 9white) and gravel hoover/siphon for water change.

Yup I will second that

 

[AtodaJ]

I take a glass full of my aquarium water and set it next to a glass full of my tap water (use clear glasses). You get a pretty good idea of how cloudy your water is by this method.

 

[William]

I take a glass full of my aquarium water and set it next to a glass full of my tap water (use clear glasses). You get a pretty good idea of how cloudy your water is by this method.

Depends on how high a quality your municiple water is. :?

 

[Scottw68TN]

Yes but does even clean water look a little cloudy when you look through 4 feet of it?

 

[dralarms]

Mine looks cloudy when looking through all 4 ft of it also, not very but just a haze. From the front it looks beautiful so I don't worry about it. I keep a daily check on all my paramiters so I know everything is a ok for my fish.

 

[TankGirl]

Usually if your water parameters are under control in a cycled tank your water will be perfectly clear. Let's say you take your tank water and put it in a white bucket and it DOES look a little cloudy, would you do anything different? If your water is in good shape and the fish are healthy you probably would do nothing anyway.

 

[tkos]

My tank sides seem to get a thin film on them sometimes as I generally only clean the front glass. Perhaps your is just a little dirty on the sides?

 

[Scottw68TN]

My waters params are great. just a little cloudy longwise. looks perfect straight on.
18inches wide.

 

[saaebn]

I just checked my tanks. My 75 gal is clear from both the front and sides. I will say though that I would have sworn that my tanks was crystal clear a couple weeks ago before I upgraded my tank to an XP2, but by the next morning it was so much clearer I was surprised. I like it when it looks so vibrant because even though it is in my office, people seem drawn to come and take a look. My 3 baby nieces love to sit in front of it and watch my goldfish. Emma cant understand why she cant touch them when they are in front of her

As for my 10 gal tank though, it is a bit cloudy. I am planning on doing a cleaning and 20 percent water change today so hopefully it will clear up. I recently had a sudden spike in my nitrite levels so that might have thrown things off. I also noticed that while I have a flourescent light on my 75 gal, my 10 gal has incandescent lighting. It came with the tank and while I tried to get good light bulbs for it, but it still looks yellowy to me. I think that makes my tank look murkier. I am thinking of upgrading the lighting soon to see if that makes it look clearer.

Stacie

 

[dralarms]

mine was cloudy also. put a penguin 330 on it and now it's clear from the side also

 

[madasafish]

I know what Scott means. I moved some stuff in my fish room, sorry--living room, yesterday and had my first opportunity to look through the sides of my tank. I was appalled to notice that I could only see about 1.5 feet into the tank. The water was cloudy, but looked quite ok from the front.

.......Then again, I'm having an algae problem, ahhhhh!!!

 

[Scottw68TN]

I think mine is an algae as well I was suprised by how clear from the front it could be to look so horrible from the side. It has the slightest hint of green. but I also hve an emperor 400 and a magnum 350 with the polishing filter installed (I'm hesitant to use the powder because I should be able to clear it without having to do that)

 

[madasafish]

Good luck with that! I have two penguin 330s on my tank, but no magnum. Must try that, as the murkiness problem is not going away after water changes, gravel vaccing (a lot), light per day decrease, and reduced feeding.

Do you think I can rent a Magnum 350 somwhere? I'd be worried about disease...

 

[Scottw68TN]

72.99 at fosters and smith. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=3596
I changed about 25% water yesterday and ran the magnum all day. mine looks 75% better. must be algae.