The Water Is So Cloudy That You Can't See The Fish!

[jenny the fist]

I am writing this note for my brother in law and hope that this board can help with his troubles.

He has had a 50 gallon fish tank for about five years and had no problems. Suddenly, the water is very cloudy. He changed the water, filter, washed the gravel and it was cloudy again tonight. Only five fish are in the tank , two needle fish, on Oscar and a black sucker fish. The fish are getting pretty big now and seem perfectly happy.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to clean up the water. My BIL is wheel chair bound and gets much enjoyment for his fish. Thanks in advance

 

[Liam]

If its green water, (suspended algae in the water) it can be hard to get rid of, sometimes it runs its course after a few weeks and dies off, water changes don’t often help, what would kill it off for good is an ultra violet filter. A small amount of barley straw left floating on the surface is often effective too with green water. It may be something else though.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

If it is an algea bloom, then you can deal with it by reducing the amount of time the lights are on in the tank as well as to keep it out of direct sunlight, to begin with. Depending on the type of filter, I have been able to lessen the green cloud effect by wrapping a clean (if new, boil it first) peice of t-shirt (wool) around one of the filter media cartridges in my filter. It helped catch more of the smaller particles. Others may know more but I would really stay away from an algeacide since even though they advertise that they are not going to kill your fish, they can harm them and they will also kill off any plant matter in the tank.


If bacterial in nature, I am sure there are a few people here who have all the answers for you and so I wont get into that too far other than to say that they are generally a symptom of having too many nutrients in the tank (which also applies to algea blooms) and so your brother in law may need to look into what the sudden change is and try to reduce the chances of it occuring later on again.

I think, and I know that this isnt all the best news to hear, that the fish are now getting too large for the tank. Both Oscars and the 'black sucker fish' (google for plecostomus to see if this is what he has for sure), or pleco (assumption) are high waste producing fish and so this can be the source of high nitrates, too many nutrients, or a mini-cycle caused by too much waste breaking down into ammonia faster than the bacterial colony can deal with it (if you are not familiar, you can read about cycling a tank to better understand the bacterial principle). It may be best to reduce the amount of fish in the tank. If this option is not going to work, for whatever reason, increasing the amount and frequency of water changes is going to help out. Your brother in law can also look at improving the filtration system as much as possible. There is no such thing as too much filtration, so the more, the merrier.

I understand a little bit about the lifestyle and challenges of people who are limited to wheelchairs (sorry if that is not the most politically correct statement) since my mom has been for quite a few years now. I also know how she loves her pets so I am sympathetic. I also know how she hates when people try to help her too much but it may help your brother in law quite a bit to have someone help him do a bigger water change as soon as possible (50%) with a good dechlorination conditioner added to the new tap water. While I dont think this will solve the issue immedietly, it may help out in the long run. I would also NOT clean the filter media out any more, especially any filter media that is used for biofiltration since this could reduce the amount of bacteria in the tank. This good bacteria also resides in the tank's substrate and so that should not be cleaned too thouroughly either. Usually only a vaccuming by a siphon is needed once a week. If things are cleaned too well, then the tank is basically back to being brand new and the fish could be in jeopardy. Does your brother in law test his water for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAtes? These numbers would help us know better what the problem is and how to deal with it. (Other good info would be the same tests on the tap water or water source used to fill the tank as well as Ph levels for both. If the water is greenish, then a phosphate (PO4) test would be good to know on both the tank and the water source).

Good luck. Keep your chins up! This may not be as bad as you think

 

[bjmagik]

I find when the water in my tanks are cloudy I use a product called geo liquid which corrects the bacteria in the tank. When you first place the liquid in the tank, it goes real cloudy if the balance is out and then it corrects it by the next day and you have perfectly clear water. Its amazing.

 

[DarkEntity]

I am writing this note for my brother in law and hope that this board can help with his troubles.

He has had a 50 gallon fish tank for about five years and had no problems. Suddenly, the water is very cloudy. He changed the water, filter, washed the gravel and it was cloudy again tonight. Only five fish are in the tank , two needle fish, on Oscar and a black sucker fish. The fish are getting pretty big now and seem perfectly happy.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to clean up the water. My BIL is wheel chair bound and gets much enjoyment for his fish. Thanks in advance

As this tank is running you shouldnt change water, wash gravel and wash the filter. doing that will basically start the tank going through a cycle again as if it was brand new. Doing all of the above will have removed all the good bacteria from the tank.

 

[starrynightxxi]

you said five but only named four fish, just so you know

i would agree with what's been said. The fish are very likely outgrowing that tank and creating too much waste for thefilter to keep up with them. Adding a second filter might help for the time being, but cleaning water, gravel, and filter cartridge are probably just causing the tank to recycle, so not a good idea. stick to plain water changes.

I think your best bet though is to get a larger tank. It will be much less work in the long run because if the fish HAVE outgrown their tank, constant water changes would be necessary to keep the ammonia and nitrites down

A good idea if you upgrade would be to buy a filter for the bigger tank now and run it on the current tank with the one that is already on there for about two weeks. This will help keep the water stats in check in that tank, as well as building up the bacterial colony in the second filter. Then when you get the upgraded tank you will pretty much already be cycled. It's called cloning and is a very handy trick


[edit] and obviously, by "you", i mean your brother in law

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I think the bigger tank is the best answer as well, and I suppose I should have stated that before. My only problem with that idea is that your brother in law would need to get a MUCH bigger tank. I believe that ONE full grown Oscar, all by itself, would require somewhere in the range of a 75 gallon tank, and a longer one being better than a taller one. (However, I have seen a 72 gallon bowfront tank, which in my opinon is a great looking tank, for a reasonable price in my area from All-glass aquariums). The pleco however is going to add to that gallonage a bit and it is going to need a tank that is most likely in the range of 24 inches from front to back so that it can turn around easily since it is a longer fish rather than a rounder fish like the oscar. Not being familiar with the needle fish, I would assume that they need a tank that is longer rather than taller and deeper like the 24 inches from front to back since again, they are longer fish and not rounder fish and need room to turn around.

Still, I think that you can really improve the water quality with some more filtration and if you were to remove at least one of the fish from this tank, I would have to pick the pleco (catfish) since it is just a big big waste producer and would make a big improvement over all in a short amount of time if that strain was taken off of the biofiltration system (bacteria).

 

[starrynightxxi]

ditto

 

[LisaLQ]

....or remove the oscar and keep the plec, considering they're much of a muchness when it comes to waste. In fact, I think less. Choice is yours, although keeping them both and getting a nice big tank would be nice