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Please help, Diatom filter won't clear tank and I'm out of ideas

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robfreitas345

Members
OK so I have a 75 gallon African cichlid tank that I have been fighting with for months to get clear, it has been cloudy since day 1, my water tests fine, all my fish are fine and have never lost a fish in this tank, I'm running to whisper 60s and recently bought a marineland magnum 350 that I have been using as a diatom filter, I have ran it till water stopped coming out for about a week and changed the powder 5 times and it made a very small difference but not much, is there any one who can please help me, I am out of ideas..thanks rob

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Plenipotentiary-at-large
More surface area for bacterial colonization

Put sponge pre-filters on all your filter intakes and/or place thin sheets of foam/sponge over the backside of the regular coarse foam on the filter inserts - if there is an adjustment for flow set it to minimum so the water continues to flow through rather than over the filter media. Give it a week, two max. If your water doesn't clear by then it's because your substrate is disintegrating or some such.
 
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robfreitas345

Members
Thanks, I'll try the per filter idea but as for the flow my filters only flow over when the filter gets really messy and I keep up on the filter changes, and I know its not the gravel because I have the same gravel in my 55 and 30 witch are christal clear..I'm running the same filters on my 55 and I have never had a problem with that tank

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robfreitas345

Members
I know a lot of people don't like whisper filters but I've never had a problem with them, well until now, I wonder of it would be better to run that marine land filter as a normal canister filter instead of a diatom filter and see what happens

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Frank Cowherd

Frank Cowherd

Global Moderators
Staff member
For about $50 you can get a UV sterlizer from Drs Foster and Smith and probably a number of other places. The UV will kill the bacteria in the water column that is probably what is making it cloudy, unless it is the gravel which you have ruled out, so it is probably the bacteria.

When you change water it is probably clear for a day or so and then turns cloudy. THat is a sign of bacteria, probably a bacteria that is harmless to fish but unsightly.

The only other thing that might work or might not is to change water, like 90%. But as soon as you add the water back add one of the bottles of good bacteria you can buy at the store. To help prevent cloudy type from taking over you might even want to add the bottled bacteria at double its dose for each day of the first week.

I like the UV. I just move it to a cloudy tank for a week, take it off and its is ready for the next use. Course you can leave it on all the time and it will keep the tank clear all the time.
 
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robfreitas345

Members
That is exactly what happens, when I change like 20 gallons it looks clearer for a few days then goes back cloudy, about 2 months ago I broke the whole tank down and cleaned every thing with a new sponge, new gravel and every thing and with in a week it went back cloudy, I'm spent hundreds on bacteria over about 6 months and tryed a bunch of different companies,..I'm going to have to look in to one of those UV sterilizers

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Treating causes vs. symptoms

Foam is cheaper and will eliminate the problem permanently.
 
Andrew

Andrew

Members
I would remove all but an inch or substrate and add an air stone, myself. I also would Not be afraid of water clarifiers like Crystal Clear.
 
JasonC

JasonC

Members
Shall I be the one to ask the question "Are you SURE you are fully cycled?" You said your water is fine... what values are you considering fine? Also, with your whisper filters... how often are you doing maintenance on them, and what are you doing? Rinsing pads? Replacing pads?

Definitely agree that it is a bacterial bloom, but wondering if it is simply from a incomplete or insufficient cycle?
 
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robfreitas345

Members
The tank was set up for 4 months before I broke it down and it had the same problem and now has been running for 2 months, no ammonia so I'm assuming its cycled, I only clean one filter at a time and then the other 2 to 3 weeks later, I don't use th foam pad I use bio media that I rinse in the water from a water change and then I change the bag with carbon and rinse it in the water from water change

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Bacteria work so we don't have to (or spend money)

JasonC said:
Shall I be the one to ask the question "Are you SURE you are fully cycled?" You said your water is fine... what values are you considering fine? Also, with your whisper filters... how often are you doing maintenance on them, and what are you doing? Rinsing pads? Replacing pads?

Definitely agree that it is a bacterial bloom, but wondering if it is simply from a incomplete or insufficient cycle?
Click to expand...

Sort of belaboring the obvious at this point and it doesn't really matter as the cure is the same - more colonization surface.
 
W

WendyFish

Members
What is your substrate, and what are your fish (looks like big haps)?

When we changed some tanks around, we had mbuna in a tank with very fine sand and found that we basically could not get the water clear. They stir it up constantly. If we used a flocculating chemical, we could clear it up for a day or two, same with a water change. But over what sounds like a similar period (couple of days) it would get stirred up again and cloudy. The same substrate with other fish was fine; I saw you have the same substrate in other tanks, but could it be the inhabitants and that they dig more or differently?

Otherwise it does have bacteria bloom symptoms.
 
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robfreitas345

Members
Its a mixed tank, some haps, mbunas, peacocks, I have like a medium sized gravel...I built a PVC tube with some bio stars and ceramic cylinders for bacteria to grow on, if been running it on my piranha tank for 2 weeks now to build up some bacteria and I will probably put it on my African tank this weekend and see if that helps

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Bacteria are free

Mine never get cloudy. Well maybe once back in '23 when I was like eight.
 
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