Murky Waters

[BRANDX]

My 15g has sort of murky water. The water tests the same as my other two smaller tanks, except 15g has slightly high nitrates. Two major differences I can think of
This tank gets 2 hours of direct morning sunlight.
Tank has two undergravel filters, instead of the hang-on-back kind my others have.

I have a 20gallon filter I can hang on it, but I was going to return it still in the box. and moving the tank would be a pain in the neck. Is there anything I may not be considering?

 

[samyboy]

could you shade it at all from the direct sunlight, is it a new tank? could take upto a week for evrything to settle

 

[fishwatcher]

Also, I'm not sure how undergravel filters work, but maybe they need some cleaning? Or it could be a little algae. ITA with samyboy, too. If it's a new setup I'd wait a bit and see what happens. You can always do a partial water change, too.

 

[4ftguppy]

Do you have any live plants? This may help keep the water clearer.

Its years since I used UGV but as I recall only a few species work with them - amazon sword plants, java fen, and moss etc. Maybe some free floating plants like Indian fern