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cloudy water
Hi everyone,
I am having a problem with turbidity in my 125 gallon tank. The cloudiness
is whitish in appearance. You can see thru to the back of the tank, but the
water has a rather murky appearance. There is no disease as far as I can
tell. The fish are fine. I have tried filtering with a hot magnum with the
micron cartridge with no change. I have also filtered with GAC in the magnum
and this did not help either.
Tank description and water parameters: 125 gallon (6 ft long). 3 inch fine
gravel substrate mixed with laterite lower 1 inch. Four 6 foot VHO Aquasun
bulbs (640 Watts) with 12 hr photoperiod. CO2 injection into Eheim 2217
with pH controller. Set point of controller is 6.8. Fluval 404 MSF for
circulation. Both filters shoot downward with little surface agitation.
Water is R/O with Kent R/O Right added per instructions. KH usually 4 and GH
usually 1.5. PH stays from 6.75-6.85. Kent freshwater fertilizer added at
1/2 recommended weekly dosage total divided into 3 times per week (1/3 each
time). Kent pro-plant added in equal volumes with fertilizer. Fish: 21 Red
Serpae Tetras, 3 Gold Rams, 4 Columbian Blue Flame Tetras, 3 large SAE's, 5
Otocinclus "niger?" (looks like o. affinis on steroids), 10 otocinclus
affinis, 4 cardinia japonica (algae shrimps), lots of malaysian livebearing
snails. 6 gallons of water are changed every day.
The tank is heavily planted with various swords, crypts, apons, lilaeopsis,
baby tears, nuphar japonica, cardinal plant, java fern, java moss, red tiger
lotus, rotala indica. There are 2 pieces of wellaby wood (new) that leached
tannins into the water for a while, but never clouded the water. The tank
has been set up for about 3 1/2 months. I feed sparingly every other day.
The plants and fish are all healthy. There is little or no algae. I would
say the tank is going gangbusters except for the cloudy water.
I was wondering if my lighting could be the cause (5 watts/gal). Is this too
much? Does the fact that I couldn't clear the water with either micron or
carbon filtration mean anything? Could this be a part of the break in for a
new tank such as this? I am stumped. My plan is to not change anything until
I can get some feedback. I would appreciate any help. Thank you
Dave
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