I have two small Oscars (2.5) inches in length in my 55 gallon tank. Yes I know this will not be sufficient for them when they are grown, and I will buy a new tank for them. I initially planned on keeping a tropical community at first and decided against it when all of them died in the new tank within 2 days. I got the Oscars now and I love them and do not want to get rid of them.
After much research, I plan to get a new tank when they grow larger and keep the smaller 55 gallon for a community tank. I have become addicted to my fish already! My Albino got ich its first week and my Tiger was fine. I treated with salt and heat and a mild protozoan treatment, he was perfect within 48 hours. Now my tank is ridiculously cloudy.
I put the filters back in after doing a 25% water change after the treatment to clean out the tank. I know they are messy fish! I tried to clear the water with a water clarifier, I did two treatments in 2 days, and all I see is some of the clumped together dirt particles, but the water is still cloudy. I added another dual filter yesterday, so now I have two back of the tank bio-filters running, with a total of 4 filter cartridges. Water is still cloudy. Tested PH, and it was 7.0. I tested for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite and its fine.
1.Is my water cloudy from the ich treatment?
2.Is it cloudy because it is still a new tank? (3 weeks in, cycled with live bacteria (not stresszyme, I go to a specialty store for cichlids and other exotic fish, they gave a treatment they use in their tanks, basically live bacteria from older tanks) from an aquarium store, put directly on filters, so the tank may already be well cycled using this method)
3.How long will it take for my tank to clear up with this new, extra filtration system put in?
4.Do I need to do another water change and vacuum the gravel? The fish seem fine, its just cloudy water!
5. I have two zebra danios in there still, my Oscars cant seem to catch them, but they had no problem killing a couple minnows, lol.
Any info would be great… How long before I change out these filters on a new tank and if I rinse them, how do I do that? In the sink? Im a little new to that part.
My two filters run 630 GPH, is that not good enough?
I added about the Danios just to let you know of anything else in the tank. My Oscars basically leave them alone because they are too fast. I would take em out, but wat would I do with em? I cant give em away, so its either let them eat them or flush em. I figure I will just see what happens, since they have lived together for weeks.
The tank is new and the method of ich treatment I stated above, so if I have to do another change, I will. Didnt know if I should do it so often in a new tank. It was cloudy the first week and went away, up until I treated them.
Oh one more thing, no I did not remove the entire filter, sorry it came across that way. I only removed the carbon filter cartridges while I did the ich treatment. I left it running other wise! 
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