Slightly Cloudy Water

[fishlette]

hi all

i have a slight problem developing that i am afraid is going to turn into a huge problem soon.

a few days ago i added a new internal filter to my tank and this is exactly when my probs started. the filter is an aqua one 120f internal filter with 500L/hr filtration. prior to this i had a simple corner filter that was doing an amzing job. but this was suggested to me by my boss at the (a fish shop) is my tank is rather large (165L) and this should do a better job for my tank. i added the filter on sunday at the same time i added 2 new pristella tetras and 2 bristlenose catfish. along with this i started using a different kind of food (veggie flakes) on top of there tropical flakes. no more than usual just a mix of both. it was about an hour after adding the new filter that i noticed the water was starting to get a little cloudy. at the time i thought between the new filter, the new fish and the new food it may have been causing sime kind of biological upset and decided to leave it a day or two and see if the new filter started doing its job.

this is the filter ( i wasnt sure if it was only australian or an american made filter so i thought id post a pic) it also shows slightly the cloudiness but not much.

yesterday the water was still slightly cloudy but did seem a little better. this afternoon i had noticed a change again and it seemed to be on the mend. we went to our lfs to get an aerating ornament and instead of that we came home with 3 neon tetras and 5 tiger barbs as you do once again on adding the new fish the water became cloudy. much cloudier than before and seems to be slowly getting worse. i did water tests at work the other day and nitrates and nitrites were fine, the pH was 7.3 and the hardness was quite high but wood will be put in this weekend to help combat this. so all in all water tests were fine (except hardness which i didnt think would add to this problem).

i was somewhat concerned that the tank was overcrowded but on my own thoughts, the thoughts of those at work and those of my lfs that i got to at times, the fish i have in there against this tank size is fine. the tank is a 3ft, 165L (43.5 us gallons) and i have 52 inches worth of fish in there. my fish list is:

2 three spot gouramis - 6 inches in total
platinum gourami - 3 inches
gold gourami - 3 inches
red honey gourami - 1.5 inches
banded gourami - 2 inches
pearl gourami - 2 inches

5 neon tetras - 5 inches in total
4 pristella tetras, juvenile - 4 inches in total
3 bloodfin tetras - 4 inches in total
6 glowlight tetras - 6 inches in total
2 lamp eye tetras - 3 inches in total
5 tiger barbs, juvenile - 4 inches in total
2 bristlenose catfish, juvenile - 4 inches in total
female siamese fighter - 3 inches
male platy - 1.5 inches

this seemed like a lot to me and then it was explained to me that basically this is fine considering i basically have small fish in there and there is by no means on overcrowding situation.

im really confused as the water in my tank registered the same as my livebearer tank and nothing has been done differently with my main tank.

my plan at this stage is to do a 50% water change tomorrow morning and a gravel vaccum in the hope that this may help.

are there any ideas to anyone as to what could be causing this?

thanks
emily

 

[tmack]

Hi. Did you take the old filter out when you put the new one in? If you did, I'm guessing it may be a bacterial bloom due to the new filter not having a good supply of good bacteria growing in it yet. The new fish would put an extra bio load on the tank too, until the new fillter gets acclimated with good bacteria.

 

[fishlette]

ok that is somewhere along the lines that i was thinking becuase yes, in a moment of unintelligence i took out the old filter and unfortunately i have thrown out the old filter wool. my next thought is this; can i take some of the cycled wool out of my cycled livebearer tank and add it to my new tank in the old filter in the old filter as well as the old filter to try and help the prob? i need to clean the livebearer filter a little anyways and i was thinking comsidering it is already cycled it may help my prob. will adding the old filter with old filter wool help this process or will that just stop the new filter from cycling properly? i feel really stupid as this is something i should have thought of

i dont know what to do now to fix it? should i lrave it be or not? i dont want my fishies dying or sick...

 

[AndreaC]

Yep sounds like a bacterial bloom due to a new filter and adding new fish.

Yes you can use media from another filter that is established. Keep checking your water for amonia and nitrites as you may get a high peak and lose some fish.

 

[fishlette]

Yep sounds like a bacterial bloom due to a new filter and adding new fish.

Yes you can use media from another filter that is established. Keep checking your water for amonia and nitrites as you may get a high peak and lose some fish.

thank you i guess we live and learn dont we i just hope that i dont lose any fishies due to not thinking regarding the old filter etc i should have thought about it considering i talk to people every day at work about the importance of an established filter etc

but today im going to set about adding a second filter, do a 50% water change and a gravel vac and see how we go. how long should i leave the two in there for? the new filter has this black synthetic sponge type stuff in it but can i add anything else in there like carbon etc to help the process? maybe even put some established wool in there as well??

 

[tmack]

Not sure about how long it will take to get the second filter establish with good bacteria - I'm guessing a week or more. Adding some wool and/or a bit of gravel from the already seasoned filter and tank would definitely help speed it up.

 

[stargirly1208]

you could just take the sponge or whatever was in your old filter (if you still have it) and give it a little shake in your tank just to put some bacteria back in. if you don't have this option, your lfs should have something like stress zyme which has bacteria already in it. your water might be cloudy due to a pH spike, this happened to my tank and i put some pH 7.0 tabs in it and it got a lot better. so get some test strips and see what's really going on and maybe something i suggested could help

 

[fishlette]

well i did a 50% water change and a gravel vac yesterday plus added old filter with some established wool from my live bearer tank and everything is looking schmick. hopefully it will stay lookin good and the prob has been sorted now thanks for everyones help

 

[edgun88]

well i did a 50% water change and a gravel vac yesterday plus added old filter with some established wool from my live bearer tank and everything is looking schmick. hopefully it will stay lookin good and the prob has been sorted now thanks for everyones help

Yea I did this before too. No worries, all you get is a little minnie-cycle and then everything is back to normal. My fish didnt even mind it. Old filters are like gold when starting a new tank, you should always keep them (in the filter of course).

What I've done recently is taken one of my filter cartridges out and replaced that one while leaving the second one in there. When the new cartridge gets full of bacteria I change the second one. That way you dont end up causing a totally loss of bacteria, hence a mini-cycle.

Glad to hear its all working

 

[fishlette]

still all looking really good am very glad it was that easy to fix as ive heard some horror stories of people trying to fix cloudy water. were much cloudier than mine but still, it could have gotten that bad

 

[Bert]

I actually had a bacterial bloom today. I checked my water and my ph and alkaline were up so I've started working on fixing that! added some carbon stuff from my old filter (I changed my filter last night and didn't even think about needing my bacteria!) and things seem to be doing better