Stumped....Still cloudy water !!

[wxman]

I have a 48 gallon oceanic tank with a silicon base substrate. I use RO/DI water. The nitrite is 0....nitrate is 0....ammonia is undetectable. I have a real nice Eheim canister filter, capable for a 150 gallon tank.

BUT THE TANK IS STILL 'SLIGHTLY' MILKY AFTER 2 WEEKS !! WHY ?

I have added a few real nice live plants. Plenty of lighting on a timer. A CO2 system for the plants (they should do great...and appear to be doing fantastic.

BUT THE TANK IS STILL CLOUDY. It was cloudy BEFORE I added the plants.

BUT, I DO NOT have the recirculated water coming out of the canister filter BREAKING the water. The wand that shoots the 'clean' water back in the tank is INSIDE the tank about 1/4 of the way down. Is this significant? Will the water clear 'better' if its more turbulent?

I am totally stumped. By the way, the substrate was rinsed 10 times fully (I counted) so a 'dust' problem shouldn't be a problem here. I also used Aquaclear....what a waste of money....no results either...

Water temperature 82 degrees. NO FISH in tank yet.

Thanks for any help.

wxman

 

[Guppylover]

I suggest adding carbon to the filter. Well in my 6gal when I first got it started it was cloudy for two days, because I'm a really impatient person I added carbon to my filter to see if it helped clear the water, guess what? I work in around 4 hours, and now it's a clear as ever!
I don't think more turbulent will help too much, how often do you do water changes?

 

[Phantom Thief]

Have you started cycling the tank yet? If you have, the problem might be bacterial bloom.

Secondly, how can your plants be doing well if there are no nitrates in the water?



P.T.

 

[chishnfips]

Is it a new filter, I had that problem with my new filter, I added some stress zyme to help the bacteria and the water cleared up after a few days, also check the PH it might be too low.
You can get stress zyme for a couple of pounds at your LFS.

 

[Platiesowner]

Hello,

Two weeks is too soon for you to have a beneficial bacterial bloom. IMHO, it is a bacterial bloom of a another type. I had this happen to me and did a ton of research to find out what the problem was. Basically, certain bacteria feed on oils, water conditioner resedue if you've added too much and fine grease that are introduced to the tank through set-up, the filter, the oils from your own skin. Hopefully, your filtration provided mechanical filtration through floss, fiber etc. Change 30% of your water every day for about 4 days and add Seachem's "Clarity" (This is the best stuff on the market IMO, and I did research into this as well as interviewing many reputbale and life-long tropical fish keepers and sellers. ) The Clarity is what's called a "foculating" agent and binds with the tiny bacteria to lump it together. I'm betting the water will be clear the next morning, and you'll only have to add the Clarity once. Don't worry about losing beneficial bacteria because since the "good" bacteria doesn't "live" in the water but in the substrate and the filter itself.

HTH
-jason