yabadaba
Fish Crazy
Hi guys, I'm not sure what is causing the water in my 60 litre planted tank to be so cloudy. I know the common explanation is that it's a by-product of the cycling process, but I've had my tank going for nearly 3 months now and it's been cycled now for almost 2 months.
I'm not sure how to describe the cloudiness, but if the tank light is on and I look closely through the glass I can see that the water is saturated with very tiny particles....almost like dust suspended in the water. I test the chemistry regulalrly and have zero nitrite, approx 20 nitrate and the PH registers at about 7.8 using my API Master Test Kit, but looks more like 7.2 when checked with Tetra test sticks. Now that the tank is cycled I have been doing a weekly 1 large bucket (approx 20%) water change. The cloudiness reduced slightly when I last tried a 40-50% water change, but has since crept back up.
The tank has 2-3 inches of gravel, a pretty substantial piece of bogwood and a varity of live plants, most in the gravel but some floating on the surface. The plants do very well indeed, possibly because the room the tank is in gets a lot of natural daylight. The tank is fitted with 1x 15w Sun-Glo T8 tube that I leave on for approx 12 hrs per day.
At present the inhabitants are 3 guppies and 1 tiny fry, 5 Otocinclus, 3 Cardinal Tetras, 1 Red Tailed Shark and 2 Clown Loaches. The shark and loaches are small at present, but I now understand they require more space and will be moving out into a new 150cm tank that I will be setting up very shortly.
Any ideas what might be causing the cloudiness?
I'm not sure how to describe the cloudiness, but if the tank light is on and I look closely through the glass I can see that the water is saturated with very tiny particles....almost like dust suspended in the water. I test the chemistry regulalrly and have zero nitrite, approx 20 nitrate and the PH registers at about 7.8 using my API Master Test Kit, but looks more like 7.2 when checked with Tetra test sticks. Now that the tank is cycled I have been doing a weekly 1 large bucket (approx 20%) water change. The cloudiness reduced slightly when I last tried a 40-50% water change, but has since crept back up.
The tank has 2-3 inches of gravel, a pretty substantial piece of bogwood and a varity of live plants, most in the gravel but some floating on the surface. The plants do very well indeed, possibly because the room the tank is in gets a lot of natural daylight. The tank is fitted with 1x 15w Sun-Glo T8 tube that I leave on for approx 12 hrs per day.
At present the inhabitants are 3 guppies and 1 tiny fry, 5 Otocinclus, 3 Cardinal Tetras, 1 Red Tailed Shark and 2 Clown Loaches. The shark and loaches are small at present, but I now understand they require more space and will be moving out into a new 150cm tank that I will be setting up very shortly.
Any ideas what might be causing the cloudiness?
