Unsightly Water

[Sam_Burnett]

hey im a newbie to keeping a fresh water aquarium and since i set the aquarium up four months ago, i have never come across this problem before.
The water seems to be a murky white although the fish seem to have not been affected by it, it is rather unsightly,
i have done tests for ph, kh, gh, no2 and no3. but all are within the stated safe levels.

just woundered if this will affect the fish in the long term and will it go away as quick as it came (over night)

many thank

 

[stubedoo]

I am a complete newbie to fishkeeping, so I'm far from the best person to answer this... but I've heard a sudden cloudyness of water is likely to be a bacterial bloom.

I am most probably wrong though, so please wait for someone more experienced to advise.

 

[smegforbrains]

It could be a bloom.


Just keep up your regular maintenance and it should clear in a few days.

 

[Sam_Burnett]

hi thanks for that i feel relieved its nothing too serious but now im looking at my siamease fighter sid vicious and he looks ill,
his fins underneath look almost shredded and stuck together, would this have ne thing to do with the water
or if not what can it be

 

[smegforbrains]

Possible, but without test results we don't know enough about your water quality. A list of stock would help too

 

[Sam_Burnett]

Possible, but without test results we don't know enough about your water quality. A list of stock would help too

i have 1 siamease flying fox, 6 lampeye, 5 amanda tetra, 5 neon tetra,, 3female swordtail, 1male sword, 3 g;ass catfish and a dwarf congo frog.

the tank is 48 uk gallons
the test results are ph 7.2
kh 6
gh 10
no2 5
no3 0
hope that helps.

 

[JustKia]

What is your ammonia reading?
You'll need to do a water change to bring the nitrItes down, and I'll suspect that you may have high ammonia too.
Remember to dechlor your water and if you can try to temp match so you reduce the stress on what bacs you do have (but don't use hot water from the tap if you have a hot water tank as apparently there can be issues with copper(?) if you do that).
Sounds like your tank isn't cycled, so if you're going to keep the fish there's an awesome guide by Miss Wiggles on here that explains everything better than I could.
Also tetras are known fin-nippers and are likely culprits to your siamese fighter looking tatty and shredded.

Edit to add
Miss Wiggles' post on cycling http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=175355