Cloudy Water 8 Fish Died!

[RDOTC]

Hi I'm new to this forum I'm hoping someone can help me. I diagnosed one of my fish having fin rot (kissing gournami) and I bought some medicine and took out the carbon and treated the the tank I also added more filter media/swapped it with the carbon. A couple days later my water started to get a little cloudy so I did a water change. The day later the water was even more cloudier, then the day after 8 of my fish have died . 2 angels 4 gold barbs and 2 rams. Will the rest of my fish be ok? And can someone tell me what the problem is? I took the water to the pet shop today and they said it was fine and he was unsure why this happened I can attach pics if needed?

 

[rpgmomma8404]

Does the pet shop use the paper test strips? Those from what I understand are unreliable. I would get a liquid test kit or find a pet store that uses the liquid test kit. 

 

[RDOTC]

Does the pet shop use the paper test strips? Those from what I understand are unreliable. I would get a liquid test kit or find a pet store that uses the liquid test kit.

No they used the liquid tests (pets at home). He was pretty stumped tbh =\

 

[Ch4rlie]

Is your tank cycled?
 
Possibly this could be a bacterial bloom?
 
Could you give a bit more details, tank size, when you got it and how long has it been running for and how long you fish stock has been in your tank, was there any symptoms from your fish before they passed? gasping at surface of water? swimming erratically? red gills? etc 
 
If your tank is cycled, how did you cycle the tank?
 
These may help determine whats going on.
 
Unlikely fin rot would kill your fish, or even the meds would kill them either, but may be wrong here. What meds did you treat tank with?
 
BTW, DO get a liquid test kit, extremely useful and basically a must for most keepers. API ones are fine, about £20 to £30 depending where you buy it from, online on eBay or Amazon is cheapest.

 

[Meeresstille]

What colour was the cloudiness?
Usually white cloudiness is a bacterial bloom, green cloudiness is algae.
 
When there is a bacterial bloom, the bacteria (which is not the beneficial kind) they use up oxygen in the tank, so you need to keep an eye on aeration and not letting it get too cloudy!

 

[mark4785]

It sounds like you are describing an algae bloom. Cloudy water is often a precursor to green water algae. If you found that your fish died during lights out, I would speculate that an algae bloom consumed the remaining oxygen in your water to propagate itself. Algae is only useful during periods of the day when photosynthesis takes place (when the algae takes up co2 and nutrients out of the water) but is deadly when, during lights out, it uses up oxygen to the point that it could leave none left for the fish to use AND cause big PH changes which can also kill depending on the degree of the PH change.
 
Are any of your remaining fish gasping for air,  do they have an increased gill movement or do they have mucosa around the gills?

 

[RDOTC]

Is your tank cycled?
 
Possibly this could be a bacterial bloom?
 
Could you give a bit more details, tank size, when you got it and how long has it been running for and how long you fish stock has been in your tank, was there any symptoms from your fish before they passed? gasping at surface of water? swimming erratically? red gills? etc 
 
If your tank is cycled, how did you cycle the tank?
 
These may help determine whats going on.
 
Unlikely fin rot would kill your fish, or even the meds would kill them either, but may be wrong here. What meds did you treat tank with?
 
BTW, DO get a liquid test kit, extremely useful and basically a must for most keepers. API ones are fine, about £20 to £30 depending where you buy it from, online on eBay or Amazon is cheapest.

Hi yes my tank was cycled its been running for roughly seven months, its a 35 gallon tank and iv'e had the fish about the same time maybe about 6 months. They were coming to the top to get air yesterday night when it was cloudy, I have a bubbler but i normally turn it off at night do you recommend it to be on at all times? The medicine i used is interpet anti fungus and finrot.

What colour was the cloudiness?
Usually white cloudiness is a bacterial bloom, green cloudiness is algae.
 
When there is a bacterial bloom, the bacteria (which is not the beneficial kind) they use up oxygen in the tank, so you need to keep an eye on aeration and not letting it get too cloudy!

Hi this is a pic of how it was in the morning, how do i prevent the cloudiness/fix it now?

Thanks for the reply

It sounds like you are describing an algae bloom. Cloudy water is often a precursor to green water algae. If you found that your fish died during lights out, I would speculate that an algae bloom consumed the remaining oxygen in your water to propagate itself. Algae is only useful during periods of the day when photosynthesis takes place (when the algae takes up co2 and nutrients out of the water) but is deadly when, during lights out, it uses up oxygen to the point that it could leave none left for the fish to use AND cause big PH changes which can also kill depending on the degree of the PH change.
 
Are any of your remaining fish gasping for air,  do they have an increased gill movement or do they have mucosa around the gills?

It doesn't look like there gasping for air at the moment, what should i do now keep the bubbler on? Can you check out this pic for me please would you say this is finrot?

 

[mark4785]

 

Is your tank cycled?
 
Possibly this could be a bacterial bloom?
 
Could you give a bit more details, tank size, when you got it and how long has it been running for and how long you fish stock has been in your tank, was there any symptoms from your fish before they passed? gasping at surface of water? swimming erratically? red gills? etc 
 
If your tank is cycled, how did you cycle the tank?
 
These may help determine whats going on.
 
Unlikely fin rot would kill your fish, or even the meds would kill them either, but may be wrong here. What meds did you treat tank with?
 
BTW, DO get a liquid test kit, extremely useful and basically a must for most keepers. API ones are fine, about £20 to £30 depending where you buy it from, online on eBay or Amazon is cheapest.

Hi yes my tank was cycled its been running for roughly seven months, its a 35 gallon tank and iv'e had the fish about the same time maybe about 6 months. They were coming to the top to get air yesterday night when it was cloudy, I have a bubbler but i normally turn it off at night do you recommend it to be on at all times? The medicine i used is interpet anti fungus and finrot.

What colour was the cloudiness?
Usually white cloudiness is a bacterial bloom, green cloudiness is algae.
 
When there is a bacterial bloom, the bacteria (which is not the beneficial kind) they use up oxygen in the tank, so you need to keep an eye on aeration and not letting it get too cloudy!

Hi this is a pic of how it was in the morning, how do i prevent the cloudiness/fix it now?

Thanks for the reply

It sounds like you are describing an algae bloom. Cloudy water is often a precursor to green water algae. If you found that your fish died during lights out, I would speculate that an algae bloom consumed the remaining oxygen in your water to propagate itself. Algae is only useful during periods of the day when photosynthesis takes place (when the algae takes up co2 and nutrients out of the water) but is deadly when, during lights out, it uses up oxygen to the point that it could leave none left for the fish to use AND cause big PH changes which can also kill depending on the degree of the PH change.
 
Are any of your remaining fish gasping for air,  do they have an increased gill movement or do they have mucosa around the gills?

It doesn't look like there gasping for air at the moment, what should i do now keep the bubbler on? Can you check out this pic for me please would you say this is finrot?
 

 
Which particular fin do you think has the fin rot?
 
The signs of fin rot are redness on the outer edges of the fin; the fin progressively erodes and so the redness appears to move in the direction of the erosion.
 
A fish will usually go off food immediately in cases of bacterial/fungal issues that cause fin rot due to the osmotic shock on the fin/skin/face and death obviously then follows.
 
The fish in the right hand side picture has some of it's fins clamped so I cannot assess all of it's fins. The fins that I can see look healthy.

 

[Meeresstille]

Bacterial cloudiness goes away on its own in a few days time, if it causes distress in your fish I'd do a water change.
 
If the cloudiness is caused by algae you need to figure out the cause. Are the lights on too long, does the tank get direct sunlight, are you perhaps over feeding the fish. In cases where the algae is really bad people are usually advised to do a total black-out for at least 3 days. This will kill the algae, the fish will be fine, but if you have live plants in there you want to remove those since they would die too.

 

[mark4785]

Bacterial cloudiness goes away on its own in a few days time, if it causes distress in your fish I'd do a water change.
 
If the cloudiness is caused by algae you need to figure out the cause. Are the lights on too long, does the tank get direct sunlight, are you perhaps over feeding the fish. In cases where the algae is really bad people are usually advised to do a total black-out for at least 3 days. This will kill the algae, the fish will be fine, but if you have live plants in there you want to remove those since they would die too.

 
The plants would go dormant during a black out. They would not die at all. They would have to be in complete darkness for around 2 weeks for them to start to die in my view.

 

[Meeresstille]

 

Bacterial cloudiness goes away on its own in a few days time, if it causes distress in your fish I'd do a water change.
 
If the cloudiness is caused by algae you need to figure out the cause. Are the lights on too long, does the tank get direct sunlight, are you perhaps over feeding the fish. In cases where the algae is really bad people are usually advised to do a total black-out for at least 3 days. This will kill the algae, the fish will be fine, but if you have live plants in there you want to remove those since they would die too.

 
The plants would go dormant during a black out. They would not die at all. They would have to be in complete darkness for around 2 weeks for them to start to die in my view.
 

I`ve never done a total black out of my tanks, so I can`t comment from experience on how long it would take to kill of a plant. I recommended to do at least a 3 day black-out! Researching online I`ve read to remove the plants if doing a total black out since the plants would feel the effects as well and some may even need to be replaced afterwards.

 

[dazbud]

I can confirm that the cloudiness is definitely a result of the Interpet Fungus and Finrot. I keep a historic spreadsheet of all events in my tank. I have just dosed Interpet Fungus and Finrot and 2 days later the tank is in mini cycle. When I checked my records, the same thing happened last time I used this med. To be more precise, one day after using the med, PH dropped to around 6. Within 24 hours, an ammonia reading of 0.25ppm. Likewise for Nitrite over the next 24hours, then a white bloom after 2 days.

I've not lost fish through the use of the med, but it does appear to knock the filter sideways. On the plus side, it doesn't stain and the bloom clears on by about day 4.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Extremely interesting.

Good of you to keep a record and check what's going on.

Will certainly remember these 2 Interpret products, even if it's just to warn others of the possible side effects of these.

 

[CrimsonBoli]

Just FYI, there is another member with another thread with the exact same problem.
This has been linked in that thread so here it is in here:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/419655-bio-damage-cloudy-water/
 
Maybe we should Pin a warning somewhere about this product?

 

[dazbud]

Thanks Ch4rlie. I keep spreadsheets for everything. I'm actually 5 days after use of the med now and ammonia readings still not right. Just for readers though, I have to say that the med does appear to clear up fungus and finrot. This being the second time I have experienced a filter crash after using it, I am considering only using it in a hospital tank in future.