Very Cloudy Water

[Colin_T]

Maybe those pellets are causing the cloudy water.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Oh tested it after adding double of the amount of ammonia (7 ml) and this morning it read 1 ppm. I must not be using that calculator right. Our tap water is 1ppm to 1.5 ppm. So today I added 12 mls and I'll see what happens late tonight or tomorrow (I don't remember how long I have to wait to test after adding ammonia.) All my other tanks have too much ammonia and I can't even get ammonia in this tank - it is crazy. But at least the water isn't cloudy thanks to rinsing the substrate. If you ever use Seachem Florite for you substrate - there is a red, a "dark" (meaning dark brown) and a black. They say it's softer on the nose and mouth of bottom feeders and it sure doesn't feel that way to me but if I had some real gravel I though about testing it myself. Then thought better of it - I'm getting in way too deep on this fish thing - I have no life.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

But I put the pellets in both tanks - Tank A has NEVER been cloudy, Tank B has always been cloudy. A is Acrylic, B is glass, A always looks dirtier to me than B but B has been cloudy so many times it's the one that gets the most water changes (I was doing it at midnight last night). Maybe I should stop with all the water changes. Oh A has Florite as a substrate and B has regular gravel and it's Florite that is the way dustier substrate so it just really doesn't make sense.

I do have to consistently adjust this stupid little piece of plastic on the filter in B to keep the AquaClear filter tilting forward - in fact I can hear it now. Last night I lost it because it kept falling out so much and now I can't find it - so I crumpled up a piece of paper and stuck it behind the filter, effectively pushing the filter forward and that's the way it will stay. All my tanks use the AquaClear series of filters and all of them have issues with that little plastic piece but not as much as Tank B - which means it's not getting consistent filtration all the time. I refuse to do another water change today - I am sick to death of doing them daily on 1-3 tanks. I have just GOT to be overfeeding the big fish in B - but I swear the food just disappears - maybe they are moving it to the back of the aquarium where I can't see as well - it's funny to watch them pick up these big algae pellets with their tiny little mouths.

 

[thuctoanvietnamese]

That's normal

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Well - good news the cloudiness has significantly reduced from Tank B since I removed 4 large (but peaceful) fish. As you've probably read if you've been reading my posts is that I didn't realize that most (but not all) larger Gourami are semi-aggressive until I saw some being picked on and looked them all up. So that was the real reason for me purchasing a 4th aquarium (plus I wanted a few more smaller fish - all peaceful) - so the tank finally cycled beautifully after about 5 weeks and 5 or 6 doses of ammonia and now zero nitrites and ammonia and a .5 amount of Nitrates - so I did a huge water change, adjusted the PH from over 8.8 to 7 and then added the 4 large fish along with 2 fish from Tank A (because their colors match the colors I want in Tank D and some of the fish I am ordering are going into Tank A)

Anyway - when I got up the next day and looked at Tank B it was far LESS cloudy than the day before - the only thing that changed was the removal of some big pooping fish. I had accidentally overfed them - forgetting I had moved fish out of there - but they still managed to eat every last bite of food as they usually do so I expected the same amount of poop but it's definitely less cloudy. If I have the time and energy on Friday or Saturday I will do a water change and see if the water stays clear longer. These fish really belong in a 55 gallon tank due to their size but I had no place to put a tank that big and was concerned structurally about my old house and the weight. So instead there are just far fewer in the tank now and there is a lot less aggression because they have nobody to pick on. I have some non-Gourami fish in there - 2 Dojo Loaches and 2 Cory's and 2 Bristle-nose plecos so I hope they don't start picking on them. I have never seen a Cory or catfish get picked on - they just don't dare mess with them, but they will give them a little bump sometimes to get out of the way. They always leave the loaches and pleco's alone and the loaches, in particular get right in the thick of things even when all the food aggression is going on. I've never seen them touch them - I actually tried to move them to tank D but these two groups of fish are uncatchable unless you remove all features and all foliage - I know because I've done it once before. So unless they become endangered they will stay in Tank B.

I ordered a semi-small number (that means too many) fish from FishAquaria and they will arrive today at about 10:30 am (so I really should get some sleep so I can get up at 9:30 and be ready for them). I have a spreadsheet that shows where everybody goes and why (I'm old and forget my own logic)

I ordered the new fish yesterday (I've been researching for the last month and may only have issues with one fish with regard to water hardness but supposedly they are amazingly adaptive - Thomasi L188a Plecos (3 of them to go in tank A) I get a ton of algae in Tank A and Acrylic tanks are far harder to clean than glass so I hope these guys do the trick.

And go ahead and laugh at me but I ordered all the colors of the Tetra glo-fish. (and no, I did NOT purchase a Disney castle too). I already had the pink ones and they've just been darling little fish that don't grow too large so I thought I'd have a colorful tank for a change. I don't know much about Tetra's other than what little I've read, but they seem to be popular fish. I got some Albino CoryCats for Tank D as well. Then for Tank A I replaced the Neon blue Dwarf Gourami that my psycho Danio killed and ordered 2 Flame Dwarf Gourami's that are usually out of stock everywhere. So unless I happen to have the plague come through and kill a bunch of fish I am buying no more fish - at least not until I break down and buy another tank. But I am really out of space. I'm starting to look like a hoarder and my usual immaculately clean house is no longer immaculately clean due to all the time spent on water changes and water testing. Tank D is fully cycled. Tank A seems very close to being re-cycled and I think tank B and C are both nearly hopeless. I moved substrate from tank D in to both B and C since I rarely get any nitrites in those tanks- only ammonia and hope I get a little of that nice bacteria.

Should have my new fish in about 5 hours - so off to bed. My cat's been getting really pissed off at me and now is just looking disgusted because I stay up too late - like what does she have to do???