Merky Water

[jameshughes1989]

I just took out the undegravel filter in my 20 gallon. Fish were put in another place before and lowered the water level.
I have a cycled filter to replace it. The problem is now that the water has gone all brown and merky and wont clear up. Any suggestions as to what to do.
Thanks

 

[kelly528]

In pulling up the undergravel filter you definitely disturbed some major sh*t. Literally. Give it a few days and all the fish waste and debris should settle down into the substrate again.

 

[Gilli]

I would give it a thorough gravel vac and do a 25% water change and keep doing so every few days to get as much crap out as you can if you dont want to drain the tank - the cleaner the water the better for your fish.

Undergravel filters are a nightmare to remove. When I took my old one out to replace with a seeded external filter I drained the whole tank washed all the gravel and put it back with 100% clean water. The trouble is all that gunk is poo/uneaten food and grunge and now it wont have any air circulating around it as it did with the undergravel filter to break it down.

 

[jameshughes1989]

Thanks guys, its settled a lil bit but still bad. I guess ill have to just wait a fews days and see. I done a 50% w/c.
Thanks for the info and advice