Cloudy Water
- Thread starter sycko
- Start date
Puffdaddy
Fishaholic
What color is your water: green, gray, or yellowish/brown. I have a feeling its green right if so you have an algae bloom (no an algae eater won't get rid of it). Algae blooms are common in newer set-ups. There are few different ways of curing this.
The easiest way is to just buy a solution in your lfs (local fish store) that resolves "green water" (algae bloom). This usually takes a few hours up to 24, for a good product. Or if you don't want to add the chemical (even though safe for fish) you could turn off the lights in the tank and cover it with a blanket for a couple days and see if that works (worked for me once years ago). After the the algae bloom is go they don't typically come back as long as your lighting is correct (very little direct sun light).
The easiest way is to just buy a solution in your lfs (local fish store) that resolves "green water" (algae bloom). This usually takes a few hours up to 24, for a good product. Or if you don't want to add the chemical (even though safe for fish) you could turn off the lights in the tank and cover it with a blanket for a couple days and see if that works (worked for me once years ago). After the the algae bloom is go they don't typically come back as long as your lighting is correct (very little direct sun light).
Puffdaddy
Fishaholic
O.K. first don't add anything to the water (disregard first post)
I need to ask some Q's then, and your tank size, fish, water readings and length of set-up would help.
1] did the cloudiness first appear after the 40% water change?
2] did you ad any substrate/decor with the water change?
3] Is your tank very new/ or just finishing a nitrogen cycle?
4] what did you add with the water change [buffers, meds, additives, etc. (list all)]?
It's going to be hard to determine the cause without these answers. It could be a number of things, which would require
different solutions.
Possible cause could be: overfeeding, overstocking, insufficient water changes, water change kicking up debris, bacterial bloom,
water additives, over cleaning fiters, etc.
Until you figure out the cause so you know how to properly solve it I highly recommend feeding fish less (no more than they can eat in a couple minutes) and change your carbon. Changing your carbon will most likly solve the problem with time.
I need to ask some Q's then, and your tank size, fish, water readings and length of set-up would help.
1] did the cloudiness first appear after the 40% water change?
2] did you ad any substrate/decor with the water change?
3] Is your tank very new/ or just finishing a nitrogen cycle?
4] what did you add with the water change [buffers, meds, additives, etc. (list all)]?
It's going to be hard to determine the cause without these answers. It could be a number of things, which would require
different solutions.
Possible cause could be: overfeeding, overstocking, insufficient water changes, water change kicking up debris, bacterial bloom,
water additives, over cleaning fiters, etc.
Until you figure out the cause so you know how to properly solve it I highly recommend feeding fish less (no more than they can eat in a couple minutes) and change your carbon. Changing your carbon will most likly solve the problem with time.
right ok here goes!! i first got the tank as a wedding gift from my brother with all the trimmings(heater,filter,rocks,plants ect ect) it was a fluval 127 litre 27.5 galllon tank i also got some Nutrafin aqua and cycle liquids with the tank which i was told was crap also had a tetra testing kit that didnt have a ammonia tester!! so anywayz just b4 i jetted off on my honey moon i filled the tank put in the right amount of cycle and aqua as per instructions and went away!! i came back and everything was fine apart from i had loads of snails! i orderd a API liquid testing kit and some prime water conditioner that i was recomended online and went to the place were the tank was from with a water sample and this dude told me my water was cycled and what i needed in terms of fish to eat the snails and to clean gravel and algea and pretty fish n plants! i went home with 5 neon tetras,5 rummy nose tetras,4 pepperd corys,2 plecs and 2 clown loaches and a red fighter, next day i wake and my fighter is dead so i go to shop and a dude tells me it was just stress so i went online and did some research and i was amazed at the responses people gave me at how bad the advise i had received was! so day after that i noticed the fish i has were a little in-active so did a water change and a test with the tetra test kit which tells me my nitrite was around 0.25 and nitrate was around 50! next day i wake and a clown loach was dead i was gutted and people were telling me online i wasnt cycled properly! anyway my test kit and prime came so i did a 40% water change and conditioned with prime and left them be! next day i did a test with new kit and ammonia was 0.25 nitrite was 0.25 and nitrate was 50 and ph was around 8 and i had a dead cory so now i was very concerned and for the next 4 days did 15-20% water changes conditioning with small amounts of prime and not feeding much! then all fish seemed realy active and going about there buisness and my tests were coming a back ammonia 0,nitrite 0,nitrate,10-20 and ph 7.8so im like wipee im cycled! next day i go to work come home and my new wife who i sent to a different fish shop for some pellets for the catfish and plecs has gone and bought a new bunch of fishas a suprise (how sweet) not that im not gratefull but id only just got the 1st bunch and water under controll! so anywayz the next day the water was a bit cloudy so i did tests that came back ammonia 0,nitrite 0.25,nitrate 10,ph 7.8 so i did a 40% water change imedietly thinking tha nitrite was higher because of the new fish!! also conditioned the water with prime and added some Nutrafin aqua for new fish and had to go out for the afternoon!!
i came back around tea time and did some more tests that came back ammonia 0,nitrite 0, nitrate 10 and ph 7.6 (ph had droped because i had removed some rocks from the tank) but the water is still cloudy even after the water change!
some peeps have said it could just be a bacterial bloom but i want to make sure.
sorry the post is soooo long but thought id give you all the details so you could help or educate me better!!
thanx
jon
i came back around tea time and did some more tests that came back ammonia 0,nitrite 0, nitrate 10 and ph 7.6 (ph had droped because i had removed some rocks from the tank) but the water is still cloudy even after the water change!
some peeps have said it could just be a bacterial bloom but i want to make sure.
sorry the post is soooo long but thought id give you all the details so you could help or educate me better!!
thanx
jon
Oh! i forgot to mension the fish i now have!
5 neon tetras
5 glowlight tetras
5 rummy nose tetras
4 platy 2 orange/2 red
2 neon rainbows
4 pepper cory
2 common plecs
1 clown loach
a freind of mine has a huge tank and also my brother has a big tank too! im also looking to get a bigger tank in 6 months time so any issues of the clown loach or plecs becoming too big for my tank are under controll
5 neon tetras
5 glowlight tetras
5 rummy nose tetras
4 platy 2 orange/2 red
2 neon rainbows
4 pepper cory
2 common plecs
1 clown loach
a freind of mine has a huge tank and also my brother has a big tank too! im also looking to get a bigger tank in 6 months time so any issues of the clown loach or plecs becoming too big for my tank are under controll
Puffdaddy
Fishaholic
Yes you have a bacterial bloom. Do to the sudden increase of the bio-load (new fish, food), your ammonia and nitrite levels spiked. So, your nitrifying bacteria bloomed in your tank to counter balance the sudden laod.
This is not worry about, at your stage the bad stuff has already happened. All you have to do is not add anymore fish (for now)
and do not over feed, the bloom will clear its self out once your tank stabilizes.
This is not worry about, at your stage the bad stuff has already happened. All you have to do is not add anymore fish (for now)
and do not over feed, the bloom will clear its self out once your tank stabilizes.
smmetz
Fishaholic
It sounds like you handled the situation about as well as you could once you realized what the problem was. (with the amonia I mean) Normally when fish are used for cycling, only a few are added, and only hardy species. However, I know I made similar mistakes when I got back into fish keeping a couple years ago! Anyway, like I said, the regular water changes really helped keep the death toll down. It's all you could have done short of returning half the fish.
Your tank is about fully stocked now, so I would not advise getting any more fish. The common plecs will grow fast if properly fed (they need vegetables and algae pellets, they can't survive well just cleaning algae from your tank) They will probably be the first to outgrow your current tank, and easily get over 1 foot long. The clown loach maxes out at 8-12 inches in a aquarium I think, but it is slower growing than the plecos.
I got a common pleco about a year ago which was 3.5 inches long, and it is now 8.5 inches long. (and still growing) I am now looking into getting a 6 foot tank for him, as my 55 gallon is not going to be very ideal for him much longer. ( when I got him for my 29 gallon, I didn't know any better either )
When you turn out the fish tank lights and look through the tank - if it looks green you have algae in the water also. This is caused by having the light on too long, overfeeding the fish, and some other factors. It is best to buy a $5 timer for the tank light, and keep it on for only 8-10 hours per day. Many people recomment having it shut off for a couple hours in the middle of that 8-10 hour period also. If you feed your fish more than once per day, you may consider reducing it to once per day if your cloudy water continues.
Best of luck with your tank!
Your tank is about fully stocked now, so I would not advise getting any more fish. The common plecs will grow fast if properly fed (they need vegetables and algae pellets, they can't survive well just cleaning algae from your tank) They will probably be the first to outgrow your current tank, and easily get over 1 foot long. The clown loach maxes out at 8-12 inches in a aquarium I think, but it is slower growing than the plecos.
I got a common pleco about a year ago which was 3.5 inches long, and it is now 8.5 inches long. (and still growing) I am now looking into getting a 6 foot tank for him, as my 55 gallon is not going to be very ideal for him much longer. ( when I got him for my 29 gallon, I didn't know any better either )
When you turn out the fish tank lights and look through the tank - if it looks green you have algae in the water also. This is caused by having the light on too long, overfeeding the fish, and some other factors. It is best to buy a $5 timer for the tank light, and keep it on for only 8-10 hours per day. Many people recomment having it shut off for a couple hours in the middle of that 8-10 hour period also. If you feed your fish more than once per day, you may consider reducing it to once per day if your cloudy water continues.
Best of luck with your tank!
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