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I have had tanks all my life but recently have discovered the joy of african cichlids. I have a 65 gal hex tank with about 18 fish mostly mbunas to start until I get the hang of it and feel comfortable getting more. I have never had any problems with water conditions Ph kH Gh etc. but this is driving me crazy! I cant figure out what is going on! The water is cloudy and I cant figure out why! It has been up since october and I had no problems until christmas. I had a really bad algea bloom and not knowing what else to do I broke it down and boiled all my rocks cleaned it out all but the bio filters was cleaned out really good. I figured I would have to watch it close and expect a bit of cloudyness for a while as I re-cycled the tank but it has been over a month and another algea bloom. This time I covered the tank with a blanket for a few days and moved the tank to a corner in my livingroom that gets no direct sunlight. It is no longer green but it is still very cloudy. What is going on?? My PH is very stable at 8.0 my temp stays at 79 degrees F my nitrates and nitrites and amonia are all within safe levels, but my KH is up over 400 and my Gh i couldnt tell you because i have tried up to 40 drops and still no color change! Could this be causeing my cloudy water problem? My other though was maybe some of the rocks I have, but they were all boiled and soaked 48hrs before I put them in the tank. I tried to take the rocks out but that causes my fish to become aggressive and I dont want that. I have been having to do a 15% water change every 3 days just to keep the hardness just under 400 and be able to at least see the fish. I only feed every other day and only enough that they can finish it in 1-2 min so I dont think its an overfeeding problem, I have 2 20-40gal whisper over the back filters running and 2 air bubblers on the bottom to help keep the bottom clean and oxogenated since the tank is deep and the filters dont have high turbulence to get O2 to the bottom. I have also tested my tap to see if that was the problem and th KH is around 107. What is going on I am going nuts trying to clear it up. Please dont suggest chemicals like aqua clear I really dont believe in adding chemicals the only thing i add is the API proper PH 8.2 and not very much since some of my rocks already raise the PH a little. Here are a few pictures of the tank maybe someone can spot a rock that may cause an issue of tell what is going on my the apperance of the water. Sorry I couldnt get the picture to show up but I am not sure how to but if you copy nad paste this you should be able to get to th picture.[/url]
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=8 ... 1676479624
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=8 ... 1676479624