Cloudy Fish Tank Water

[Mtvrdik10]

Hey guys this is my first post at this forum site, so I appreciate anyone that reads and/or helps me with this little issue at hand. I've had this fish tank set up for a number of years and at times it has gotten cloudy. Usually after a water change with some of the debris floating around, which is normal. Nothing that would bother me. But the last couple of weeks it seems that there's been much more cloudiness then normal. I've tried a couple different medicines to clear the cloudy water, and no such luck. May have even hurt the cause actually. I have two 70 gallon bio-wheel filters on the tank also, so thats not the problem. I read somewhere it could be due to over feeding, which also cannot be the problem, because I only feed them once a day. I have two tiger oscars (2-3 inches), two electric blue jack dempseys (1 1/2- 2 inches), 1 pleco (2 inches), 1 blue lobster (2 inches), and one large regular Jack Dempsey (8 inches). I've had these kind of fish my entire life, and people say it may be the fishes that are causing the cloudiness, citing that oscars are very dirty fish. However, like I said i've had these kind of fish all along, and the water never got this cloudy. So i've tried medicines, water changes, i'm not overfeeding them. I'm at a loss right now. Does anyone have any tips or any ideas of what it may be?? Thank you for any help. -Mike

 

[Davo86]

hi Mike
do you add dechlorinator when you do a waterchange?
Also have you recently touched the filter at all?

do you have any water stats?

 

[Mtvrdik10]

Thank you for the response. I do add that every water change. It's a product by the anme of AquaSafe. I add 3 full cap fulls every water change which is approx for 60 gallons, and I have a 55 gallon tank, so I'd imagine that'd equal out. I've always done it that way and have not run into any problems thus far. And last week I did replace the carbon filters just in case maybe that was causing the problem. I'm pretty sure it isn't but at this point i've been trying any little thing that I'm thinking may be contributing to the problem. The only water stat I've ever kept track of is my ph which is 7.1. I've never had any problems before so I never bothered to keep track of Ammonia or Nitrite or Nitrate. Should I be? Could one of those levels be altered somehow? And if so, why would it wait a few years to all the sudden go haywire?

 

[stang1]

It's always worth keeping an eye on readings such as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as these are the ones that cause the biggest problems.
Cloudy water is usually a sign of a bacterial bloom and can be caused by ammonia in the water.

 

[Davo86]

Thank you for the response. I do add that every water change. It's a product by the anme of AquaSafe. I add 3 full cap fulls every water change which is approx for 60 gallons, and I have a 55 gallon tank, so I'd imagine that'd equal out. I've always done it that way and have not run into any problems thus far. And last week I did replace the carbon filters just in case maybe that was causing the problem. I'm pretty sure it isn't but at this point i've been trying any little thing that I'm thinking may be contributing to the problem. The only water stat I've ever kept track of is my ph which is 7.1. I've never had any problems before so I never bothered to keep track of Ammonia or Nitrite or Nitrate. Should I be? Could one of those levels be altered somehow? And if so, why would it wait a few years to all the sudden go haywire?

cloudy water usually indicates a loss of bacteria,

In the main this is usually caused when tap water (containing chlorine) comes into contact with the bacteria, Or, too much filter media is replaced at one time.

you will find that ph is the least important out of the four tests, with cloudy water you will most likely find that you will be registering a level for ammonia and/or nitrite which needless to say isn't good.

 

[Mtvrdik10]

Wow, I never realized ammonia was that important. I'm assuming I can buy something to fix this ammonia issue at a local pet store or something correct? Or at least a test to see what my ammonia level is at?

 

[stang1]

You would be best buying a liquid test kit as they give more reliable readings.
If you have got ammonia present, daily water changes should help bring the levels down.

 

[Mtvrdik10]

Well cool, thank you. I'll probably go out and buy that today then, and come back here with the readings and get your guys scoop again. It's just weird though that why would this all of the sudden come out of nowhere?

 

[stang1]

If you can post your water stats, then it will give us a better idea of what action to take next.
Poor water quality can be caused by different things including leftover food, overstocking, poor maintenance etc.

 

[Davo86]

Well cool, thank you. I'll probably go out and buy that today then, and come back here with the readings and get your guys scoop again. It's just weird though that why would this all of the sudden come out of nowhere?

just a thought but take a sample of water to your LFS and ask them if they can test it for you, Most will do a full set of tests for you, then you can get them to write down the results for you,

fish waste is what produces ammonia, usually this is controlled by the filter bacteria, but atm it seems that for whatever reason the filter can't cope with the amount of ammonia being produced

 

[Mtvrdik10]

I may wait just one more day before going to bring that in, but yea i've seen people do that before, and I even actually did it a LONG time ago when i first started getting into fish, and never brought any other water samples in again. And as long as i've liked fish I feel a little dumb that I never had anything else tested besides my PH lol.