Cloudy Water+finrot

[camjack]

Hi guys.

I have a 180L planted tank filtered by the standard jewul rio internal. Two weeks ago I changed the substrate from sand with pond soil underneath to small size black quartz on top of pond soil. This was quite a big job and the fish were in bags for a few hours and the filter switched off.

A few days after I noticed that my cardinals (I had a shoal of 10) had developed fin rot. They all have died one by one over the last week.

I have some 6 harlequin rasboras, 6 boesmani rainbows, 6 congo tetras and a pair of apistogramma hongsloi. The rest of my fish have had no signs of finrot but are sometimes gulping at the surface and are pumping their gills constantly. The water has also become cloudy over the last week.

I had my water tested at pets at home today and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0!! Anyone any ideas as to what is happening?

I have a couple of male boesmani waiting at the LFS that I want to swap a couple of females for and a pair of apisto aggassizi. Shall I wait to put them in the tank?

Thanks!!

 

[mattlee]

sounds to me that the cloudy water could be a bacterial bloom. is the tank cycled?

 

[camjack]

The tank has been set up for 6 months and was fully cycled. I thought I might have killed the filter bacteria but the tests show 0 ammonia! Could it be the same bacteria that caused the finrot?

 

[mattlee]

The tank has been set up for 6 months and was fully cycled. I thought I might have killed the filter bacteria but the tests show 0 ammonia! Could it be the same bacteria that caused the finrot?

what do your tests show for nitrite and nitrate?

 

[camjack]

Nitrite 0 nitrate 0 !!

 

[onebto]

0 Nitrate ?

 

[mattlee]

Nitrite 0 nitrate 0 !!

with 0 nitrate i would say that the tank isnt cycled anymore...... what are you using to test the water with? if the tank was cycled then i assume you know that nitrates are the end product of the cycle but without ammonia and nitrites you wont get the bacteria needed to give you your nitrates. in a cycled tank there will always be nitrates present, i even get a nitrate level of 10 from my tap water.......
if your using api liquid based testing method then make sure you shake the 2nd bottle madly for about a minute before adding it to the tube then shake the tube really well and wait 5/6 mins for result. if your using test strips then people on here say they are not accurate and a waste of time although i have never used them myself.

 

[camjack]

Could the nitrates be 0 due to the plants? - the tank is pretty heavily planted. If the tank was now not cycled the ammonia and nitrite would be higher wouldn't it? I have put some accu-clear in this evening and it seems to be clearing a bit!