Need Advice On Sudden Milky Water

[karin]

So Yesterday evening my tank started going milky white. This AM I noticed the Eheim 2215 was underperforming and the fish suffering, gasping and the shrimp and pleco near the top of the tank. So I did a water change and cleaned the filter, vigorously shaking out the filter material (ceramic rings and balls and sponges) in old tank water. Tonight worse cloudiness is worse and did a water test and while ammonia is 0, Nitrites were 0.25 and my Ph has dropped from 8.0 to 7.4! So did another water change to get my nitrites to 0. Then I noticed that the Aquaclear filter media looked funny. I pulled it out and very gently rinsed it in tank water but it was slippery slimmy and gross. The glass of the tank is slimy too. I put on another HOB filter and moved some of the eheim filter material to it. So three filters are running on this 60 gallon tank: eheim 2215 and Aquaclear 70 ad an Aquaclear 20. I added some filter floss to the Aquaclears. I use Prime in my water changes. So two questions.

1. I'm afraid I've killed off some bacteria so I guess I just have to keep up on water changes. But do I do anything about the slime?

2. What caused it? Too vigorous with my filter medium cleaning? Or I raised the temperature of the room because I'm fermenting wine grapes in there. The tank temp is holding steady but could a room temp change cause a reaction on the glass that then extends into the tank?

Okay there is a 3.... why is the Ph dropping in this scenario?

Thanks everyone.

P.S. Oh and the angels spawned today.

 

[blue acara]

Sounds like it could be a bacterial bloom or possibly some type of algae caused by...dont know. Is it possible a fish died got into the filter? You have cleaned the filter, tested the water and done water changes which is exactly what I would have done. Keep the tank clean feed only small amounts until it clears and keep doing regular water changes and it will clear up.

'I'm fermenting wine grapes in there'

Is it possible some yeast got in there? This could be the cause...im just guessing.

Gratz on the angels spawning

 

[karin]

Did another 40% water change before bed to get to ensure the nitirites stay at 0. 6:00AM and it is a disaster. Everyone is at the top gasping for air. Super foggy. Doing a massive water change. This is setting up to be a disaster.

Just tested again and nitrites are between 2-5 PPM!!!!! Ammonia 0

ACCCKKKKK. Thing is yeast is always present somewhere in the air. I know that from winemaking. I guess some could have gone airborne and gotten in the tank, but kill the nitrite processing bacteria? I don't know.

Can't tell if anyone has died. As of last night all accounted for.

 

[Athena]

Hi Karin

If you've been a bit too rigourous with your cleaning of the filter/s and substrate then you could have removed too much of your good bacteria.

That cloudy white water is usually a bacterial bloom due to bad water quality and an uncycled filter (well, yours was matured but possibly not any more). If you have a bacterial bloom they will be reproducing at a very fast rate, giving the water that cloudy appearance. The bacteria will also be using up the oxygen levels in the tank, which is why your fish are gasping at the top.

Don't clean out your filter again for a good while but you will need to do regular water changes (about 25% daily) and increase the aeration in your tank asap. It's not the bacterial bloom that will kill your fish but lack of oxygen will.

Do you happen to have any other tanks with mature media in them? If so, can you cut a portion of a mature sponge and divide it between a couple of the filters in this problem tank? It will just give things a helping hand as the good bacteria will soon multiply to the level you need, sooner than is happening at the moment.

Athena

 

[karin]

One shrimp dead. Another looks on its way. Looks really red internally. Fish are all alive

Slime is everywhere. Any ideas on the slime and what if anything can be done?

P.S. Ready to pitch the Eheim 2215 into the woods. What a pain to deal with that filter I'm done with the eheims and I used to be a cheerleader. This one now has decided just to not work very well and make a ton of noise.

 

[Athena]

What colour is the slime? Or is it transparent like some glues?

How old is your Eheim? Have never owned one personally but they usually have such a good reputation. Could there be debris around the impeller perhaps, if it's making a strange noise and lost output strength?

 

[karin]

Doing another 80% change this AM, Nitrites were 0.25.

Thing is I noticed the clouding and the eheim not functioning well, not passing water as vigorously and I had not cleaned the eheim in a month or more. The vigorous cleaning of the aquaclear was a week ago, so I'm thinking something else is going on, unless the eheim clogged enough to reduce O2 to the bacteria and caused a dieoff. But water was going through just not vigorously.