What trick do you use for crystal clear water?

[Cory]

On my smaller tanks, water changes keep all my tanks crystal clear. However in my 305 gallon. I can't seem to get enough water changes done to get brown water out. I removed all the wood, to make sure it wasnt tannins... and It wasnt. I suspect it's the food I'm feeding, kensfish, soft krill pellets. However, I've fed other foods, like hakari etc, had same results.

I've been changing 100gs every week, nitrates are at 20. So at the moment I'm purely changing water to improve clarity. I think I'm gonna try and setup a 5 gallon bucket full of pillow batting, and run a pump to it, to see it that'll help clarity.

anyone have experience with food that tends to now cloud water at all? I'm gonna try xtreme fish food next on the 300g, as my other tanks love the food, and it supposedly has less filler that ends up as debri in the aquarium. Also all my fish love this stuff

 

[shua]

im sure you know about the diotom xl filter and uv??? are you sure its the food and not blooms?

 

[Ashley]

fx5 polisher pads work great and you don't need to have an fx5 to use them really. You can cut them to size or just cram them in another canister. Keeps our 250gal crystal. Or check into a diatom filter. I hear they are magical!

 

[Cory]

im sure you know about the diotom xl filter and uv??? are you sure its the food and not blooms?

I'm fairly sure it's not a bacteria bloom or algae bloom. I am considering adding UV to the system.

 

[Anonymous]

my tank way yellow, and although it was from tannings when i put my UV on it was crystal clear!

 

[Cory]

fx5 polisher pads work great and you don't need to have an fx5 to use them really. You can cut them to size or just cram them in another canister. Keeps our 250gal crystal. Or check into a diatom filter. I hear they are magical!

Yeah, I run fx5, fluval 405, 2x aquaclear 110. on the tank. Biologically, i'm having no problems digesting waste. However, mechanically i am. I think it's sheer number of fish.
8 Irridescent sharks from 8 inches to 22 inches
40 clown loaches
107 tiger barbs
9 Altifrons/red heads
12 inch Adonis pleco
8 inch green phantom
18 inch niger catfish
6 inch synodontis cat
1 10 inch pacu(rescue)
1 softshell turtle
1 6 inch flagtail prochilodus
1 10 inch fire eel
1 6 inch common pleco

This is why i've contact you guys for the custom overhead filter. An attempt to make my water look cleaner. I figure i'll try a different approach, overseas people are known for overstocking, and maintain good water quality, they also tend to use large bakki style overhead filters. much larger than us standards for sumps. When I had the 55g sump, with filter socks, socks would become completely plugged daily. The water was free of debris, however still had a brown tinge.

 

[Cory]

my tank way yellow, and although it was from tannings when i put my UV on it was crystal clear!

Hmm interesting, i'll look into that. I was under the impression that the UV would only kill living organisims. I'm not sure how that would affect tannins? Maybe there's some UV magic I am unaware of.

 

[Anonymous]

lol, all i know is that it worked like magic and my water went from a really dark yellow to completly clear, there was no change in feeding or schedual other than the UV

 

[HALP]

Seachem's purigen is amazing. will clear up even green water.

 

[larry.beck]

+1 for purigen.

 

[Anonymous]

i am strongly against adding chemicals to the water, dont do it. chemicals stress the fish, and they will dilute the water.

 

[sidekicking]

As long as you use the chemicals correctly....you wont have any problems
but there is a lot of other methods so you wont have to use chemicals

 

[protocl]

A prefilter is a must.
A sponge over the intake, is what I mean. My tanks use to be brownish, I suspected too high of protein and not enough filter mech. filter media.

On my 10G, took 1 day to clear up using a fluval prefilter. After that 1 day, weekly WC.
Brownish water from my short experience in fish keeping; tends to be from the source of the fishes diet and the after waste.
Thorough cleaning of tubings, u channels etc... is a must

 

[Anonymous]

I use prefilter sponges on all intakes and polishing pads or polyfilter floss as the last filtration step. My water is crystal in my 180 with no chemicals.

 

[TRD_Power]

A prefilter is a must.
A sponge over the intake, is what I mean. My tanks use to be brownish, I suspected too high of protein and not enough filter mech. filter media.

On my 10G, took 1 day to clear up using a fluval prefilter. After that 1 day, weekly WC.
Brownish water from my short experience in fish keeping; tends to be from the source of the fishes diet and the after waste.
Thorough cleaning of tubings, u channels etc... is a must

lus1: Prefilters help A LOT! I hadn't been using them at all up until about a month ago, BIG mistake! They made my water 10x clearer.

 

[Fern]

Plenty of water changes and plants in nearly all of my tanks.

 

[Salzabar]

Surprised no one said carbon. When the water starts looking a little yellow and water changes don't work then some new carbon makes my tanks look perfect.

 

[Fern]

I don't even use carbon in my tanks

 

[Betty]

I don't even use carbon in my tanks

I don't either. I do 50% water changes once a week. There are two filters on most tanks. My water is clear except for the bubbles from filters if the water level drops a bit before water change time.

 

[Shannon]

I use 50 pound of lava rock in a 50 g drum , a 50 pound of pee rock in a 50 g drum , 2 pool pumps " intex" , 2 uv lights 36 watts , 8 tr apdoor snails, some frish water clames , 1 home made bio fillters, well its all 1 big fillter .LOL , alot of luck , 2 water falls if you what to call theam that . = crystal clear pond water,
I have over 1200g so i dont change the water , or try not too
I move 1800g a hr trew it all.