How to get Clear Water

[HomerJay]

Hi everyone! i am having trouble getting my water back to clear again. I am sure it is not a bacteria bloom. The water tests fine. I did a large water change and a gravel vacuum. Although it has been a very long time since i did a vacuum. I have about a million snails in there so i am sure i am overfeeding. I am ok with the small pieces of duckweed floating around, it's the other stuff i can't deal with lol.  What should i do guys? 

Edited February 14, 2022 by HomerJay

[eatyourpeas]

How long since you cleaned it? It may need more time to settle. You could add a temporary filter with floss in it.

Edited February 14, 2022 by eatyourpeas

[HomerJay]

It has been about 2 days, i do have an HOB i could put on it for a bit. thanks

[Guppysnail]

The water may still test fine if it is a bacteria bloom. Stirring that much nutrients out of the substrate into the water if you have not vac’Ed in a while will do that. Let it settle for a week or so. 

[Preyhunter]

Mine does this as well after a water change, though maybe not as bad.  Mine clears after about 3 days with a floss pad in the HOB that stays there.  I was just noticing that mine had haze yesterday and is crystal now.

[HomerJay]

I forgot to mention that it was like this before i changed the water lol

 

[Mmiller2001]

If it's larger particles floating in the aquarium then you don't have enough turnover in the tank. I would add the HOB and use a bit of polyfill.

[Torrey]

On 2/14/2022 at 9:15 AM, HomerJay said:

Hi everyone! i am having trouble getting my water back to clear again. I am sure it is not a bacteria bloom. The water tests fine. I did a large water change and a gravel vacuum. Although it has been a very long time since i did a vacuum. I have about a million snails in there so i am sure i am overfeeding. I am ok with the small pieces of duckweed floating around, it's the other stuff i can't deal with lol.  What should i do guys? 

Bacterial bloom won't generally affect your water parameters. 

I have found squeezing a sponge filter from a more established aquarium typically clears the water up overnight. 

50/50 success rate with dosing SeaChem Stability 

[BAT]

@HomerJayi love your tank set up!  I see we both like sponge bob (see pic)

i have had good luck with using the polyfil like @Mmiller2001says. Just keep an eye and change when it looks bad (about a week or less, depending) bc i have had nitrates spike when I kept too long.

[SeaDevl]

haha! your tank looks great btw..

[Colu]

Live plants will help and add an extra layer of filtration

[Mydonkeyfish]

I would add some live stem plants like pearl weed or elodia to pick up excess nutrients.

[813aquatics]

Use the HOB with polyfiber. Sponge filter won’t polish the water nearly as well/quickly. 

[Vanish]

I think this looks like a case of particles suspended in the water.  I dont think adding more plants will do anything except trap some debris on the plants. A temporary hob or canister to polish the water seems like the way to go.

[HH Morant]

It does not look like particulate, which would generally settle out in a few hours, or certainly in a few days. 

It is bacteria, but not the beneficial kind. This bacteria puts a burden on the immune systems of your fish and makes them more susceptible to disease.

The long-term solution is more biological filtration and less feeding. See aquariumscience.org articles on crystal clear water.

You say you are sure you are overfeeding. If you think you are overfeeding, you most definitely are. Try cutting the amount of food in half and actually measuring the food each time.

I found that I was getting pleasure from feeding the fish and that made me feed more. Now I try not to consider feeding a source of pleasure, but more a chore. I measure the food. I try to derive my pleasure from the way the aquarium looks, and the way healthy fish look. The aquarium looks a lot better if the water is crystal clear. And the fish are healthier.

[North Dakota fish keeper]

Cloudy water can be so frustrating!  I have had that problem in the past.  Mine was due to over feeding and not getting the substrate clean enough.  I backed off my feeding a tad, gave the gravel a really good deep clean, and purchased the fine filter pad from Aquarium CO-OP.  It does a great job getting the fine particles out of the water, which can cause your water to look cloudy. That did the trick for me. Good luck!