clear my cloudy tank...i cant see anything!!!!

[craigy boy]

hi reefers, i just purchased a blue spot ray for my 160 gallon tank and a 3 ft zebra moray. trouble is that the ray kicks up so much sand that the tank is permanently cloudy and the eel produces large amounts of waste. how do i resolve this? do i add some kind of internal filter? my 2 powerheads only move it around and it does not go over the corner wier...... help...!!!! p.s have a large sump which i can modify if it helps..

[Geoff]

Welcome to the TRT!!

From what it sounds like you have the very fine sand as your substrate, correct. How long as the tank been set up? I have found that as the bacteria colonize the sand it gets heavier and will settle much faster. how deep is your sand bed? on a setup like that i do not know if more sand is better or worse, hopefully others will chime in.

both of those denizens are huge waste producers, so keeping the tank clean will be tough job. the sand will do a great job on most of it. How much LR do you have in the tank? this may help to hide and settle the sand.

just my .02

G~

[craigy boy]

hi geoff, yes i do have very fine sand which varies, at one end of the tank it is about 1" thick and the other is very bare. i was told to regularly take sand out and clean it which i have been doing but this is a thankless task and doesn't seem right. though it does get the clumps of dead algea out. had the tank 8 months.... 6 months with lots of live rock and the last 2 months adding fish. 2x clowns 1x snowflake eel 1x tang 1x blue spot ray (6" diameter) 1x zebra moray (3ft). worst of all is im a novice but tried to take the 1st 6 months without fish and learning how the tank should flow etc.... now i just want to keep good water quality.

[aquaticsdeptleader]

he will need a dsb as the ray will need to be able to bury itself why is the ray kicking up so much sand most of the time they will just stay buried in the sand correct so perhaps something is statling it. you were told to remove all the sand to clean it? if so that wont act as a filter i think a refug and a sump would be tha way to go with this tank. I would also suggest removeing some of the fish as a 3 foot moray would be best kept in a tank exceeding 180 gallons by itself

however this is just my opinion and not set in stone

hope i may have helped

jim

[cyberchef]

Originally posted by craigy boy
6 months with lots of live rock and the last 2 months adding fish. 2x clowns 1x snowflake eel 1x tang 1x blue spot ray (6" diameter) 1x zebra moray (3ft). worst of all is im a novice but tried to take the 1st 6 months without fish and learning how the tank should flow etc.... now i just want to keep good water quality.

Seems like a very heavy bio oad to be adding over a 2 mon th period, especially the eels and ray. Watch that the eels don't have the fish for dinner. You might need to add a courser substrate to keep the eels from kicking it up. To keep the water quality up, lots of water changes...

[craigy boy]

hi jim, thanks for the advice, i will add a few inches of sand like you suggest. sounds reasonable really. dont know why i didnt think of it earlier. as for the moray, i have so much rockwork i never see him and he seems happy enough... but time will tell i guess..