Looking thru side of tank, dirty?

Even after a WC, looking thru the side of my tanks, it looks kind of unclear and dirty.

Why?

How long has the tank been set up?

Spyral wrote:How long has the tank been set up?

about 2 weeks. Since moving to seatac.
Thru the front, tank looks clean just thru the sides looks kind of cloudy and off colour from the front of the tank.

I had the same problem with my 55 when I set it up. Give it a little time, it will eventually become crystal clear. Your bacterial colony may not be operating at full speed yet, my advice would be to give it some time, keep an eye on your levels and see what happens.

Well since it has only been set up for two weeks it's probably just your bacteria colony settling in, like stated above. But if it doesn't clear up my suggestion is to go to the lfs and buy the "polisher pads" made for the fx5. Even if you don't have a fx5 or a canister filter you can shove them in the back of your HOB filter. You can even cut them to size if they don't fit. You have to replace them every couple days to start. and then after your water gets crystal (which it definitely will) you don't need to replace them very often at all.

Did you add warm water when you set your tank up??? I made that mistake once.... Now I only add very cold water to the tank, and let the heater warm it up.....
Did you wash you substrate???? Again a mistake I made before too..... Sand, or even some gravel if new must be washed before you put it in the tank.... "wash sand??" YES! there is dust all over it, so you wash it in buckets, dump the water, then rinse again.... after the water from you substrate is clear, then it is ready to go into your tank, or you get murky water!
Either problem will go away, it just takes time.... and allot of water changes..... so keep doing about 20-30% water changes a week with cold clear water, and let the filters do the rest.

Thanks guys for the insight.

I'm actually running my new Rena xp4 on my 20 G.
To help gather more BB so I can house some of the bio media in my new fx5 when I do get a 180G.
I think, because I never owned a canister before, I may have setup the xp4 wrong.
Now it's running well.

While I relocated, I had all my filter media in tank water. So, I did not have to start over again.
I probably killed off some of them, but not most.
None of my tanks have substrate.

Bah.

After I setup the 180G and rehouse my small comm. Tank to the 20G, I'm done with HOB filters.
Soon, it'll be on the 'for sale' section. Lol.

Turn lights off for a couple of days to insure its not algae bloom.. Although it most likely sounds like NTS..
Just do as Nuka says everything should be fine...

sandnuka wrote:Did you add warm water when you set your tank up??? I made that mistake once.... Now I only add very cold water to the tank, and let the heater warm it up.....

I'm pretty sure i broke my old submersible heater that way. It exploded.

quick temperature changes in glass can cause it to shatter because some of it expands and some shrinks, i personally match the water temp when i do a change - just toss my little heater in the bucket with an airstone till its ready

Gosu wrote:quick temperature changes in glass can cause it to shatter because some of it expands and some shrinks, i personally match the water temp when i do a change - just toss my little heater in the bucket with an airstone till its ready

Great job Gosu! Sudden water temp change can also cause shock to a fish which results in severe stress of even death. When doing a water change it is ALWAYS a good idea to try to match the water temp (and pH if you can) to the water that's in the tank already.

all fish can handle a 4 degree drop in temp.... been doing it for years ..... now, I dont dump ice in my tank to cool down the fish..... but cold water changes seem to keep temp down in the summer!! and you have to have a pretty extreme change in temp for the water to break. going boiling to ice water, that would do it. tossing a 10% of cold water in 50 gallons of warm water is barely going to do anything.

sandnuka wrote:all fish can handle a 4 degree drop in temp.... been doing it for years ..... now, I dont dump ice in my tank to cool down the fish..... but cold water changes seem to keep temp down in the summer!! and you have to have a pretty extreme change in temp for the water to break. going boiling to ice water, that would do it. tossing a 10% of cold water in 50 gallons of warm water is barely going to do anything.

agree on the couple degree neg. temp drop.

I turn the hot faucet all the way on , and the cold , all the way on and get medium temp water, right into the tank from the hose,,, works great. comes out about 82 degrees, till the hot water tank runs out then it gets cold as hell, but that takes 60 gallons +

is it yellowish? if so there are most likely tannins in the water. if you want it done you can add a UV steralizer

Dont know if your ok with puttin chemicals in the tank..... but there is this water magnet stuff that came with my sand..... freakin awesome..... tank was sparkling a couple hours after puttin it in! might want to try it????? unless your all natural, then just keep doin water changes. and I am still gonna say, use cold water when adding to tank, warm water always looks more filthy..... dont know why? test it out... put cold water in a glass, then hot water in a glass right from the tap.... let me know what results are.

sandnuka wrote:Dont know if your ok with puttin chemicals in the tank..... but there is this water magnet stuff that came with my sand..... freakin awesome..... tank was sparkling a couple hours after puttin it in! might want to try it????? unless your all natural, then just keep doin water changes. and I am still gonna say, use cold water when adding to tank, warm water always looks more filthy..... dont know why? test it out... put cold water in a glass, then hot water in a glass right from the tap.... let me know what results are.

have link? Ill give it a read.
Yea, I always do cold water WC's just as long the temp. does not decrease the total tank temp. by 2 degrees So, usually room temp the new water and then water exchange.

if you have an aquaclear you can get some of those water polishing pads for the fluval cannisters and itll take out any floating debris.
or you can go to joanns or somewhere else and buy the same polyester stuffing. will work within a couple hours

Cant seem to find the same stuff that came with the sand.... but when to the local pet shop and there is a whole row of stuff to remove cloudiness.... would imagine some would work? I would give that a shot, if all else fails.