Cloudy Water

[devilmen]

hi, i have a aquaone 620t 95 litre tank. had it set up for over 13 months no prob then i have a sort of cloudy smoke in the tank that i cant get rid of . i hve about 15 fish in the tank mainly neons, teras and a couple of plecs, i was chainging the about 10 % of the water every week , i feed them once a day , messed up big style thought it was the filter (its a drip one with ceramic noodles) because it looked so dirty i cleaned out totaly and took 50% of water out . it was clear for 4 or 5 days but the cloudness came back ,luckly only a couple of fish died. (the cloudiness started before i cleaned the tank) . i went to my local shop and he advised i use ntrafin cycle and nutrafin b clear and not feed my fish for 4 days then every other for 10 days . the cloudiness still exists . can the ceramic noodles not degrade and leave the film in the water ? . i was going to do a complete set up again and give my fish to my friend , thanks for any advice .

 

[Davo86]

Did you touch the filter at all before the cloudy water occurred?

Also you should never 100% clean your filter, did you do this in tank water or fresh water? if it was fresh water then the chlorine in the water will have killed off all of your good bacteria. I never clean out more than one third of the filter material at one time and you should always clean it in a bucket of tank water, this will remove much of the waste but keep the bacteria

Do you know the parameters of the tank? It is likely that your parameters have rose since you cleaned the filter and this has caused your fish deaths, if you stick to around 20% water changes per week then everything should eventually level itself out.

 

[devilmen]

took a sample of water with tetra test strip everthing is within the norm but i have only done this today and the tank has been stood for aweek since i added cycle etc . . my tank measurements are front accross 24 " side 14" and depth 24". i have recounted fish and there is about 22 fish none bigger than one and a half inch. i will try what you say and change 20% of the water weekly till it clears then shall i revert back to 10% every 2 weeks or leave it longer , by the way i have mostly fake plants but one living . thank you for your help ..

 

[st24rsap]

what are the tank levels, ph nitrite nitrate & ammonia?

the question of if the filter was cleaned in old tank water or tap water is a very important one that really needs answering, if it was tap water chances are you have killed all the good bacteria and the tank is probably no longer cycled

also id personally not use test strips, get a descent liquid test kit for checking levels

 

[devilmen]

what are the tank levels, ph nitrite nitrate & ammonia?

the question of if the filter was cleaned in old tank water or tap water is a very important one that really needs answering, if it was tap water chances are you have killed all the good bacteria and the tank is probably no longer cycled

also id personally not use test strips, get a descent liquid test kit for checking levels

yes i was cleaning filters under tap water not old tank water , i now know this was wrong but it was ok for about 14 months then went cloudy . i will get a proper test kit ( i didnt clean the ceramic noodles at all at this time, so thought it would be ok) thanks

 

[st24rsap]

the test kit is the best thing you can spend your money on when keeping fish. keep doing the checks and water changes as youl probably have to re-cycle the tank.

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