CAN SOME ONE HELP ME MY TANK WENT FROM A WHITE MIST TO A GREENISH MIST IVE SET IT UP 3 TIMES NOW AND EVEN BOUGHT A NEW FILTER TETREC 1200 AND MY TANK STILL GOES CLOUDY AND GETS WORSE IVE BEEN DOING EVERYTHING PROPRLEY LETTING IT CYCLE INTRODUCING FISH SLOWLY AND NOT FEEDING TOO MUCH AND THE TANK IS NOT IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT IVE TESTED IT AND THE NITRATES LEVEL IS QUITE HIGH MAYBE THATS THE PROBLEM BUT I JUST WANT MY TANK TO BE CLEAR SO THAT I CAN ENJOY MY FISHYS!!! BUT THREE ATTEMPTS AND IM BAFFLED!!

This post has been edited by HELP ME 101: Jun 28 2008, 08:32 AM

Perform small waterchanges over the course of the week. Whats in your filter. You may be experiencing some sort of bacterial blooms which are common in the early days of a new setup. Waterchanges will help reduce the nitrate somewhat.
Regards
BigC

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Please post the numbers for water tests, fine to some folks is not actually fine to others. Also, what are you using to treat the replacement water, and please post in detail how you perform filter & other tank maintenance.

hi big c ! i went to a fish shop today and gave him a water sample and he sold me sometetra aqua safe start (bacteria) and said do a small water change as i have so maybe this will do it? its pretty merky water though?...in my filter are ceramic tubes,black balls!,i think pete ? thanx

Going to state the obvious here "Did you thouroughly wash your gravel" before placeing the substrate into the aquarium.
Regards
BigC

New tanks are sometimes prone to green water. If that is the problem, water changes won't help. It will have to run its course or you could look into a UV sterilizer. The answers to the questions Tolak posted would definitely help.

If the water goes milky cloudy then it is usually caused by too much food rotting in the tank. Cut the feeding back and do some water changes.

Don't wash the filter materials out under tap water. Only wash them in a bucket of aquarium water. Once they are clean then put them back in the tank and rinse the filter case and motor out under the tap. Then set the filter back up and tip the bucket of dirty tank water out onto the garden.

If the water goes green then it is free floating algae and is often caused by too much light and high levels of nutrients in the water. Decrease the lighting period and add some live true aquatic plants to the tank. Floating plants like water sprite are good for shading the tank. Do regular water changes to dilute the nutrients and the algae in the water. Often a massive 80-90% water change can get rid of the problem.
Make sure any new water going into the tank is free of chlorine and has a similar temperature & PH to the tank.
Try adding some fine filter material to the filter. Something like white filter floss or filter wool can trap a lot of the algae and make the water look clear.

i had this, and when i eventually did a test my levels were through the roof, i had previously been carrying out 2ice weekley large water tests and assummed (wrongly) that everything would be fine in there, but try as i might i couldnt shift the cloudyness,so what i did was revert to smaller water changes daily,say 20%,then when the levels were back to normal, i left the tank alone!!,now its once a week water changes unless my levels are up in which case i do serveral small instead of large chnages, i think within a week on a normal routine i was actually doing over 200% water changes to try to clear it, but check your levels if they are ok, then leave the tank alone, it will not look great for a few days but will settle........and keep a jotter of what you do, as it may come in handy in the future should it happen again
shelagh xxx
ps my tank water is now drinkable..( well if i didnt know fish had been in there.. its that clear)

oopss missed a bit- colin is right, i also now use filter floss/wool in my filter. it make s a huge diffrence

This post has been edited by shelaghfishface: Jun 29 2008, 06:58 AM

thanx peeps wel i got really hackedoff theother day and transported my fish into a different tank and completley gutted and cleaned my tank but not the filter then put fresh water in now i think il wait about a month till i put any fish in and il put some safestart bacteria in every day hopefully my tank should cycle maybe it hadnt cycled fully before any tips on cycling a tank? i love fish but maybe im just not meant to have them?....whats the best way to cycle a tank? and time period .....il try again in vein!! thank you guys x

Try not to let it put you off, when you're first starting and something goes wrong its #### scary, but theres always people on here that'll be able to help you out.

The link below tells you about fishless cycling, read it carefully and if theres anything youre not sure about post up on the forums.

And don't believe anything they guys in your LFS (local fish shop) tell you - check it out on here. LFS employees (whilst there are alot of good ones out there) often give out dangerously incorrect information.


http://www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/

This post has been edited by tenohfive: Jun 29 2008, 04:17 PM

have a read of the links in my sig 'whats cycling' and 'fishless cycling' these should help you set things up properly

If the filter is more than one month old it should be cycled.
If the filter wasn't washed out in tap water when you cleaned the tank out, and you put a dechlorinator in the new water, then you could put the fish back in (24hours later) and just keep the feeding down for the first week or so. The filter might go through a mini cycle that will last a few days but that should be it.
You could have just left the fish in the tank and done a complete gravel clean and a 75-80% water change each day for a few days and that probably would have cleared up the water.

HI AGAIN I HAVE LET MY TANK STAND FOR ABOUT 4 DAYS DECLORONATED IT NOW I HAVE ADD 3 FISH AND IT SEEMS TO BE STAYING CLEAR AMMONIA 0 NITRITE 0 NITRATE 20 SO IS THE TANK CYCLED SO SOON ? BUT IT LOOKS GREAT THO THE FISH SEEM TO THRIVE IN THE WATER BUT WITH THOSE TEST RESULTS I THINK THE BACTERIA MAY HAVE BUILT QUICK IVE BEEN ADDING LIVE BACTERIA TO THE TANK EVERY DAY!.....I GUESSS IL ADD ONE FISH AWEEK TO LET THE BACTERIA CATCH UP WITH THE WASTE ....I SEEM TO BE DOIN SOMETHING RIGHT SO IL JUST KEEP GOING FINGERS CROSSED PS THANX FOR ALL URE HELP GUYS IT REALLY HAS HELPED XXXX