Cloudy looking tank? is it the lights?

[robbie59]

My tank looks very hazy when my lights are on making my water look very cloudy, when I turn them off I the water looks crystal clear..
My light set up is 4- 24" coral life 50/50 and a 48" 40 watt actinic bulb.
I have been playing with my light set up trying to get the right combination...I want it to be bright but very clear..
My tank is a 125 FOWLR with black back and sides... is this why it looks hazy?
Please help so I don’t go crazy

 

[php]

are you feeding your fish zooplankton?

 

[robbie59]

nope, I feed them brine shrimp and some seaweed.

 

[thomas712]

What are your filtration methods? Does it look cloudy with the lights off and the room lights on? Does it look cloudy when you take a glass of tank water out and look at it in any other type of light.
Is this recent? Is the tank very old?
Could be a ammonia spike
Thomas

 

[robbie59]

all my levels are on point...and the water is very clear with the light off and the room lights on...
So it has to be my light set up reflecting off my black sides and back....
this is an in-wall tank so there is not much light getting in or out,,,,
Thanks

 

[sammystingray]

I don't think it's the lights......your black sides would cause less reflection if anything since black absorbs light more. Any micro bubbles? Is this a cloudy like the color a sandbed would create? Green like an algae bloom? Yellow like low quality water?

 

[robbie59]

no its only cloudy near the top of the tank where the light are.. My lights sit about 4 inches above the water level so maybe this is creating a lighting effect...
with the lights off I can see everything super clear...
I have no ideal, I was hoping someone else had this problem,,its hard to explain....
My water is not cloudy but looks like it with the lights on...
Like I said before, all levels are spot on....
And theres nothing floating around in the tank to fog it up..
its funny that when I take a picture of it the tank looks really clear..but you stand back and you can barley see the corner of the back of the tank

 

[sammystingray]

what does a digital pic look like with no flash and the lights on? How about a digital with flash and the lights off?

 

[php]

maybe you need to clean the glass that the lights are on with a paper towel, and clean the lights with the towel too..