PLANTS CAUSING CLOUDY WATER ?

[nagus]

I'm not sure if i'm in the right forum or not (newbie?/emergency?) but feel like giving up my new hobbie! Initially not wanting to start my new tank with real plants i was advised to by my LFS after having problems with brown algae, after taking there advice on which plants might be suitable, duly bought & planted various plants (sorry i dont know their names ((is there some website i could match to a picture)), anyway some plants have gone through the roof while others seem to be dyeing a death, which brings me to my problem.

1. Is this rotting plant causing the cloudy water.

2. Should i remove the plant, root and all or just keep removing the dead leaves.
Although the cloudy water doesn't seem to be bothering the fish, i dont really want to introduce new fish untill i've sorted out the problem?

Tank: 125 Lt
Newbie Fish: 2 x zebra danio, 2 x Pearl danio, 1 x Clown Plec.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
PH 8.0 (very hard water area and was advised not to medle with it)

Also have noticed a slight increase in green algae (DAM).

I have tried doing 15% water changes every other day, but doesn't seem to have helped with the cloudy water.

Has anyone got any ideas, please

 

[Mustang5L5]

I went through a cloudy water phase when i started up my planted tank. The water was very murky followed by a Brown algea outbreak. As the plants began to take hold the water just cleared up on it's own and the brown algae went away with some help from BA eaters.

 

[Bol]

Personally, I would remove the parts of the plants that are obviously dead.

Couple of questions:

1) Is the cloudiness more whitish or greenish?
2) How long has the tank been set up?

And, if you go to Plantgeeks and click on the plant profile section, there are lots of pictures there. Also, you could check the Tropica site, but personally, I think that's a little tougher to search if you don't know the names of your plants.

 

[nagus]

The cloudyness is white not green and the tank has been set up for about 10 weeks

 

[Bol]

In that case, what you're probably seeing is what's called a "bacteria bloom". If so, it's not harmful to the fish or plants, and should clear itself up in a few days or maybe a week.

Also, if the algae you're seeing is "green spot algae" (looks like little green dots that are very tough to pick off, rather than "furry" algae), then that's sort of normal, too.

Both bacteria blooms and green spot algae are fairly common in newer tanks.

 

[got_nailed]

Your having a "bacteria bloom" just as Bol has said. You need to make sure that your plants have the right lights and you have lots of plants. The more of the “stem plants” you have the better. They will help get your biologically ready for the other plants that need time to adjust to your tank. If you over plant with stem plants to start with, you will have less of a problem in the long run.

After a month with out any large algae outbreaks you can start adding your other plants that don’t adjust as fast to there new water conditions. Once these plants start to thrive then slowly remove the “stem plants.”