Question?

[Montizuma]

OK so you all know me he guy that did the fish in cycle and kept asking questions . Well here's another. My ammonia is reading 0ppm and my Nitrite is 0ppm but the tank is still a little cloudy its not CLEAR like my brothers tank. And i also have stiff on the surface that i cant get out with anything. So can anyone help with suggestions.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Hey Montizuma!

Even though it is not solely limited to occurring in an uncycled tank and/or newly established tank, it sounds as though you may be experiencing either a bacteria or algae bloom. This is typically a result of having an unbalanced ecosystem which is allowing a population of bacteria or single cell algae to explode. In short, if your water is sort of milky-white in nature, this would indicate a bacteria bloom, or if the water is green-ish, you probably are seeing an algae bloom. The good news here though is that both sorts of blooms, while obviously annoying, are not all that harmful to your fish (although the cause of the bloom may be), and have sort of a 'roller coaster' life cycle in that, within a relatively short period of time (each situation is probably slightly unique so a time line is not really possible) that huge population exhausts the nutrients it needs in the water, and can crash quickly.

To help move things along a little bit:

If the water is green (algae bloom), you can perform a 72 hour 'blackout' in which you not only turn off all of the light over and in the tank but also cover it up so that no light is reaching the water at all for three days. Obviously, since the algae is photosynthetic, it cannot survive long without light. Additionally, you can do your best to reduce or eliminate phosphate levels since again, the algae will not thrive as well in its absence.

In both cases, you can perform more frequent or larger water changes - which may not end the bloom instantly, but will help reduce the nutrients in the water from which the bloom is thriving on.

Also, in either case, prevention is really the best 'cure' - which you can do by avoiding overstocking the tank, not over feeding, and removing as much decaying organic matter as possible, among other things.

While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, I hope it helps you out, or at least helps you move in the right direction. Again, try not to panic or feel as though you are doing everything wrong in relation to your brother's tank...this can happen to anyone!

 

[Montizuma]

Yeah rite know there are 7 tige barbs and one loach(which i do not plan on keeping much longer ) I also have a live plant in the tank. And its not green algy its white or kinda milky and it realy cleared up over the nite. but everyso often it does get cloudy.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I see, well then...a milky-white cloudy water would suggest a bacteria bloom, which again, is relatively common, especially in newer tanks (but not always limited to them). The bacteria which is causing this cloudiness is really another type of beneficial bacteria called Heterotrophic Bacteria (saprophytes to be exact really) and is the bacteria which is responsible for breaking organic matter down into ammonia. In fact, this bacteria is absolutely everywhere.

Again, this may be happening to you simply because your tank is new - or sounds like it is new - and the ecosystem is not yet balanced...and to be clear, your tank making it through the nitrogen cycle is only one part of a balanced ecosystem. However, like I said, you would gain a lot of benefit from making sure that you are not adding to the problem by overstocking, over feeding, or things along those lines. Like I said, this bacteria is the type which breaks down dead/decaying organic matter into ammonia - which suggests that there is a lot of food for the bacteria to feed upon, allowing the population to explode. Still, it is only a temporary problem and can easily be addressed by figuring out what the primary cause for the problem is, and changing that. Make sense?

 

[Montizuma]

Yea it does make sense and tha nk you. I feed them blood worms twice a day and the eat it all i mean all. should i slow the feedings down to once a day. (i only feed the 1 time to day)

 

[Tommy Gun]

Yea it does make sense and tha nk you. I feed them blood worms twice a day and the eat it all i mean all. should i slow the feedings down to once a day. (i only feed the 1 time to day)

In my opinion, it is very acceptable (meaning, ethical) and beneficial in most cases (meaning exceptions do exist) to feed our fish only once daily. Based upon what I have read/learned in this hobby so far, the idea/fact that your fish will come to the water's surface and 'act' as though they are starving is not much more than a conditioned response learned by the fish - basically they recognize humans as their source of food and so, when we walk by the tank, they may expect to see food following shortly behind. In short, this is basically another case of Pavlov's Dog, only substitute the dog with fish.

Additionally, a large amount of the various species of fish/inverts we can keep in an aquarium are what can be referred to as being 'opportunistic eaters' - meaning they will eat as much food as possible when it is provided. This is important to note because there are at least two variances of over feeding that can occur:

#1 (and probably the most obvious and spoken about): We can over feed our fish by adding too much food which results in some going uneaten (which, of course, will degrade water quality as it decays)

#2: We can over feed our fish by simply providing too great of an amount of food and while none of that amount goes to waste, our fish may not need to eat that much --- which perhaps can be compared to a human eating too much. However, we do not only need to worry about winding up with obese fish due to our feeding regimen, but this sort of overfeeding also means more wastes are being created...which, obviously affects water quality negatively as well.

While it is true that overfeeding is not the only cause of bacteria blooms - nor is it really guaranteed that only changing your feeding regimen will fix the problem - those additional nutrients and/or decaying organic matter does provide one of the 'links' required for the huge population explosion; hence, in theory, if you can break that link, the bacteria population should suffer.

To be honest though, based upon your comments as to you feeding blood worms twice a day, coupled with the fact/idea that the bacteria which are clouding your water are those bacteria which 'feed' upon decaying organic matter, my guess would be that overfeeding may largely be to blame here (although, I do understand that these blooms often follow newly established tanks even if you are overfeeding or not....which is why I wouldn't be surprised to hear that my guess could easily hold little to no merit

Getting back to the bloodworms though, can you explain a little bit as to how you are adding them to your tank? The reason I ask is because, assuming you are using frozen bloodworms, I have found that you can save yourself from adding at least some organic matter which will not be eaten by thawing the cube in a cup of water taken directly from the tank (or at least water which has no chlorine/chloramines) and then use a net to 'strain' out the 'juices' before adding the blood worms to the tank. From what I have read, that liquid can not only have a small effect on water quality over time, but is also contains some phosphates; which are a good thing to avoid in most cases (planted tanks being the only exception I can think of right now).