cloudy water

my water in my 160 litre planted tank is very cloudyand a little tint of brown i dont know why
is there a chemical that can take it away or must i just do more water changes????
i do 20% water change every two weeks
i do have drift wood in there but i have had it for about 5 years and woul probably not effect it
help would be much appreciated
...mc 1

 

first i put water in to three buckets and lett it sit for 1 day with the aquasafe mixed in
then i use a garvel cleaner and clean the sand and take the water out of the tank.
then i put the water from the three buckets water into the tank
and add ph balance and plants ferts
like florish excel
i have a mix of things in my filter here are some pics

 

and some more

 

when last have u replaced that A.C and SPONGE ?

 

AC takes out all the ferts in the water. So by doseing ferts with AC in your filter you are wasting them

 

A.C sponge??? sorry i dont know the short terms
and the white thing isnt a sponge its a little bit like coral bricks or somthing like that
my No3 level is 25 m/l
my No2 is 0
my kh is 6
my ghis 6
and my ph is 7
and i got it from a friend about 4 months ago so i dont know when he replaced it last

 

out of topic but would my carbon sponge stop the ferts from going itno the water

 

AC is Activated Carbon ( which looks like small pieces of charcoal) and yes if u using it u are wasting your time with Ferts. The little coral bricks i would presume are ceramic rings and they are for good bacteria to grow and never need replacing

 

thanks for all the help but do you know why the water is cloudy

 

ive found before with smaller filters the water gets milky when the carbon needs changing it could be its not polishing the water as much, or it could just be my imaganation .try removing it like the guys said it wont realy benifit your plants

 

i have and i am keeping it for when i need to get rid of some medication in the water .I only put it in a week ago so luckily i dint loose to much fert to the AC.
Its not really milky it is more brownish but not too hecticly
maybe i will do a 40% water change this weekend and see if that helps.
and i dont have any fish so maybe the best time to do it is now.

 

maybe i will do a 40% water change this weekend and see if that helps.
and i dont have any fish so maybe the best time to do it is now.


when all else fails .big water change. agreed

 

Hi nic
It looks like you have one of these Via Aqua internal jobys. I'm using one for a week as well but don't really trust them. I think the flow rate is far to great to get any decent bio filtration, and the thing looks uuuuugly at least in my tank.:bigsmile:
Go for the sump and see how it goes.
To your claudiness it can have many reasons from a bacteria bloom to algae.
See what happens after a WC. if it comes back after a short time i would stop fertilizing and check if there is a fish missing. Does the tank gets maybe more or less sunlight now?
good luck

 

no its been the same amount of sunlight but i will just do the water change and keep you guys updated as to what happens. i am also making a DIY Co2 injector which will be interesting i will test it on my planted tank with no fish and see how it goes.
thanks so much for the help guys:bigsmile:

oh and my pinty eel seems better now that i have gone planted so i dont think its bacteria i just think its a bit dirty or something or maybe it is from the driftwood which is very unlikely but it could be from that

 

AC is active carbon ad the sponge is the filter media you use to remove solid waste from the water. Cloudy water , it seems your ammonia levels are high. do another water change until it clears and monitor