What trick do you use for crystal clear water?

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

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

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!

shua wrote: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.

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

Ashley wrote: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.

teddyzaper wrote: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.

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

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

+1 for purigen.

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

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

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

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.

protocl wrote: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

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.

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

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.

I don't even use carbon in my tanks

Fern wrote: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.

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.

Shannon wrote: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.

I cannot even imagine the work it would take to WC. Pond.
Water changing, maintaining my 180G is work already.

protocl wrote:

Shannon wrote: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.

I cannot even imagine the work it would take to WC. Pond.
Water changing, maintaining my 180G is work already.

believe the bigger it is the less work you have to do and longer time in between....? feel free to fill in shannon....

Could it be because there are equipment to help with such a task?

my understanding that the bigger the filter get/tanks the easier they are to maintain cause there is way more give and tank... trying to keep a 30gl stable takes a lot of work compared to a 100g.. now 1200gl with 170g worth of filtration now i sure it get touched... once a month or somewhere between 3-6 months and sure it take little to no time to clean it out with the way they got it set up sounds like its going from one barrel to the next like a bin in a canister filter.... so its a 3 stage filtration system but with 55g worth of media in each tray.... one day i have to do it all at once and ask shannon for help getting it going

In the spring i pump out about 50 % of it. I have had to drain it 2 times . .

how longs it been running? you got picts would love to see them get me to dram maybe a central filtration on all my tanks one day

its bean up for 2 years.Its not no show off pond .But I have learnd alot about filtration the hard way with it. Im going to be makeing a new pond , a bit biger and a lot more better looking , Ill post some pics of it .There is a guy selling 55g drums on craigslist for 5.00 bucks. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Its the same kind i use .
or $25.00

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cool thanks for the info hey there also is a guy that sells bio bail for cheep protocl and i use it on a small scale and it works great, but if suppose to work wonders a large scale like you have, just an idea if your re-doing my wanna look into it as well as what you got going... cant wait to see the picts

I never used carbon untill a few months ago and wow what a difference.
I was told once that carbon only lasts 10 days or so and i've found that to be untrue.
Shawn at a place for pets said the carbon canister they use for all incoming water to the store is 5 or more years old and still workin great.

My 400 gallon cichlid tank use to get yellow rite befor its water changes. But thats a thing of the past now.

I'm running 2 FX5s and a 40 gallon wet dry. I was using fine partical pads in the FX5s but they clogged up befor the sponges and i had to clean them every two weeks. Now its more like 4-6 weeks between cleaning

The wet dry has a sheet of odyssea brand thick blue floss and it takes a month or more for it to fill up. I now run 1 liter of odyssea premium activated carbon in a mesh bag behind the wier in the w/d and change it every two months.

I am ruinning a MD1800 pump from the wet dry back to the tank and a Rio 950 gph through a 36 watt UV back into the resivor of the w/d only because im using a 750 watt HID light fixture and i was havin an alge problem.

UV equals no alge or harmfull bactieria or parasites living in your water.

Carbon equals no color no smell and less build up of toxic chemicals.

I also run a 550 gph power head to help keep poo piles from building up on bottom

fishaddict wrote:I never used carbon untill a few months ago and wow what a difference.
I was told once that carbon only lasts 10 days or so and i've found that to be untrue.
Shawn at a place for pets said the carbon canister they use for all incoming water to the store is 5 or more years old and still workin great.

My 400 gallon cichlid tank use to get yellow rite befor its water changes. But thats a thing of the past now.

I'm running 2 FX5s and a 40 gallon wet dry. I was using fine partical pads in the FX5s but they clogged up befor the sponges and i had to clean them every two weeks. Now its more like 4-6 weeks between cleaning

The wet dry has a sheet of odyssea brand thick blue floss and it takes a month or more for it to fill up. I now run 1 liter of odyssea premium activated carbon in a mesh bag behind the wier in the w/d and change it every two months.

I am ruinning a MD1800 pump from the wet dry back to the tank and a Rio 950 gph through a 36 watt UV back into the resivor of the w/d only because im using a 750 watt HID light fixture and i was havin an alge problem.

UV equals no alge or harmfull bactieria or parasites living in your water.

Carbon equals no color no smell and less build up of toxic chemicals.

I also run a 550 gph power head to help keep poo piles from building up on bottom

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^If you can afford it ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


If not,
A Magnum 350, I don't like these filters but for polishing the water they are great!
A Ocean Clear canister, these are much easier to work with but are harder to find used.
Run a Fx5 on anything smaller than a 90 gallon and you will have crystal clear water, anything above 90 X2 FX5 and a wet dry filter and you will be good.

icer711 wrote:cool thanks for the info hey there also is a guy that sells bio bail for cheep protocl and i use it on a small scale and it works great, but if suppose to work wonders a large scale like you have, just an idea if your re-doing my wanna look into it as well as what you got going... cant wait to see the picts

yup...im using the bale and it is great! one of those - look hard, and you will find a gem; kinda thing.
cheap, high surface area, never collects grim and light in weight.

plus, bio bale does not decrease water flow within the canisters of mine.

I was considering a UV sterilizer for my 75g, but I don't know if it's worth doing :/

I'm planning to get the Danner uv unit.

Polishing pads as the last filtration step (even in an HOB filter, I cut them to size and stuff them in there) and a UV sterilizer will keep anything crystal clear.

My setup is almost the same as fishaddict's, i need to look into the UV though.. I have the pump just need to pring for the UV.. Also quit using carbon a couple years ago, hmm maybe i should throw some back in the sump..

In my 55gal i have 3 AC70s with bulk pond filter stuffed up the intake tubes and packed tight inside the filter its self w/ SeaChem Purigen & Matrix filled bags. I do water changes practically never. Usually just to clean up the rocks.

You seem to have plenty of filtering going on. But you're right thats a lot of fish.

Quilt batting in my fluval fx5.

UV sterilizer, polisher pads from fluval, cleaning out the tank after feeding, using a sump along with a canister, diatom filter