Crystal Clear Water in Tank

I'm just wondering why the water in my tank isn't clearstal clear yet?
I've had it running for about 3-4 months now and it still isn't clear to where I can say, "dang"! Maybe it's b/c I'm using sand rather than gravel? I also do regular water changes every week. It's a 135 gallon tank with a 8" Oscar, 8' Pacu, 3" Datnoid and a 5" Redtail Catfish. Oh, and I'm using a Fluval FX5 as my filter which is built for a 400 gallon tanks.

Any suggestions anyone?



Thanks,
Jimmy

When you say regular water changes how much are you changing? If you're changing too much maybe you're not letting the tank actually cycle. Sand would actually make the water a little clearer than gravel in my experience. What do your water parameters look like? (ie amonia, Nitrates, nitrites etc..). If you really are bothered by the "clearness" of the water open the canister and throw a couple pouches or a bag of Charcoal in the filtration system. It will clear the water up a pretty good amount. Most only use charcoal to remove medicines out of the water but it is actually very good at making the water sparkle! The Fluval is definately enough filter for the tank but you might want to consider adding some type of hang on filter. If nothing they will help with water circulation and keeping the temeratures down in the tank. One last "big" thing is what is your outflow like on the FX-5. Do you have much sag in the hoses? If you have much sag it really effects the 'inflow and outflow' of water. You need to cut enough hose that its pretty much comes from the top of the tank and goes right to the intake valve. Also the outflow should go pretty direct to the tank. If you have sagging in the hoses (Excess) then you really put a damper on the flow rate.
JB

Without more information, I would say cut back on feedings!
Your tank will clear up shortly. You'll drive yourself crazy with everyone's
opinions.

Ornate12 is probably right... sometimes we do over "think" and the problem could be as simple as over feeding!

Sorry for the quick answer. My opinion is too much food leads to water quality problems.
Heck we all do it lol

I would agree with all the above, one other possibility is how often do you clean the glass?

I know it sounds simple, but sometimes, especially with a high flow filter I've found, the flow of water increases the slow build up of very fine particles on the inside of the glass.
Only happens on one of my tanks, but that's the one where I'm running a filet that's 3x capacity of the tank.

With a tank full of messy eaters it is easy to see why over feeding leads to large clarity issues and also some likely water quality ones as well. It is not uncommon to feed fish every other day. I tend to feed adult fish only once a day and no more then they can eat in 3 minutes.

With that FX5 you should have no filtration issues. I know the three I own keep the tanks looking amazing but the polishing pads to get dirty quickly if not cleaned out. The thing I found worked the best was to put a pre filter sponge on the inlet pipe. This kept the pads and large stuff out of my filter. It makes a world of difference and since those pads are expensive, well worth it!

Outside of that you may have to play around with how often you do water changes and how large each one is. One thing that can cause problem with any substrate (sand or otherwise) is trapping leftover food or waste. So a good cleaning when doing water changes can help to keep toxic levels of muck from building up.

Good luck!!

Thanks everyone for the great advise!! You guys really are the pros. I really don't feed my fishes a lot, only about 1-2 times a day and I def don't over feed. Water changes every week is about 15-20%. It could be the carbon now that you brought it up, it's been about 2 months since I've last changed it. I do have a few questions and I'm sure one of you guys will be able to answer it.

I have a 135 g tank with a Fluval FX5 so keep that in mind.

1) How often do I have change the barbon out?
2) Will a lot of carbon harm my fishes?
3) How often do I have to change the Fluval BIOMAX Filter Media(white rings)





Thanks,
Jimmy

have you ever noticed that some respondents have to say the same thing the person said before them, just in different words, its like they just want to hear themselves speak, it gets OLD people