Cloudy Water!

[fergiesek]

We can hardly see our fishes for cloudy water! Help!

All of a sudden one day last week the tank was cloudy, kind of greeney? Fish are not minding it at all but we would like to see them!;-)

Did a water change and cleaned filter yesterday but no change of note.

I started putting 3 algae wafers in every day last week as one of my mollies and a serpa tetra seemed to absolutely love them ( been putting them in for my otocinclus but he ignores them completely!) I wonder if thats what caused it as they don't finish eating them and there's maybe 'bit's' still in the tank? Have stopped putting them in now.

Trying to think of anything relevant to help diagnosis:

The lights are on 6am - 8am and 3pm - 11:30pm

Put carbon back in filter the previous weekend ( had been out as had been putting melafix/pimafix in for 7 days)

Water stats:
PH - 7.2 -7.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate - 10

We don't want to use chemicals like 'Green Away' if at all possible, so apart from trying a few water changes close together can anyone suggest anything to help us get clear water again?

And diagnose how it may have happened so we can prevent it from happening again if we can ever fix it!?

MANY THANKS

 

[rocknurworld2006]

cloudy water can be a bacterial bloom when did you take these water stats???

 

[fergiesek]

cloudy water can be a bacterial bloom when did you take these water stats???

Thanks for the reply. Took stats yesterday after the water change?

 

[rocknurworld2006]

could you do all stats now and post them so we can rule a couple of things out??

 

[fergiesek]

could you do all stats now and post them so we can rule a couple of things out??

Hiya,

Just did stats again and all same as before tho PH may be a little higher:

PH - between 7.4 & 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitite - 0
Nitrate - 10

Thanks for your help. Much appreciated.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

its difficult to say what it was could be a bacterial bloom that settled. is there anything wrong with any of your fish??

 

[fergiesek]

its difficult to say what it was could be a bacterial bloom that settled. is there anything wrong with any of your fish??

No, they're all happy and healthy.

We've got quite a lot of snails over the last couple of weeks. Been taking them out when we see them. Just thought I'd mention.

Thanks

 

[rocknurworld2006]

its difficult to say what it was could be a bacterial bloom that settled. is there anything wrong with any of your fish??

No, they're all happy and healthy.

We've got quite a lot of snails over the last couple of weeks. Been taking them out when we see them. Just thought I'd mention.

Thanks

this could be down to over feeding your fish.

how often and how much do you feed them??

 

[fergiesek]

its difficult to say what it was could be a bacterial bloom that settled. is there anything wrong with any of your fish??

No, they're all happy and healthy.

We've got quite a lot of snails over the last couple of weeks. Been taking them out when we see them. Just thought I'd mention.

Thanks

this could be down to over feeding your fish.

how often and how much do you feed them??

Do you mean the snails may be down to overfeeding? ( first got snails in on a couple of plants we added couple months back and we'll maybe have a couple a week appearing but last 2 weeks we've been inundated so I guess they're breeding and blomin thriving! Don't like using chemicals like I said so just scooping them out!!!)

We feed twice a day.

Flake food in the morning and same in the evening, trying to follow the '3 min rule'. The food that floats down to the bottom is eaten up by our 2 bottom feeders (cory cats) and the others 'mooch' about the bottom after feeding and seem to eat up the dropped stuff too.

As mentioned already, I had been feeding 2 algae wafers each night and had increased to 3. Stopped them since last Fri.

Also feed a brine shimp sachet every 3 days on average - in addition to the flakes at evening feed ( says in addition to normal feed 'as a treat' on the packet)

Usually some cucumber or lettuce in a clip on the side for the algae eater ( and the gouramis love it too)

Apart from that peas maybe once a week. After boiling and de shelling and just about 4- 6 at most.

Thanks again

 

[fergiesek]

Hi,

Can anyone please help with this cloudy water situation. Its not clearing at all and apart fromm water changes we can't think what else we could do?

MANY THANKS

 

[tetra head]

what colour is the water now ? if its green then it might possibly be an algae bloom.

 

[tetra head]

i found when my tank went a deep green in colour my only last resort was to do a 40 to 50% water change, (i dont like to use chemicals in the tank if i can help it) then use an anti algae treatment which i must say really does work. just remember to read the dosage correctly.

 

[seangee11 4]

i found when my tank went a deep green in colour my only last resort was to do a 40 to 50% water change, (i dont like to use chemicals in the tank if i can help it) then use an anti algae treatment which i must say really does work. just remember to read the dosage correctly.

I had an annoying algae bloom last week and was getting frustrated because regular water changes were helping but not clearing it. In the end I got some JBL Symec Micro to put into my external filter. This cleared it in about 3 hours and after 24 hours the result was stunning. The wool was filthy when I took it out (you have to because its so fine it will get clogged and affect water flow very quickly). I have heard that it works better for heavy blooms if you use a flocculant - that is not a chemical treatment, it just makes the algae stick together so the filter catches it faster.

I haven't had a problem since

 

[fergiesek]

Thanks tetra head and seangee, your help is much appreciated.

The water is green so looks like you're both spot on. I'm guessing its maybe down to the extra algae wafers I was putting in as no direct sunlight hits the tank BUT I have had the lights on longer than normal last few weeks, as I'm off work just now. Maybe I'm eeping teh lights on for too long ( in total 12 hours a day)?

Seangee - I'll try the flocculant like you suggest. A colleague gave me Interpet Green away, which seems to be a flocculant so will try that tonight. Fingers crossed!

We've got an Aqua One Aquis 1000 external filter which has media baskets, the top one being wool.
I looked up JBL Symec Micro on the internet and it seems to be wool just like in my external filters top basket.

Do you think the flocculant will make the algae gather in that and I can just replace the wool in my filter if it does?

I'll try the flocculant now, do a gravel clean and water change tomorrow and check to see if any algae has gathered on the wool (won't be able to get replacement wool till Thur.)

Thanks again for your help
Fergie
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