Very Cloudy Water

[Fishoutofwater]

So here is the layout:



I have 19 fish in my 29g. 10 zebra danios, 5 bloodfin tetras, 1 pleco, 2 odessa barbs, and 1 betta.



The lights are on a timer and are on 10 hours a day then there is a blue led light for night time.



I had a Tetra Whisper filter on it while it was cycling then replaced it with an Aquaclea 70 and put the cartridge
from the Whisper at the bottom of the Aquaclear to make sure most of the bacteria transferred(it has been cycled for
a few weeks now) The old cartridge was quite dirty however. I put a piece of driftwood in the tank.



The water started getting very cloudy and I thought at first it was the driftwood so i removed it and boiled it to
leach it. It has not gone back in since yet. I also did a 35% WC at this time. The problem still persisted.



I then thought it was the old cartridge. I removed it and rinsed off the Aquaclear media in tank water and did a 45% WC.
None of these tactics have proven to help whatsoever. It's like I never did them. I didn't even notice a difference in
the clarity of water after each WC. I do not see any physical signs of algae whatsoever.



The water slowly gets more and more cloudy. It looks green in the tank but when i siphon it out it is brown and i
can't even see the bottom of the bucket. Please help. I'd like to know what could be the cause of this and what
steps I need to take to resolve this issue(non chemically is preferred). Thank you.

 

[Baccus]

To me it does sound like a combination of floating algea growth and residual tannins from the timber.

Do you have any live plants in the tank? If not I would add them as they will use up the nutrients that the algea is currently using to grow, also if you don't have other live plants in the tank then there really is no need to have the tank lights on for 10 hours a day. Without live plants in the tank you could easily cut back the light time and this should also help slow down the algea growth.

 

[Fishoutofwater]

To me it does sound like a combination of floating algea growth and residual tannins from the timber.

Do you have any live plants in the tank? If not I would add them as they will use up the nutrients that the algea is currently using to grow, also if you don't have other live plants in the tank then there really is no need to have the tank lights on for 10 hours a day. Without live plants in the tank you could easily cut back the light time and this should also help slow down the algea growth.

Ok so this is night number 2 with no feeding and total blackout. I did a slight peek at the water and nothing has changed. Still as cloudy and green as ever. What are my options at this point please?

 

[jenjen_82]

To me it does sound like a combination of floating algea growth and residual tannins from the timber.

Do you have any live plants in the tank? If not I would add them as they will use up the nutrients that the algea is currently using to grow, also if you don't have other live plants in the tank then there really is no need to have the tank lights on for 10 hours a day. Without live plants in the tank you could easily cut back the light time and this should also help slow down the algea growth.

Ok so this is night number 2 with no feeding and total blackout. I did a slight peek at the water and nothing has changed. Still as cloudy and green as ever. What are my options at this point please?

Add plants if none in already

 

[Fishoutofwater]

Well it has been nearly a week since the blackout and nothing has changed whatsoever so i've given up and taken the blanket off and fed the fish. Could it be possibly be high phosphates in the water causing this? If so what are some steps to reduce the phosphate levels?