Cloudy Water For 5 Weeks

[RENDOG]

here is my post where I go through the setup

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=266858"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=266858[/URL]

2 aquaclear 70's....one with foam, carbon, and a media bag of cylindrical porous rocks (bio max). The second one has 2 foam units and then the bag of bio max.

The flow is fast.

38/40gallon tank

Pool filter sand (rinsed many times)

Mexican river rocks that were washed

I used a little bit of Prime because i had rinsed the pool filter sand and rocks with tap water.

I use only RO water

It ran fishless for one day and then I had to dump my 9 fish in there.

I've tested many times and have not seen any Nitrates or Nitrites....and it's been cloudy for about 3 weeks (white cloud)

the tank is 36" wide but I have a coral life 65W freshwater light that is 24" long (from my previous 20 gallon setup)

I never added ammonia.

At one point I did a 50% water change because the ammonia was at 2

Heater is keeping a constant temp of 78.7-79.2 (coral life digital thermometer)

If I left anything out please ask and thanks for your help guys.

 

[Jazzzz]

try using tap water i don't know much but its a suggestion

 

[OldMan47]

I will echo what Jazzzz said. You need to stay away from Walmart and use some tap water in the tank. It is the same advice you got on your other thread and may well be causing your problems. If your ammonia goes near the 0.25 ppm color, do a 25% change using dechlorinated tap water. I specified 25% instead of the usual 50% plus because without minerals in the tank water, you don't want to mineralize the water too fast. Unless you have been using RO Right or a similar product, the fish are living on borrowed time with straight RO water. If you have only soft water low pH type fish, you might get away with using 25% tap and 75% RO but never straight RO.

 

[MHunt]

Yeah, are you adding anything to the RO water to remineralise it? If not you may have water that is too soft, and therefore probably with a really low pH that'll stop your filter bacteria from colonising. RO is only really suitable or necessary where you need very high water quality, need to soften hard tap water, or if you are going to add something to it like marine salt for marine tanks. In any case you must be spending a huge amount of money on buying RO in (unless you've bought an RO unit?) which for a simple tropical setup is unnecessary.

Could you post a complete water test result here, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH. Also if your test kit has it the water hardness stats (GH and KH I think?) to give us an idea of the water chemistry of your tank.

 

[RENDOG]

Interesting info on the no minerals in RO, someone else mentioned this in my other thread about maybe adding some from a packet that is intended for Discus.

I use the freshwater Master Kit by API

Ammonia is at 1ppm
The PH in the tank as of right now is 6.5 However, testing the RO straight from the bottle produces a result that looks less than 6 (really really light shade of yellow). This makes me lean toward the half and half idea of RO and tap.

I wanted to keep this as natural as possible but I just went to an aquarium shop and purchased a refrigerated packet of Bio Spira. I used the entire package as instructed and will keep you guys posted. I would like it to work (i don't think it can hurt) but I know there are different opinions about it. I was also recommended by a knowledgeable friend that works at Big Al's to try Superbac...but there is none available here is Jacksonville Florida.

Jacksonville tap water is hard.

 

[MHunt]

Probably wouldn't hurt to let it harden up a bit anyway. I would suggest at least 50% tap if not more. TBH all these extra potions apart from dechlor and proper meds are a waste of money. If well maintained a tank and filter should be able to produce everything they need. All they need is time.

Hope these suggestions are helping.

 

[RENDOG]

Yeah I didn't use any chemicals and five weeks into it the tank (or filter) has not cycled at all. I had a neon tetra die today, one of my Vietnamese minnows is sick and one just jumped out of the tank and committed suicide. All these fish have been with me for over a year and made a 5 hour trip when I moved in a bait bucket with an air pump.

I didn't put any old filter media from the previous tank because I had the nastiest case of hair algae and didn't want to take a chance that it would transfer over.

Water is still cloudy....from what??? Ammonia?? Bacterial bloom?

Whether I added fish or not why is my tank not cycling when there has been ammonia present during the past five weeks?

Where does the good bacteria come from? If it forms naturally when ammonia is present then why is it taking so long?

The only reason i'm upset is because i'm killing my fish and I know it is ultimately my fault.

 

[MHunt]

Yeah I didn't use any chemicals and five weeks into it the tank (or filter) has not cycled at all. I had a neon tetra die today, one of my Vietnamese minnows is sick and one just jumped out of the tank and committed suicide. All these fish have been with me for over a year and made a 5 hour trip when I moved in a bait bucket with an air pump.

I didn't put any old filter media from the previous tank because I had the nastiest case of hair algae and didn't want to take a chance that it would transfer over.

Water is still cloudy....from what??? Ammonia?? Bacterial bloom?

Whether I added fish or not why is my tank not cycling when there has been ammonia present during the past five weeks?

Where does the good bacteria come from? If it forms naturally when ammonia is present then why is it taking so long?

The only reason i'm upset is because i'm killing my fish and I know it is ultimately my fault.

Unfortunately hair algae is caused by an inbalance of nutrients in the system, (but thats a whole different thread) and as far as i'm aware isn't transferred with your filter media.

The cloudiness could be bacterial. How does the tank smell?

 

[RENDOG]

normal smell....I saw someone use the term "earthy". It does have a protein film at the top that I breakdown with an airstone. The pool filter sand shouldn't be causing this correct? I've used play sand in the past with no problems and people were saying that pool sand is even better.

 

[MHunt]

normal smell....I saw someone use the term "earthy". It does have a protein film at the top that I breakdown with an airstone. The pool filter sand shouldn't be causing this correct? I've used play sand in the past with no problems and people were saying that pool sand is even better.

Was the sand well washed before you started. The cloudiness could simply be dust. Have you got any polyester pads in your HOB filter?

 

[RENDOG]

yes MHunt, it's not the pool filter sand now that I think of it. I've washed play sand and that takes forever and never had a problem with it. The pool filter sand was so much easier and when I filled the tank (sand first then water) the tank was crystal clear. 3 days later it got cloudy and I said oh maybe it's bacteria. 4 days after that I purchased some polishing pads and left them for like 3 days and it was still cloudy. I realized then that it wasn't particles in the water. Now it's five weeks and still cloudy with Ammonia and no Nitrites or Nitrates.

I researched my mexican river rocks and they are fine....ADG (aquarium design group) uses them and so do other enthusiasts.

 

[MHunt]

Could you put the fish into something else and do a 100% water change?

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Rendog,

Regarding the cloudiness, have you read the pinned article on bacterial bloooms? That may help you.

There is a link to it in my sig below.

BTT

 

[saz326]

You have the polyester pads already, so maybe you could try this:

You can get a "flocculent" for aquarium use, which binds tiny particles together (should imagine it would bind bacteria too) and makes the particles larger so they can be filtered out. This could help the water to clear.

something like this:

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...cfm?pcatid=4113

I havent used this one before though. Cant find an example of the one i use. sorry.

 

[RENDOG]

Ok so I added Bio-Spira and started refilling the tank with Tap water treated with Prime (water conditioner) as the water evaporated. I was out of town on business and just arrived 3 days later and the tanks looks a little less cloudy.

Good news....it started cycling. I have Nitrite and Nitrate present (first time I test and find them after 5 1/2 weeks of the tank being setup).

Thank you all for the advice you have provided. Moving forward, I will use a mixture of tap and RO water instead of just the RO water.

I hope this thread helps people having a similar experience with cycling as I had.