I'm back in after about 10 years, when we used undergravel filters and I also used waterfall filters. I always had basic 29 gallon rectangle tanks. Now I have a 54 gal corner tank and I'm using the fluval u4. Put water in with aqua safe plus and safe start (tetra) and ran for 2 days. Tank conditions were good and water was crystal clear. Then introduced fish (4 neon tetras, 2 mollys, 2 serpae tetras, albino Cory, and pleco) several hours later my water started clouding up and my fish appeared to be struggling a little bit. Eventually lost all but the mollys,Cory, and the pleco but they were slowing down. I added easy balance and clarifier. Checked nitrite, nitrate, ph, gh, and kh. Gh and kh were just a smidgen high from ideal but fish are doing great now,swimming around very active. But water is still like lake water visually 4 days now after treatment. Am I possibly running filter at wrong setting or is there some other possible issue. No live pants off any kind currently. Thanks in advance for any advice.
back in the hobby having cloudy issues
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DutchMuch
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It takes a month or so to cycle a tank, you didn't test your water then. Get a test kit. Neon tetras school; need at LEAST a group of six, same for corys they need at least a group of six. common plecos get huge and will most likely kill everything in your tank when they are bigger, so many "wrongs"...
I saw you posted in another thread where I commented on cloudy/hazy water, so I can leave that issue.
You lucked out here with respect to cycling, because you had very few fish in a relatively large volume of water, and you used bacterial supplements to get the nitrifying bacteria established quicker than otherwise. This will not always work, however, just so you know. Doing something like this in much smaller tanks can be disastrous.
So that brings me to your fish species. As DutchMuch said, shoaling fish (here the tetras and cories) must have more in the group. Minimums are usually given but it is always better for the fish to have more. You have the space, so I would suggest 9-12 cories, same for neons.
Now we come to another problem, Serpae Tetra, also known as Red Minor Tetra (species is Hypohessobrycon eques). This is a species that can be downright nasty. It needs at least 10-12 in a 30 gallon tank alone, minimum, to curtail its aggressiveness. You have the space for more of them, but considering their nasty behaviour, I personally would not include this species. It will limit other options, due to their tendency to fin nip slower fish. I would recommend removing the two Serpae Tetra (the store may take them back in exchange for more cories or neons?).
The pleco, if a common, should be removed now, for reasons DutchMuch mentioned; this species can get to 18 inches. If this is a Bristlenose Pleco, they remain 4-5 inches and can be fine.
Mollies must have moderately hard or harder water or they will slowly waste away. The other fish here are soft water species. So before you do anything with the above, we should know the water parameters of your source water. The GH, KH (Alkalinity) and pH, which you should be able to ascertain from your water authority's website, or calling them. This can be critical for some fish.
Edit. Remembered the additives and wanted to say a couple things. I mentioned the clarifier in the other thread, so I recommend not using these. The Tetra SafeStart is a bacterial supplement and a reliable one, so that's OK. Use it as directed until it is gone (once open it won't last long) but do not continue as it is not necessary once the tank is cycled and established.
Tetra Easy Balance is not something I recommend. First, it "claims" to avoid water changes for six months which is pure nonsense. Second, the "benefits" are spurious, and some of them downright harmful to fish. An aquarium is an artificial enclosure but it still uses natural processes for the most part, and fish will always be healthier if we let nature do the work rather than adding chemicals and concoctions; we must remember that every substance added to the tank water does get inside the fish, and none of these are "natural" by any stretch of the imagination. So avoiding additives as much as possible will always result in healthier fish because at the very least these substances will cause some degree of stress, and stress is the direct cause of 95% of fish disease because it weakens the immune system and affects the fish's physiology and metabolism.
That brings me to AquaSafePlus. I cannot find the ingredients, nor the Safety Data online. This always worries me, when manufacturers keep ingredients secret. So, using their "claims" for this product..."seaweed extracts...will help reduce aquarium pollution by strengthening the bacterial bed" -- how exactly? If the extracts are completely natural like seaweed, this may do no harm. But it is not necessary, as a natural biological system in any balanced aquarium will handle this alone. It also claims to add a protective slime coat, but no indication how. Some products use aloe vera and this is damaging to fish gills, so I tend to stay away from such claims. I use API Tap Water Conditioner which is adequate to deal with chlorine and chloramine, and detoxifies heavy metals. Unless your source water has ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in it to begin with, this is the only conditioning agent you need. And it is the most highly concentrated conditioner on the market so very, very little is used.
Byron.
You lucked out here with respect to cycling, because you had very few fish in a relatively large volume of water, and you used bacterial supplements to get the nitrifying bacteria established quicker than otherwise. This will not always work, however, just so you know. Doing something like this in much smaller tanks can be disastrous.
So that brings me to your fish species. As DutchMuch said, shoaling fish (here the tetras and cories) must have more in the group. Minimums are usually given but it is always better for the fish to have more. You have the space, so I would suggest 9-12 cories, same for neons.
Now we come to another problem, Serpae Tetra, also known as Red Minor Tetra (species is Hypohessobrycon eques). This is a species that can be downright nasty. It needs at least 10-12 in a 30 gallon tank alone, minimum, to curtail its aggressiveness. You have the space for more of them, but considering their nasty behaviour, I personally would not include this species. It will limit other options, due to their tendency to fin nip slower fish. I would recommend removing the two Serpae Tetra (the store may take them back in exchange for more cories or neons?).
The pleco, if a common, should be removed now, for reasons DutchMuch mentioned; this species can get to 18 inches. If this is a Bristlenose Pleco, they remain 4-5 inches and can be fine.
Mollies must have moderately hard or harder water or they will slowly waste away. The other fish here are soft water species. So before you do anything with the above, we should know the water parameters of your source water. The GH, KH (Alkalinity) and pH, which you should be able to ascertain from your water authority's website, or calling them. This can be critical for some fish.
Edit. Remembered the additives and wanted to say a couple things. I mentioned the clarifier in the other thread, so I recommend not using these. The Tetra SafeStart is a bacterial supplement and a reliable one, so that's OK. Use it as directed until it is gone (once open it won't last long) but do not continue as it is not necessary once the tank is cycled and established.
Tetra Easy Balance is not something I recommend. First, it "claims" to avoid water changes for six months which is pure nonsense. Second, the "benefits" are spurious, and some of them downright harmful to fish. An aquarium is an artificial enclosure but it still uses natural processes for the most part, and fish will always be healthier if we let nature do the work rather than adding chemicals and concoctions; we must remember that every substance added to the tank water does get inside the fish, and none of these are "natural" by any stretch of the imagination. So avoiding additives as much as possible will always result in healthier fish because at the very least these substances will cause some degree of stress, and stress is the direct cause of 95% of fish disease because it weakens the immune system and affects the fish's physiology and metabolism.
That brings me to AquaSafePlus. I cannot find the ingredients, nor the Safety Data online. This always worries me, when manufacturers keep ingredients secret. So, using their "claims" for this product..."seaweed extracts...will help reduce aquarium pollution by strengthening the bacterial bed" -- how exactly? If the extracts are completely natural like seaweed, this may do no harm. But it is not necessary, as a natural biological system in any balanced aquarium will handle this alone. It also claims to add a protective slime coat, but no indication how. Some products use aloe vera and this is damaging to fish gills, so I tend to stay away from such claims. I use API Tap Water Conditioner which is adequate to deal with chlorine and chloramine, and detoxifies heavy metals. Unless your source water has ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in it to begin with, this is the only conditioning agent you need. And it is the most highly concentrated conditioner on the market so very, very little is used.
Byron.
Last edited:
Lorilab1962
New Member
I also have had cloudy water and at the time my Angels were laying eggs I never got a real response why my water was cloudy because I had just cleaned the tank and I also had an underground filter system. I got a lot of different advice so I switched to sand got rid of my Underground filter system so far so good. I also started getting these little white worms on the side of the tank right before I changed to sand I think the underground filter system pulls the uneaten food down in the gravel that's when you get the worms and I think after I had cleaned the gravel that's what made the water cloudy. I try not to keep too many fish in one tank it can cause high nitrate levels. I have a spring fed well so I don't have to really worried about taking out half the water putting it back in and adding a whole bunch of chemicals . I hope everyone's advice can help you out
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