Water Not Crystal Clear

Hey everyone, new to fishlore. I'm not completely a beginner on fish, but definitely have a lot to learn. I'm having problems with keeping my water clear. Started the hobby around 3-4 months ago.
I currently have a 120 gallon tank with 9 fish in it. I'm aware some may not be compatible with each other so please hold the harsh comments on that. I will be purchasing another aquarium within the end of 2018. Wife says we have to buy a house first lol, anyways moving on.
I have 2 Oscars one is 13 inches the other is roughly 5-6. One 3-4 inch peacock cichlid, one 6 inch red tail cat, 2 algae fish (one common, one gold nugget), one pacu (smallish but growing extremely fast as I knew he would), one 2 inch buttikoferI cichlid, and one red tail shark.
My levels are perfect! 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, ph is around 6.8-7, and my nitrate is around 40 or less. (May have nitrite and nitrate backwards on this post, I do know the difference when I'm testing and after a strenuous amonut of research they are where they are supposed to be).
I'm running a fluval fx4 canister (700gph) and a hang on back marineland (70gph). Activated carbon, ceramic rings, and bio balls as my media. Any media suggestions and setup for fx4 will be appreciated!
I have small decorative aquarium gravel as substrate. I do two water changes a week, one 10-20 gallon (for vacuuming gravel, depends on how messy gravel is) and one 30-40 gallon. I feed 1-2 times a day and don't over feed and I also skip 2 days a week feeding as I'm out of town. Not 2 days in a row, skip feeding Wednesday and saturday. No plants in the tank (maybe this is my problem?).
I tried putting water in a white bowl and it didn't seem to have a color to it, unless it's whiteish. So I don't think it's algae bloom. When I use Acurel water clarifier my water is crystal clear for a day or 2 then becomes cloudy again. When my water is clear, I mean it's so clear I can't tell there's even water in the tank. That's how I would like it to stay!
Sorry for the really long post, but I wanted to make sure you guys knew everything. Thanks for all inputs!

 

If you want crystal clear water, try throwing some Seachem Purigen in your filter.

Your water is cloudy because of the amount of waste and amount of fish you have cramped in your tank, be it my guess.

 

I can vouch for purigen! I have 19 fish in my new tank and it's Crystal clear with a package of purigen in my fluval 406

 

If you want crystal clear water, try throwing some Seachem Purigen in your filter.

Your water is cloudy because of the amount of waste and amount of fish you have cramped in your tank, be it my guess.[/QUOT

If you want crystal clear water, try throwing some Seachem Purigen in your filter.

Your water is cloudy because of the amount of waste and amount of fish you have cramped in your tank, be it my guess.

I didn't really think it was cramped? They all have plenty of room. I followed the one fish to 10 gallon rule.

I can vouch for purigen! I have 19 fish in my new tank and it's Crystal clear with a package of purigen in my fluval 406

View attachment 404291

Wow that is clear! Where can I find the puritan? I've looked at pet smart and petco and had no luck.

 

New water will cloud over for a while. It is part of a new set up.
Purigen works, finding unconcentrated bleach these days, good luck.

 

I just over filter

 

Did you rinse the carbon filter before putting it in to the tank/replacing the cartridge? Carbon can make water cloudy when first used if not rinsed properly

 

Yea I've had the same carbon in it for about 5 weeks. Haven't touched the filters at all. It took my tank a while to cycle. The lady at the fish store told me she wouldn't mess with the canister until after about 2 months of running it to let it build up good bacteria. I'll try the puritan this weekend and we'll see.

 

Yea I've had the same carbon in it for about 5 weeks. Haven't touched the filters at all. It took my tank a while to cycle. The lady at the fish store told me she wouldn't mess with the canister until after about 2 months of running it to let it build up good bacteria. I'll try the puritan this weekend and we'll see.

Actually if you had the same carbon in for 5 weeks, it must be exhausted. Replacing the carbon will also clear up the water.

However as many others mentioned, Purigen does the same thing as Carbon, except better and longer. Also can be regenerated.

 

Hey guys I'm still having water problems. Over the weekend I've added purigen to my fluval canister. Also, can I run carbon and purigen? My hang on back filter has refills that already come with carbon in them. I also added another canister to my set up. I'm now running a fluval fx4 700gph, a sunsun 304b 525gph and the marineland hang on back at 70gph. I've only had the new canister on it for 12 hours or so but even after adding purigen my water has a green cloudy tint to it. I'm thinking I might have an algae bloom never had one so far so any suggestions to take care of this? If there's any treatments or chemicals that work please share because this is driving me crazy lol. Love my tank and this hobby, but I'm also a perfectionist and my tank isn't looking perfect lol.

 

If you are having algae issues, you could try phosguard to remove the food source.
Purigen may take awhile to take affect as well.. several days I would assume.

 

Hey guys I'm still having water problems. Over the weekend I've added purigen to my fluval canister. Also, can I run carbon and purigen? My hang on back filter has refills that already come with carbon in them. I also added another canister to my set up. I'm now running a fluval fx4 700gph, a sunsun 304b 525gph and the marineland hang on back at 70gph. I've only had the new canister on it for 12 hours or so but even after adding purigen my water has a green cloudy tint to it. I'm thinking I might have an algae bloom never had one so far so any suggestions to take care of this? If there's any treatments or chemicals that work please share because this is driving me crazy lol. Love my tank and this hobby, but I'm also a perfectionist and my tank isn't looking perfect lol.

I can vouch purigen is great. TBH you don't really need carbon Imo carbon is a waste. You can use purigen and place biofiltration or floss in place of carbon.

With a new tank algae Bloom and cloudy water is a good sign things are going right and will go away with some time.

You can try a uv sterilizer on the intake
But I don't think you really need to do that.

 

"water has a green cloudy tint to it" Natural biofilm and tempered glass will make the exact condition you describe.

 

Ok so this could possibly be a good thing?

 

Ok so this could possibly be a good thing?

All I was saying is that tempered glass has a green tint to it and over time your glass will get a slight haze on it (maybe even brown as it gets heavier). You may need to just wipe the inside of your glass.

 

Ok so this could possibly be a good thing?

Your algae eaters may love it. It depends on whether you want the algae around or not.

 

I can vouch for purigen! I have 19 fish in my new tank and it's Crystal clear with a package of purigen in my fluval 406

View attachment 404291

Lol I just saw your picture here and went on to Amazon and bought that purigen. That was enough for me haha