Brackish tank .. cloudy water problem

[Mel]

I've had my 120 litre brackish tank setup for 5ish months now and it has always had cloudy water, it's kept at 0.080 around 26 degrees. It has 3 figures 8's in there.

Even after 50% water changes it never clears, i've just put a internal 1000lph in it and it has always had a eheim 2224 700lph

anyone got a solution or advise for me to try, thanks.

[livingart]

sorry no quick fix

maybe substrate leaching particles in water

bacterial bloom

uneaten food,

filter cleaned too well

just to mention some possibilities

questions would be what type of substrate, tank/filter maintenance, feeding etc?

[Mel]

i have silca sand - I was wondering because of the white sand it was making the water seem cloudier?

a few pieces of shist stone and afew small pieces of dead coral.

I change 40 litres of water every week (sometimes fortnightly)

Have only just clean the filter out last week for the first time - and that was pretty clean so just gave a quick rinse through some tank water

I feed - tetra cichlid jumbo sticks (says will not cloud water), small pieces of prawn / fish this usually gets eaten all up or uneaten gets removed, bloodworms

I have also changed the way I do my waterchanges, which seems to be helping alittle. I first mix the required salt in a bucket of water, then water straight from the water change system we have and slowly add the salted water.

The puffers don't seemed to be worried at all with the cloudly water though.

[livingart]

doing all the right things mel

only leaves the silica sand really but that should be sweet

if you take a glass jar of water from the tank and let it sit for a day you may be able to see anything settle out of the water if that was the case

[Mel]

Thanks for your help, I'm not 100% sure it's the sand either as we've had it in our african tanks and it's never clouded the water.

It's just rather frustrating as it doesn't seem to want to clear up - i guess time will sort it out. You don't think i need a skimmer?

[livingart]

weekly water changes will be heelping

a skimmer may help, but maybe expensive

putting fine airstones in may give an indication of if that would help

if the aeration created a scum or froth on the surface

[Mel]

oh ok, no froth here, i have airstones going and all is good on the surface.

I'll just keep up with the w/c's - if the salt wasn't so expensive I would do more water changes.

Would you think doing say 10 litres changes every second day would be better than one big change once aweek? i could try that!?

[livingart]

i have used natural salt water for all my brackish setups

only problem i had was with trying to grow mangroves in the tank :oops:

edit: just noticed you were in ashurst, a trip to the beach may cost more than buying the salt

[spoon]

what salinity do you keep the tank at? salt water mixed up can appear cloudy if put straight in the tank normally you chuck a airstone or powerhead in the bucket and mix it for 24hrs first to dissolve everything but it would clear in a few days on its own anyway so perhaps not the problem

[Mel]

what salinity do you keep the tank at? salt water mixed up can appear cloudy if put straight in the tank normally you chuck a airstone or powerhead in the bucket and mix it for 24hrs first to dissolve everything but it would clear in a few days on its own anyway so perhaps not the problem

Salinity is at 0.080 - i usually mix the salt in a bucket at least an hour before starting the water change - but perhaps could try mixing the day before to see if that makes a difference