Dirty Water, best way to fix it?

[gmoses]

So I have a 55 gallon in my bedroom that I have a group of yellow labs of about 10 and a group of cyno afra around 6.
Long story simplified I screwed up... I never turn the lights on in the tank because the room gets good natural light. I recently switched to 2mm nls and been feeding once a day. I turned the light on the other day to discover the tank is filthy. I guess i have been over feeding with the larger pellets and there was a bunch of broken down food sitting on the bottom. I immediately did a couple of water changes and just did another one 3 in a little over a week. A lot of the bottom is cleaned as i moved a lot of the rocks around to get it but the water itself still has a lot of particles floating around. I have an emperor 400 on it and a sponge filter.
Should i do daily water changes until i get my clarity back or should i be patient and do my weekly 50 percent changes as not to radically change the water to quickly?
or any other thoughts always appreciated.

[Pete]

Did you clean the filter pad on the Emperor? If not, do it. You've done 3 changes in a week, more changes isn't going to upset the fish. There will be a point at which either your mechanical filtration is keeping up or it isn't and if you've cleaned the pad and it can't keep up I'd supplement with another filter, either another 400 or a 280.

[triscuit]

I would continue vacuuming the substrate while you do more water changes. Make sure you don't forget your dechlorinator, and rinse your filters each time in tank water. Don't wash them aggressively, and if you change filter pads in the emperor, don't disturb the sponge filter for a few days.

It will clear up, but it may take another week or two. Also, when you disturb your tank three times in a week, the particulates don't have much of a chance to settle. So, do 2 more water changes, rinse the filters, then let it go for a week and I bet it'll be cleared up.