I have a 90ga tank with 3 six inch oscars and 2 plecos, i have a casacade 1500 canister filter and 2 acuaclear 110 hob, but this is still not enough to keep my tank clear for more than 4 days. I also do 20 to 30% water changes every week.So i just purchased a fuval fx5 to solve all my problems but i need to know what kind of media to pack the 3 trays with. i still plan on doing water changes every week but i want my water to stay clear for more than 4 days. So my question is what kind of media do i pack my 3 trays with to keep my water crystal clear? and which tray do i put the media in?

I was thinking
top tray: spondge filter
second tray:bio max
3rd tray: polisher

Please Help!All ideas are welcome!

hi well i think your tank is well over stocked but u do ahve a lot of filtration, with my fx5 i have just stacked it with biomax noodles and a polishing pad in the bottom tray works well. but i am sure others have different set ups that work for them.

how long has the tank been in operation? it is a new aquarium its not uncommon to have cloudy water for a while due to bacteria bloom. can you post your water parameters? and by cloudy is it like gray color? or more of a green? if greenish tint you may have an algae bloom.

the tank has been running for 3 months now. its more like a foggy white, you can see particles floating around. i would like to figure out what media would remove the smaller fine particles.

yeah i feel it is over stock, when i purchased the fish, the salesman told me this would be fine in my tank. i guess i did it backwards, got the fish then did research on them. when i tried to return a few of the fish, they would not let me but offer to sell me a bigger tank lol. i guess i just rushed to get new fish because the 3 id sharks i had for 11 years past away because of a power outage when i was out of town and my fiters didnt start back up.

on my goldfish tank i run into similar situation at times... i find that if i pack part of the filters with cottonballs and let it run for a day or two it will catch it and clean up the water, then remove cottonballs.

It sounds like a bacterial bloom. You can add filter aid. It causes the small particles to clump together and then they get 'caught' by the filter. But you still need to find the cause. Can you test your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and post the actual results