Dear experts..

I've been having hazy water ever since the first day I put fish in the tank,
with some dose of "Cycle" as recommende by LFS and the bottle. it's not
completely cloudy, but hazy.. just enough to be very useful to get some
depth perception photo between the foreground leaves and background leaves..

I've finished cycling for several weeks, algae is under control, ammonia and
nitrite=0 (still waiting to get my nitrate test kit). The water is slightly
alkaline (pH somewhere between 7.5 and 8 depending on who tests it) and
relatively soft (never tested, but based on municipal water report dH~4 or
so), and is kept around 78F. I just bought the freshwater test kit, so
starting this water change cycle, I will be able to run a battery of test to
monitor the water condition (low dH/gH has potential pH crash worries..)

Tank cycled using UGF using a relatively coarse pea-sized gravel about 2in
thick, powered by two power heads (aquaclear 201's). The power head spouts
are tilted enough to cause some surface agitation (lots of ripples), but
does not use venturi. I have added a HOT power filter hoping to supplement
mechanical filtering after the tank finished cycling (aquaclear200. two
foam blocks, no carbon) hoping it would help clear the water better (no such
luck). Tank is moderately to heavily planted, and moderately stocked. (the
cloudiness was there even when very lightly stocked and no plants, so.). I
have some bogwoods in the tank (some tannin leeching, but that's ok.
Decided yellowish water by itself doesn't bother me.. just the haze)

Starting this weekend, I've decided to do some systematic cleaning over the
next few weeks, to see if I can somehow get the water to clear up more. I
know hazy water doesn't hurt the fish, but it's just that I envy my favorite
LFSs' crystal-clear tanks (some even have real plants, and they still look
very very clear. only murky tanks are when they're cleaning the tank, or the
feeder fish tank..), and the fact that the other two smaller tanks we have
are very clear (eclipse hood). so, cloudy water=something not quite
optimal..

Here is the list I've come up with that I should try to address, and see if
the water will clear up. I was hoping the experts on this group can point
me to other places to investigate (or just tell me to give up if the
following effort doesn't pan out):

1. water changes
I do 20%-25% water change every 2 weeks ever since the tank has cycled (I
target 15-20%, but seems to end up taking out more water than I intended
when using siphon-style gravel vac..). Obviously this in itself hasn't
helped much in clearing out water
2. gravel vac
I just bought the air-pump activated gravel vac, so I can do more thorough
vacumming (the siphon vac took out water too quickly). I hope to remove as
much plant debris, and other detritus from the gravel and plants, without
malnutritioning the plants. (will be putting root tabs soon)
3. UGF maintenance
try to siphon out some of the gunk accumulating underneath the UGF plating
(use narrow tubing and shove it under the plate through the uplift tube
opening). Last time I got lots of brownish goo out... I guess the substrate
is too coarse and letting lots of detrius get trapped under the plating, oh
well.. next time i'll get something better)
3. plant cleaning
remove all deteriorating leaves on all stem plants, continue to vacuum out
crud that accumulates on fine-leaved plants (acting as a filter!)
4. foam filter on powerfilter
take out and clean (not used for biological filter yet) often. May be add a
finer filter floss? (what size mesh? I see 50um or 100um particle traps)?
5. add aqua-clear type particle coagulator for more efficient mechanical
filtering.

are there other things I should look at to see how I can increase the water
clarity without hurting the ecosystem? I assume normal gravel vac/siphoning
under UGF plating won't hurt the beneficial bacteria. I won't clean the
power filter and UGF at the same time (will stagger cleaning timing) to
assure that the bacteria colony isn't completely destroyed.

linda