Cloudy Water...

[BPH]

I'm not new to the hobby but after scanning the forum it's clear I am a 'newbie' heh heh

I'm confident I'm looking after my fish correctly, I've been looking after them for around 5 years...

...however...

recently my water is becoming cloudy despite a regular weekly 8%-10% water change. My filter also gets a weekly rinse out as the water flow almost stops.

Any idea why? Or how to remedy this?

Incidentally I am also getting 'algae' on the glass which I am currently cleaning off with a magnetic wiper.

Is this related?

All I have changed in the last 12 months is replace the gravel floor with sand, could this be the reason? It was around 12 months ago and my cloudy water/glass algae problem is very recent (1-2 months)

Any advice is gratefully received!

 

[jonnyf84]

I think your problem lies with filtration. Your tank could be overstocked. To have to clean your filter weekly then it must be over run, get a bigger one or reduce the bio load, just don't replace old with new though, run both for at least 3 weeks. Also up water changes, try 30-40% for a few weeks and see if it helps and if your tank is overstocked then the fish will welcome a larger water change anyway.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what are your water readings for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

when you say you rinse out the filter are you doing it under the tap or in tank water?

i agree most likely cause is over stocked tank/under performing filter, if you can list out everything in the tank and what size it is and the equipment you are using we can decide if that is likely.

 

[Wrams]

It sounds to me like your filteration unit is not enough to cope with your tank and waste your fish produce. As for algae i get it to but sometimes it can be related to to much light. Is the Algae a real big problem? Also what colour is the cloudiness? Whats your stocking of fish? Size tank? Also like previously said 30-40% WC as 8-10% is hardly noticable.

Is it any of these Algaes? Click Here

 

[drobbyb]

I echo what the others are saying. Don't change your filter inserts AND clean the filter. Do one or the other not both. I recommend that you increase your waterchange volume to 50% once a week and rinse out your inserts in TREATED cool tap water or tank water (use a bucket to hold the water!) This saves your bacteria and your problem will go away on it's own (as long as you aren't overfeeding) You really dont need to run carbon anyway. The bacteria will keep it perfectly clear.

 

[BPH]

OK, many thanks for the replies, here goes...newbie alert so please bear with me!

I do not take regular pH, nitrate, ammonia etc readings but I regularly take samples to my pet store where it is tested and given the all clear.

I have a 50 litre tank (I think). It is 2x1x1 feet in dimension.

It is stocked with :

2 x silver dollars
2 x coreys
1 x golden sucking loach
1 x tiger loach
1 x horse nosed loach
1 x bull headed catfish
1 x pictus catfish
1 x red tailed shark
1 x glass tailed catfish

I take 10% out weekly (which I will increase to 40%-50%) and rinse the filter and rinse and replace the same foam pads in the water that I have taken from the tank. I only use new pads every 2-3 months. I also insert a black carbon pad on alternate months (right?/wrong?) The top part of the filter is rinsed with tap water as I need the high pressure to clear the blockages.

I treat the replacement water with a tap water treatment as I live in a hard water area and I throw in 5ml of Stress Zyme into the tank before I replace the water.

I use a Fluval 2 filter and a Rena 50 air pump which I plan to upgrade to a Rena 100 to increase the amount of oxygen/bubbles given off.

The cloudyness is clear, as in not coloured, it just looks kind of 'misty'.

The algae isn't so much a problem, it's just annoying that it's only appeared in the last few weeks and I don't know why as I have done nothing new in months and months. I don't think it is down to the light, it is only on from around 5pm (when I feed them) until 11pm.

Many thanks again for all your helpfull replies and hope that I have been clear!

 

[jonnyf84]

wow , way over stocked mate. Even if you go into overkill mode with a new filter it still wouldn't be suitable, just simply to many fish-reduce reduce reduce! your poor fluval 2 will be having a hell of a time trying to keep up , i would keep the carbon sponge in there until you reduce the bio load. I would also keep the lights on longer, remember these are tropical fish, in natural habitats they are used to 12 hours of sunlight, ignore thi if you have algae problems.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK, even without test results I can tell you what your problem is, you have waaaaaay too many fish for the tank and the filter.

Do you know the process of how the filter deals with the fish' waste, this is called the nitrogen cycle. If you're not familiar with it then please read the link in my sig 'whats cycling' which explains it to you and explains exactly what all the levels mean.

Unfortunately you can't trust the lfs when they test the water for you, they have a nasty habit of missing things and telling people things wrong. One of our members here dia little test a while ago by carefully constructing some water that we knew from our own tests was toxic to the fish, the fish shop said it was fine except for one thing, the thing they said was wrong was the only thing that was actually OK. They then proceeded to try and sell him some stuff he didn't need if i remmeber correctly.

You should definately get your own test kit, have a look for the api fresh water master test kit, you can usually pick it up from ebay for around £15-£20.

What's happened is when the fish were small the filter could handle the waste they produced, as they have grown the filtration capacity of the tank and filter has become stretched, over the last few weeks it's gone beyond the point where it can cope with all the waste produced so if you tested the water now you would ifnd that you have ammonia and likely nitrite in the water, this has caused a bacterial bloom which is resulting in the milky water. so the milky water is a symptom not the problem itself.

To work out how many fish are suitable for your tank we work on the guideline of 1" of fish per gallon of water. Your tank is 56litres (by the dimensions above) which is around 15 gallons. Now in a ncie mature tank we say you can stretch this rule to 1.5" per gallon safely, your tank is mature so you should be looking to stock at a maximum of 22" ish.

You have the following

2 x silver dollars - 20" 9yes they should get to 10" each)
2 x coreys - 4" (depends on species but lets assume average sized)
1 x golden sucking loach - this could be one of a few species, being kind we'll assume 5" it could actually be a big monster that gets to around 16"
1 x tiger loach - not sure on this species, again kind estiumate of 3"
1 x horse nosed loach - 3"
1 x bull headed catfish - again not sure on species, 3"
1 x pictus catfish - 6"
1 x red tailed shark - 6"
1 x glass tailed catfish - 3"

so at a conservative estimate you have around 2 and a half times the amount of fish you should have in this tank. You can see why the filter would be struggling!! Added to which several of the species you have grow far too big for a tank of this size and shouldn't be kept in it anyway. Also most of the fish you have would do better in a group of their own species.

So what to do now. First thing is water changes, without accurate test results we can only assume that the water is terrible so you should do a minimum of a 50% water change every single day. Order a test kit and as soon as you get it take some readings and let us know what they are, we will then advise from there.

You now need to sit down and think seriously about your stocking, you can either get a much larger tank ASAP or re-home a large amount of the fish that you currently have. Let us know what you want to do adn we will make recommendations from there. This is not a decision you cna take months over, your tank has now reached crisis point with the level of fish and action must be taken very quickly to prevent any loss of life.

Sorry to be blunt but sometimes you have to get the message across!!

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with the above advice.

Re-homing fish can take some time and effort, so better to start soon. The members here are great and can give you support as you go along.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[BPH]

Sh!t, thanks for the replies, all very much appreciated.

Testing kit ordered, 50% water removed and replaced with treated water. This nearly wiped out the shark, tiger loach, pictus and golden loach. Only after half hour of replacing the water did they get their colour back and start swimming again instead of lying on their side. I have a good pet shop that will take any fish I give back.

Taking into account I REALLY REALLY want to keep the golden loach and pictus catfish, which ones should I remove to allow a reasonably stocked tank?

All I ever really wanted was a nicely stocked tank of colourfull, pretty fish. Any suggestions about which types can achieve this effect would be great (obviously not to stock at this time)

The ACTUAL sizes of my fish are as follows (head to tail) :

2 x silver dollars - 3.5"
2 x coreys (1.5")
1 x golden sucking loach - 5"
1 x tiger loach - 3"
1 x horse nosed loach - 4"
1 x bull headed catfish - 4"
1 x pictus catfish - 3"
1 x red tailed shark - 4"
1 x glass tailed catfish - 1"

Thankyou for all your comments, I'm completley upset that I thought I had done everything right but I haven't and the fish are suffering as a result. I have heard so many conflicting comments about how to look after fish, it's difficult to know what's best to do!

Thanks again!

 

[drobbyb]

Thankyou for all your comments, I'm completley upset that I thought I had done everything right but I haven't and the fish are suffering as a result. I have heard so many conflicting comments about how to look after fish, it's difficult to know what's best to do!

Thanks again!

Misinformation stinks.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what species is the golden loach? post a pic if you don't know

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i think it's most likely that the pim you have is a pim picuts, have a read of this and look at the pics and tell us if this is the species you have, if it isn't then please post a picture?

http/www.fishforums.net/content/Catfish/41743/Pim-pictus/

I'm sorry but if the fish you have is the one above then you can't keep him in a 15 gal, it's simply too small for him, if a bigger tank isn't an option then you need to re-home him.

To be totally blunt with you the only fish I'd keep for that tank from the list you have are the cories...... those need to be in groups of 6+ so I'd suggest you return everything else, get yourself 4 more cories and then build up a list of suitable fish from that starting point.