Hello everyone,my 55 gallon tank keeps getting cloudy,and I dont know why
It used to me crystal clear but now it always gets a bit cloudy and "fuzzy"(the clarity)
I dont know why it's happening and if theres any way to prevent.
I do 50% waterchanges every week and it gets clearer but my 2-3 days,it gets slightly cloudy again.
It sits in the living room so it also gets annying when we have guests,for the tank to look so cloudy.

Tank:55 gallon
Fish-5 goldfish
Filter-Two filters that are made for tanks between 30-60 gallons(sorry,dont know the exact GPH)
Amonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-20
P.H-6.0(My P.H is consistenly low,and every time I buffer it with backing soda,it falls back down after a while.Could that be the problem?

I use Amequel to de-chlorinate the water and have plenty of aereation.

What could be the problem?

What type of decoration or gravel do you use? The haze may be some type of precipitate from something and I get the feeling you may have rocks that are messing with your pH.

How long has the tank been running? How often do you rinse or change filters?
When you buffer with baking soda,do you add more each time you do a water change?
What's ph straight out of the tap read?

These are all reasonable, good questions posed above, but I think it is also very important to find out the gph of your filters....

If you can figure out what kind of filters they are, we can look up the gph for you.....even pictures will hep us identify them....



My odd shaped 56 gallon tank was hazy - until I added extra filtration to the tune of about 850gph..... Realize, that as the filters run, they rarely actually run at the gph advertised. So many things can effect the gph of a filter - most run about 20% less than they are advertised to do.... And as your fish grow and your tank ages, your filters may simply not be up to the job......

That was actually one of my first questions until I saw that they posted 2 filters for tanks between 30-60 gals. When I saw that ,I erased the ?,and was planning on getting an estimate from some whispers that are sold like that.

Is it possible that there's some old food stuck in the filter, rotting, and can cause something like this?

Thanks for the replys,I'll try to answer all the questions ^^


I have black gravel that you can buy from nooppee and Petco.


The tank has been running more than a year now.
I dont rinse it because I dont want to kill bacteria but if the white material(the permanent one) becomes to clogged up,I may wash out some of the gunk.And I change the filter..well,I dont think I actually have a set time -_-' I usually change it after a month or more.
I dont add more baking soda,I add the same amount.Maybe thats the reason of the P.H dropping?


Since the tank is a nooppee brand 55 gallon,I the filter that came with it.I'm not exactly sure what brand it is though.Quite a while back(near last Christmas or so),I decided that one filter want enough filteration so I bought a Whisper filter from nooppee.



Hm,there probably is some there but it's usually there in everyones filter's isnt it?

I hope that helped some ^^
And thanks for trying to help ^^

Actually, you don't need to change the filter unless it's to the point of falling apart. It's better to rinse the media gently in a bucket of tank water. This removes the gunk without killing bacteria.


I think the most important question is what color is the cloudiness?

If you're not unclogging the filters, I'd be worried about excess uneaten food rotting. Sometimes food can get clogged in the U-tube of a overhang filter.
I had one instance when I was vaccuuming and I turned off the filter for some reason. I noticed a few pieces of flake food float out... and let me tell you, it had been a LONG TIME since I used flake food. Yuck! I stopped everything and took apart the whole filter and gave it a good rinse!

Also just to throw this out there, my bother's tank was staying cloudy untill we realized it was his food doing it, he was feeding tetra goldfish crisps and after a good water change and some new food the tank isn't cloudy anymore so perhaps it may your food. Just a thought.

Thank-you,I'll make sure to do that next time ^^
And the cloudiness is white.Not really any tint to it.


Thanks,I forgot all about the U-tube I'll see if that might be the problem.


I havent fed Tetra goldfish crisps in a while XD But anyway,I'm currently feeding them progold


Oh,and also,after you turn the filter off while doing water changes,and then turn it back on when it's done.Does gunk and what not usually flow out?
If not,then maybe it is because I havent cleaned the filter

Thanks so much and sorry I took so long to reply.I've been pretty busy x.x

White cloudiness is usually indicative of ammonia, but since your test kit didn't read any I don't know what to think.

I never turn off filters during water changes.

I usually turn of the filter when the waterline goes below the intake tube so I wont kill it's motor.I'll go check amonia again and see if maybe there is
It's been like this for months.I cant remember the last time I saw it clear XP

I just tested my Amonia and it's at .25?!

My tank has already been cycled and the amonia was always at 0.

When I get back,I'm going to do a waterchange and see if that helps some.Now I see why my fish were a little sluggish x.x