I have a 75g tank. It's been fully cycled about 2 months now.

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10-20ppm

Got those readings for the last 2 months. It's not overstocked, i have:

1 Angelfish
2 Turquise Rianbows
3 Roseline Sharks
5 Bleeding heart tetras

In fact, I'm sure i'll be able to add quite a bit more after I get this cloudy water figured out. I'm running an AC110.

But the water hasn't really been crystal clear since the first 4 weeks or so. It's not bad...from the front it's even hard to tell (i can tell for sure, others cant), but if you look from end to end you can definitely see a kinda murky water. Kinda yellow-ish and cloudy. I was thinking it might be from the driftwood (tanins), as when I do a water change it clears up quite a bit. Not fully, but it clears a good amount...., but always gets back to murky after a day or so. I've put new carbon in but that doesn't seem to do the trick. I've added pics. Does it look like floating algae to you? I could add a UV sterilizer. let me know what you think it looks like.

Thanks

Front view:


End-to-end

have you been rinsing your carbon filters or soaking them in treated water before adding them to your filter? i had the same issue with my 29 gal when i first started. what i had failed to do were rinse my substrate and rinse my carbon filters. even still if i dont rinse my filter i will have a cloudy tank for a few days longer than i should after i clean my tank and replace the filter.

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RIP "whitey" my albino pleco. found dead 5-21-12

29 gal- 2 leopard ctenopoma / 5 tiger barb / 5 corydoras catfish / 1 golden weather loach / 1 three spot gourami / 2 bolivian ram / 1 juvenile bristlenose pleco / Amazon sword / Java fern / Red Ludwigia / Wisteria / Anacharis
filtration- AquaClear 50, QuietFlow 20; 325 gph total

20 gal- 1 clown pleco / 8 black neon tetras / 1 neon dwarf gourami / 4 Asian glass cats / 5 green corydoras catfish
filtration- QuietFlow 30; 200 gph

Several years ago I had a 75gal that gave me the same problem. My radical cure was that I bought a second filter, a marineland HOT 250 magnum, used the round paper filter only in it as a water polisher and within a day and from there on the remaining 4-5 years I had it running the water was crystal clear.

Hello b...

A sandy substrate will produce a lot of small particles, making the water cloudy. Tannins usually don't cloud the water, just turn it an amber color temporarily.

A Utah company by the name of HGH, makes a dense, cut to fit, filter pad that works well for me. You might check them out.

I get cloudy water occassionally, but I change 60 to 70 percent of the tank water every week and service the filter equipment regularly. Doing both of these duties regularly, will keep the water clearer, longer.

Just a thought.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

I think it is just from the sand and will go away over time with water changes.

Yes, I rinsed it really well, and even did w/o the carbon for two weeks. I dont think thats the issue. Thanks though

This seems pretty cool. I've never seen anything like this. Amazon has them for about $50. I may try this out. What does "water polishing" do ?

Can't seem to find this filter pad.