Why is my water cloudy?

[beccaroo7]

I've had my tank for almost 7 months now , it's a 55 gal, and every other week I make a 5percent water change. yesterday I changed the water as usual and changed the filter cartridges and I put some activated carbon in the filter media of my 330 filter unit.This was the first time I have ever used anything in the filter media, and now my water is cloudy. It has always been clear before and I have'nt altered feeding amounts, what am I doing wrong, will this clear up?

 

[lnarobbins]

if all of your water paramiters are in the green then in my opinion your water should clear up, if after a couple of days it dosent then you might try a more agresive water change like 25-30% and see what that does
hope this helps
Alan
also welcome to the board

 

[killyah]

did you rinse the carbon good and i mean really good through running water b4 you added it to ur filter? if u didnt that could be the cause. jmi

 

[steamboat1569]

Are you adding any type of calcium. If there is too much calcium it will almost look like a cloudy white snow, only much smaller flakes.
I have used carbon since I started in this hobby, and have never had cloudy water. Rinse it thouroughly, and buy a good brand. I use activated carbon instead of charcoal. The smaller the size of granules the better.