Cloudy Water Help!

[svtcobra24]

hey guys i recently bought a fluval 406 canister filter, ive had it for almost 3 weeks and my water is still cloudy. today i did a water change and it didnt help at all. i even used acurel f and still nothing. a couple of hours ago i put my green killing machine uv sterlizer back in the tank to see if it will help. i need to know as to why i cant get crystal clear water. please help.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Did you move the media over from your previous filter? 
What size is the tank? Inhabitants? Water parameters?

 

[svtcobra24]

Did you move the media over from your previous filter? 
What size is the tank? Inhabitants? Water parameters?

i had two penguin 200 power filters and i removed one to make room for tubes for the canister filter. the other one is still running, the tank is a 55 gallon. i have 6 cichlids and one algae eater. as far as the water parameters i dont know to be exact because i ran out of the test strips but looking at my fish and seeing that they are very healthy i think the parameters are fine. before i installed the canister my water was always crystal clear.

 

[Ninjouzata]

I'm really not sure then, sorry. May I suggest that you get a liquid test kit instead of the strips?

 

[levahe]

Do you do weekly waterchanges ? Perhaps try several large water changes over the next week to see if it helps

 

[FreshwaterAfishianado]

Did you rinse the media that came with the fluval? I have a 406 filtering my 55 and the media that came with it had quite a lot of dust in it.

 

[svtcobra24]

Did you rinse the media that came with the fluval? I have a 406 filtering my 55 and the media that came with it had quite a lot of dust in it.

i did rinse the media and 2 weeks into having the filter i cleaned the filter just to see how well the filter was working. did cleaning the media two weeks into having the canister effect the benefical bacteria? i cleaned the media in the tank water that was in the canister

 

[Feather]

Did you clean the filter media with tap water?

 

[KirkyArcher]

A usual mistake that is made with the fluval 30# range of filters is to push the two inner foams in the cassette too far down and that allows more water to bypass the biofoam and any polishing pads and also the bio media. cloudy water is usually a form of bacterial bloom, and will settle down after a week or so, leave your filter alone for a while and it'll start doing an excellent job

 

[svtcobra24]

Did you clean the filter media with tap water?

when i first got the canister i did rinse everything with tap water at first but then when i cleaned them again i used the water from the tank that was in the canister itself

 

[Feather]

 

Did you clean the filter media with tap water?

when i first got the canister i did rinse everything with tap water at first but then when i cleaned them again i used the water from the tank that was in the canister itself
 

 
Ok, well since you still have a cycled tank, all i can think about is either a dirty or improperly placed filter media like KirkyArcher said.

 

[svtcobra24]

A usual mistake that is made with the fluval 30# range of filters is to push the two inner foams in the cassette too far down and that allows more water to bypass the biofoam and any polishing pads and also the bio media. cloudy water is usually a form of bacterial bloom, and will settle down after a week or so, leave your filter alone for a while and it'll start doing an excellent job

i am new to the canister filters and i dont know if it just takes longer for the good bacteria to settle into the canister. i just thought that 3 weeks would be enough for everything to settle in.

 

[svtcobra24]

so i ran to my LFS and i bought the master test kit. here are the readings.
 
ph 7.6 ppm
 
ammonia 4 ppm
 
nitrite 0 ppm
 
nitrate 20 ppm