I up grade from a 29 gallon to 60 gallon. Every since then we been having problems. First the water was really cloudy, you could not see the back of the tank. We got that under control we think. Then omg the algae went nuts. It was probably a alage bloom or worse. Got that under control we think. Now we are back to cloudy water. The poop always goes to one side of the tank. I tried redirecting the flow. I am thinking the filters I have might be the problem. We have two filters my husband didn't want to spend the money if we didn't have to. Anyways we have two smaller filters hooked up together. I am thinking it's enough suction maybe. Should we move the intake it's on the back of the tank far corner from the spray bar. Should we be using the spray bar?
What am I doing wrong
- Thread starter Ked2016
- Start date
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You really want filtration rated for about double the aquarium size. So for a 60 gall9n aquarium you want a filter rated for 100 to 120 gallons or 2 filters rated for 50 to 60 gallons each.
What filters are you using precisely?
What does your cloudy water look like?
You might want to consider a powerhead to direct any detritus towards your filter intake.
Is it a milky white cloudiness? Or a tea like colouration? Or particles suspended in the water?
Can you post a photo so we can see what your issues are?
Do you know your water parameters?
What filters are you using precisely?
What does your cloudy water look like?
You might want to consider a powerhead to direct any detritus towards your filter intake.
Is it a milky white cloudiness? Or a tea like colouration? Or particles suspended in the water?
Can you post a photo so we can see what your issues are?
Do you know your water parameters?
That's not enough filtration for 60 gallons. Might be good for a 30 gallon aquarium.
A 207 and 307 together would be good, or a 407 on its own.
A 207 and 307 together would be good, or a 407 on its own.
It looks like you arent yet cycled. You are showing some nitrite (NO2) and you arent seeing any nitrate (NO3) yet. There will be excess nutrients in the water and that will be feeding a biological bloom which is causing your cloudy water. As your cycle establishes those nutrients should get consumed by the nitrogen cycle and the cloudiness clear up. See how things progress with your cycle over the next couple of months, you are looking for zero ammonia and nitrite, and nitrate steadily rising between water changes.
A few more questions and observations.
What water test kit are you using? Are you 100% sure you are doing the tests correctly (particularly nitrate)?
What is a typical water change schedule? How much and how often?
Can you confirm if your filters are connected up separately or do you have them set up in sequence with one intake going to one filter, then a connection to the 2nd filter, then going to the return and your spray bar.
From what you have said and the photo where I can only see one intake in the right hand corner, I suspect it's the latter.
Flow rate is dependent on fish. Some fish like fast flow, some like low flow. But turning over the water in the aquarium 3 to 4 times per hour is a reasonable average. If you have them set up separately, my estimate is that you are turning over the water 2 times per hour, if they set up in sequence my estimate is that you are turning over the water less than 1 time per hour. Neither of these situations are going to be enough to pick up detritus and direct it into your filtration. You will have deadspots and detritus will collect in the dead spots.
At the very least make sure they are set up separately. Have one on each side of the aquarium with an intake and output in each back corner. Even that will be a low flow situation as your filters are undersized. If you only want the single input + outflow situation, get a 407 filter to replace the 2 undersized filters, move all the filter media from the 2 semi-established filters into the bigger one which will give you more filter capacity and flow rate than the 2 smaller ones combined.
A few more questions and observations.
What water test kit are you using? Are you 100% sure you are doing the tests correctly (particularly nitrate)?
What is a typical water change schedule? How much and how often?
Can you confirm if your filters are connected up separately or do you have them set up in sequence with one intake going to one filter, then a connection to the 2nd filter, then going to the return and your spray bar.
From what you have said and the photo where I can only see one intake in the right hand corner, I suspect it's the latter.
Flow rate is dependent on fish. Some fish like fast flow, some like low flow. But turning over the water in the aquarium 3 to 4 times per hour is a reasonable average. If you have them set up separately, my estimate is that you are turning over the water 2 times per hour, if they set up in sequence my estimate is that you are turning over the water less than 1 time per hour. Neither of these situations are going to be enough to pick up detritus and direct it into your filtration. You will have deadspots and detritus will collect in the dead spots.
At the very least make sure they are set up separately. Have one on each side of the aquarium with an intake and output in each back corner. Even that will be a low flow situation as your filters are undersized. If you only want the single input + outflow situation, get a 407 filter to replace the 2 undersized filters, move all the filter media from the 2 semi-established filters into the bigger one which will give you more filter capacity and flow rate than the 2 smaller ones combined.
Maybe. Algae is caused by imbalances in your nutrient levels and light.
You arent cycled, so there are nutrients in the water. You are reporting nitrite. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are food sources for algae.
Even when you might consider yourself cycled, as your filter is undersized it might take a little longer than it should to clear the water of ammonia and nitrite. Water should be coming out of your filter clear of these, and with your undersized filtration it could require your water to circulate a few times before water is clear. These small spikes may not show up when you do your testing, but they would be present and feeding algae.
Your filters aren't circulating the water very much, so you are getting dead spots. These are areas where detritus is building up, and potentially nutrients like ammonia can build up in these dead spots too. It's possible that if you carefully took your water parameters in different locations in your aquarium, the bottom compared to the top for instance, you might get find ammonia in one location and not another and this ammonia would be feeding ammonia.
But the most common cause of algae is going to be too much light. Having the aquarium light on too long, or having the aquarium too close to a window.
You only want your aquarium light on for 6 to 8 hours a day, and you want the aquarium as far from a window as you manage. I recently did some lux measurements for another thread. The light close to a window was 20 x higher than it was 4m away from a window. It's incredible how light levels drop off as you move away from a window, but you don't notice it because your eyes are good at adjusting for changing light intensity.
You arent cycled, so there are nutrients in the water. You are reporting nitrite. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are food sources for algae.
Even when you might consider yourself cycled, as your filter is undersized it might take a little longer than it should to clear the water of ammonia and nitrite. Water should be coming out of your filter clear of these, and with your undersized filtration it could require your water to circulate a few times before water is clear. These small spikes may not show up when you do your testing, but they would be present and feeding algae.
Your filters aren't circulating the water very much, so you are getting dead spots. These are areas where detritus is building up, and potentially nutrients like ammonia can build up in these dead spots too. It's possible that if you carefully took your water parameters in different locations in your aquarium, the bottom compared to the top for instance, you might get find ammonia in one location and not another and this ammonia would be feeding ammonia.
But the most common cause of algae is going to be too much light. Having the aquarium light on too long, or having the aquarium too close to a window.
You only want your aquarium light on for 6 to 8 hours a day, and you want the aquarium as far from a window as you manage. I recently did some lux measurements for another thread. The light close to a window was 20 x higher than it was 4m away from a window. It's incredible how light levels drop off as you move away from a window, but you don't notice it because your eyes are good at adjusting for changing light intensity.
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