I Can't Even See The Fish! Please Help A Newbie :-)

[lizzie_g_]

Hi All!

I am hoping I may be able to get some help if anybody is able to assist? I have had my tank set up for years and years with so far very few problems. Its a 360L tank with low stock, two internal filters which combined are more than capable of dealing with the volume. Over the years I have had a few of the typical problems for which I have always found a solution but this time I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall. The tank is incredibly cloudy so that I can't even see the fish. Its a creamy, greeny cloud so my first assumption was algae bloom. So two weeks ago I did approximately a 70% change and cut back on feeding (although I dont think the feeding is an issue as nitrites etc are all fine). A week later the water was as bad as ever, maybe even worse. So another change, roughly 80%. Again it didnt solve the problem so I am now resorting to yet another water change. Immediately after the change the cloud is visibly diluted however it just gets worse again, and quickly. I also went to the pet shop yesterday and bought a chemical product which apparently clumps together the free floating algae which is then filtered (I also removed the carbon from the filter to aid effectiveness). The product claims clear water within hours, but not this time! I had a chemical test done yesterday at the pet shop, all results were fine. Temperature is within the normal range and I have also tried keeping the light off on the tank. I all out of ideas.

So I am currently ongoing with another water change however I am not too hopeful that the problem will go. Please please does anyone have any suggestions as to what else I can do?

Thanks in advance

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Break down the tank, take everything out, rinse the tank, gravel and decorations without soap. Scrub them like crazy. The refill it and everything before reintroducing your fish.

 

[lizzie_g_]

Hello Crazyforcordoras,

Many thanks for your reply. I will have to draft in some assistance to empty the tank as I cant reach the bottom of the tank haha, and I will need a big net and bucket for my plec, but I will allocate time to do this at the weekend. Do you have any idea what has caused this problem? As far as I know the conditions in the tank are as they have been for years so I am stumped as to why this has happened! I will definitely be trying to avoid a repetition of this hoo-ha!

Thanks again for your reply, it is much appreciated

 

[Akasha72]

Hi Lizzie, when you remove water do you do it via a syphon? If so do you dig it into the gravel to suck up the debris settled in it?

Also, have you cleaned your filter recently and how do you normally clean the filter media?

 

[crazyforcordoras]

I think it may have been algae. The spores are living in the rocks, and when you change the water, you take out free swimming ones, but then ones inthe substrate come up. Your welcome, any time its needed!

 

[lizzie_g_]

Hi Akasha72, and hello again crazyforcordoras

Yes I do have a syphon on my 'hoover' and I usually dig it about in the gravel for a few minutes at the start of the cleaning process at which point I generally see the rubbish come out of the gravel, however, and this is a big however, after reading the last two posts I could well believe that the algae could have been hiding in the gravel as during the last couple of cleans I didnt spend as much time cleaning the gravel seeing as I had only done it so recently. During the first of the three past-weekly cleans, the gravel perculation seemed to be pointless as the gravel seemed clean, but maybe it wasn't as clean as it seemed? Hmm I certainly hope that you two have solved this for me. I have just finished a clean and I really went for it with the gravel clean so I will fill the tank back up and keep my fingers crossed!

With regard to the filters, I believe I follow good practice, though do correct me if I am worng. I run the tap over the media and give it a good few squeezes until the water runs clearer, then I soak a bit of the dirty water back into the media before putting it back in the filter again. I dont scrub the filter casing or anything. I do regularly take the little wheel out of the mechanism and knock off any grime just to keep it running at full speed.

I am going to hope and pray that the water change plus gravel clean might knock this on the head. I will keep the post updated!

Many, many thanks to both of you

 

[Bugdozer]

Some recommend a balckout of the tank for a week - do a big water change, suck out as much crap as you can, then wrap black paper round the tank and don't put any food in for a week. Algae can't live without light and nutrients, but your fish will be OK. There was a link somewhere on here to an algae advice page but I don't recall where.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Your welcome!

 

[lizzie_g_]

Good evening Bugdozer,

Thanks for the suggestion, I will take your advice on it. I have a big heavy picnic blanket which I think will do the trick. I have read a few posts about completely cutting out the light, seems like a logical idea. I don't think my fish will be too impressed but it's in their best interests! And Ill miss watching the fishy little mites but in all seriousness I can tell this problem isn't going to disappear without some inervention.

Thanks again

 

[McCool]

Hi Akasha72, and hello again crazyforcordoras

Yes I do have a syphon on my 'hoover' and I usually dig it about in the gravel for a few minutes at the start of the cleaning process at which point I generally see the rubbish come out of the gravel, however, and this is a big however, after reading the last two posts I could well believe that the algae could have been hiding in the gravel as during the last couple of cleans I didnt spend as much time cleaning the gravel seeing as I had only done it so recently. During the first of the three past-weekly cleans, the gravel perculation seemed to be pointless as the gravel seemed clean, but maybe it wasn't as clean as it seemed? Hmm I certainly hope that you two have solved this for me. I have just finished a clean and I really went for it with the gravel clean so I will fill the tank back up and keep my fingers crossed!

With regard to the filters, I believe I follow good practice, though do correct me if I am worng. I run the tap over the media and give it a good few squeezes until the water runs clearer, then I soak a bit of the dirty water back into the media before putting it back in the filter again. I dont scrub the filter casing or anything. I do regularly take the little wheel out of the mechanism and knock off any grime just to keep it running at full speed.

I am going to hope and pray that the water change plus gravel clean might knock this on the head. I will keep the post updated!

Many, many thanks to both of you

I'm not sure about algae, but when cleaning out your filter media NEVER use tap water. It kills your bacteria and it can cause a mini cycle for the tank. Shake the media in a bucket of old tank water instead.
What are your tank readings? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate ect.

 

[lizzie_g_]

Hi McCool,

I had no idea about not using tap water, thanks for the tip, I have taken it on board! I did a water test at the pet shop yesterday and although I don't have any result values, they told me that the nitrates very ever so slightly elevated but not enough to cause major problems and the nitrites were fine. The pH and other parameters were all fine.

I will update the post tomorrow as to how the tank is getting on sfter this evenings (I'm in the UK) water change. If this doesn't work Ill try the full tank clean as suggested, surely, just surely, that must work. Will my fish be safe enough going into a completely fresh tank? Ive never done a complete clean so any advice on this front would be well received.

Thanks everyone

 

[fluttermoth]

I do think it might be you washing the filter under the tap that;s causing problems, or have you changed the filter media completely recently? Your method of cleaning media might well preserve some of the bacteria (my ex did it exactly the same way until I told him not to!), but it's best not to get it near a tap at all.

If you are causing mini cycles because of media cleaning/replacement, that might well what's causing your algae blooms, as ammonia + light = algae.

I'd just keep on doing big water changes; as big and as often as you can until you can get an ammonia test ( and the numbers!)

Good luck!

 

[McCool]

Hi McCool,

I had no idea about not using tap water, thanks for the tip, I have taken it on board! I did a water test at the pet shop yesterday and although I don't have any result values, they told me that the nitrates very ever so slightly elevated but not enough to cause major problems and the nitrites were fine. The pH and other parameters were all fine.

I will update the post tomorrow as to how the tank is getting on sfter this evenings (I'm in the UK) water change. If this doesn't work Ill try the full tank clean as suggested, surely, just surely, that must work. Will my fish be safe enough going into a completely fresh tank? Ive never done a complete clean so any advice on this front would be well received.

Thanks everyone

They should be fine with a fresh tank, just make sure to keep the filter pads wet! If you can, I'd invest in a test kit. Makes fish keeping a lot easier to be able to test your own water! Good luck with the tank!

 

[Akasha72]

good morning Lizzie,

I've just read this and wanted to add my 2-peneth!

Never wash your filter media in tap water (as has already been said) it does kill your good bacteria and cause more problems. I chuck my sponges in the bucket that I've syphoned into. Squeeze them a couple of times and then put them back in the filter. It's what I was told to do at the beginning on this forum.

Next time you do your water change push your syphon as far into the gravel as it will go - right to the glass at the bottom if you can - hold it there until the muck stopped coming up, move on a couple of inch and do it again. If you do this all over the tank you'll suck up a lot of the cr*p that's sitting under the gravel that could well be causing a lot of your problems.

If you want to strip your tank then it won't harm. I've just changed to sand substrate and my tank was completely stripped, cleaned with clean water, re-filled and the fish put back all in one day. I made one mistake. I left my sponges inside the filter and I've ended up with a mini cycle but water changes and bottled bacteria are getting it slowly back on track. If I was to do it again I'd take the sponges out and store them in a bucket of tank water until the tank was re-filled, de-chlorinated and it was safe to put them back. If you do decide to strip your tank remember not to make the same mistake and you should be okay.

Good luck and keep us posted with how you get on

Akasha