cant shift cloudt water.

[luckylugs]

I am having a problem with water clouding. I am running 3 tanks,all using the same water,2 with tropicals and the cloudy one is 220 lts with 5 med. size discus and 3 juvies, 2 angles and 5 small B/N. nd a flying fox.
Everything was fine till 2 weeks ago the water started to cloud. Stepped up W/C from weekly to every second day. No change. I added a 1400 L/P/H powerhead to assist the tricle filter. No changed. Removed plants, same. I vac. the substrate (gravel) every W/C. Been using easylife, the other 2 tanks clear as crystal. Have run out of ideas as to what to do next. Has anyone any sugestions. ALL paramaters are fine with P.h. of 6. The tank was stripped ,gravel boiled etc. 3 months ago when I got my first discus. Going to try vac. bottom of sump to se if that helps. Using tank water. :?: :?: :?:

[ILLUSN]

sounds like a bacterial bloom to me, have you been over feeding? also your tanks sounds a bit over stocked whats your nh3, no2 and no3?. whens the last time you gave the trickle filter a good clean?

[1fish2fish3fish]

I take it these are not newly set up tanks??..have you had these fish for some time in this tank or have you been adding fish..if so slowly or at once..??
Flying fox, with Discus..ouch!!.. watch that guy closely..
your PH always been at 6..did it drop too much and tank crash??..how you keeping it stable a 6?..

[1fish2fish3fish]

then again it could be those 5 BN 's..they are dirty fish and stir up tanks at night..
you have sand substrate?..or gravel?

[stormhenge]

add a micron filter for a week, it should clear it up.
i agree with illusn, it sounds like a bacterial bloom, i had one a while back when i did too much during a water change i.e. scrub glass, gravel vac, trim plants, clean plants, and clean a filter. if you do too much at water change it tends to stir things up too much.

[luckylugs]

What is a micron filter.

[luckylugs]

Removed 2 angles to add some space. First how do we clear a bacterial bloom. Dosed with Big L before this started. Read that this could cause it, because of the glucoes. Changing filter material every second day. Coming slightly clearer. Fish chasing one another everwhere. Is this them happy at play or what. Will check on micro filter and U. V. Thank for the info.

[stormhenge]

a micron filter is a filter that pretty much polishes the water (it does tend to removed trace elements from the water, which is why i suggested only running it for a week, unless you get your hands on one that only cleans as low as 3 microns and not 1 micron)

they sell them at home repair store as water purifiers, or at your lfs as exactly what i said "a micron filter". i think marineland makes a high quality one that can be run at all times.


another solution would be to add water polishing pads into a canister filter, which is what i use to keep my water looking crystal clear.

hope that helped, =]