What's Wrong With My Aquarium Water?

Hello!

Long time lurker and first time posting. I just recently changed out the gravel that was in my 75 gallon tank to sand. We do have hard water, and use a water softener with iron removing pellets. I'm using an Aquaclear 110 with the base sponge filter, Seachem Matrix bio media, and 2 100ml Seachem Purigen packets. When I had gravel my tank was almost crystal clear, I changed to sand almost 1 month ago and it's never gotten any better than this. I have been doing 20% water changes each week and using the vacuum to clear out any waste as well. Nitrogen was a bit high, as well as ammonia so I added a bit of Seachem prime. The Nitrogen and Ammonia got much better, but the cloudless is still present. Thanks for any help you can offer!

-Paul

 

With sand be sure you're just skimming the surface of the sand when you're cleaning with the vac. Don't dig in like you do with gravel...and when adding what do your best to not disturb the sand. You also may be going through a minI cycle by switching substrate and having a bacteria bloom...which sand did you use?

 

I did dig down into the sand so that's probably part of my problem right there. I also have an oxygen stone under the sand which probably also contributes.

I used the National Geographic white sand from Petsmart. They had a pretty good sale on it.

 

Yeah you don't need to dig in with the vac with sand just barely skI'm the top because with sand all your fish poo and other debris settles on top unlike gravel where it gets down in deep. I definitely wouldn't have and air stone under the sand that will stir it up too much and not allow it to settle. I've used nat geo black sand before and it was cloudy for maybe a day. So basically just don't do anything that disturbs it and allow it to settle

 

Yeah you don't need to dig in with the vac with sand just barely skI'm the top because with sand all your fish poo and other debris settles on top unlike gravel where it gets down in deep. I definitely wouldn't have and air stone under the sand that will stir it up too much and not allow it to settle. I've used nat geo black sand before and it was cloudy for maybe a day. So basically just don't do anything that disturbs it and allow it to settle

Agreed especially about the air stone. Try these steps and let us know either way

 

You have a dust problem. Likely you didn't clean it all the way through, like 90% clean.

Try this...get some poly-fil. That's the stuff you can get and Walmart or a fabric store or shrewd a teddy bear up. Buy a bag of it. Take a good portion of it and stuff it into your HOB that you have. That will catch all the dust and stuff. Few days later it should start clearing up and then some. Next water change remove and just add another hand full.

 

Thanks! Where would I place that in the HOB filter? Currently it goes Sponge Filter --> Purigen --> Matrix. Would I replace the sponge filter with the poly-fil?