Water permanently cloudy and fish skittish?

[Killerbro511]

So for context I have had this tank set up for at least 4 years and at some point a while ago I stopped gravel vacuuming because i felt it was kind of uneeded with how heavily planted the tank was. The water has always had a yellowish tint that I never have been able to remove and my LFS and I think its due to high sulphates in my tap water.

So cut to a few weeks ago I decided to buy some more corys and glowlights for my tank and decided itd be a good idea to do a water change before acclimating them and I ended up gravel vaccing a little portion of the tank however little did I know that itd cause a massive headache. There was what I believed to be a natural bacteria bloom after the addition of the extra livestock however after that usual white cloudiness dissipated a permanent darker haze was established. I reckon its due to fine gunk from the substrate being constantly in the water column however I thought after ive done atleast 5 water changes and constant filter media cleaning to remove the excess gunk itd improve but apparently not so im really in need of ideas on how to fix this without having to reset everything. I have thought about trying to vac every last bit of the substrate until none of the gunk remains but whenever I do that it seems to have little to no effect.

I post this in the emergency forum because since this started, one of my glow lights and one of my oldest corydoras dies and the kuhlis I also have in here seem to glass surf a lot more than usual (opposed to the typical hiding) so I'm concerned about how much longer things can remain like this without a massive die off. I also have no way to test my water but after the amount of water changes ive done in the last few weeks (40% per) I doubt ammonia or nitrates are a problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Naughts]

What substrate do you have?

 

[Killerbro511]

What substrate do you have?

ada aqua soil im pretty sure

 

[Naughts]

I haven’t use aqua soil but I don’t think it should be cleaned, for the reason you explained about the fine particles in the water column.

Keep doing the frequent large water changes. It may be that your new fish have introduced a pathogen so the water changes will dilute this and help the fish fight it off.

You might try carbon in the filter for the yellowing if it is still present but the water changes should have negated that.

I would cut a cheap sheet of filter floss at the end of the filter chamber and replace it every couple of days until the water is clearer. Then I would use the more expensive PolyFilter pad to maintain it.

I suspect you weren’t doing weekly water changes so advise this going forward.

 

[seangee]

If you have not been doing regular water changes keep going gradually - continue with a few more 40% changes within a few days of each other to gradually bring your tank water closer to the tap water. Then you can do large changes (75%).
As for the substrate don't try a deep clean yet. If its been largely untouched you could cause a major issue by disturbing it (enough to kill all your fish I'm afraid).
Once you are able to do large water changes clean a small section at a time (like 10% of the tank) and immediately do a large water change.

This will all take several weeks but FWIW the tank is not heavily planted and none of your plants need aqua soil - all the plants you have get their nutrients via the leaves. It may be worth taking the fish out of the tank for a few hours and re-doing the tank using inert river sand or play sand while keeping the filter alive. Substrate should be no more than a couple of cms deep. If you need advice on this ask, plenty of knowlege on the forum.

 

[MaloK]

That sounds like Old Tank Syndrome.

If you can test the water for PH and KH ? Low KH and high acidity can stall the beneficial bacteria and promote the development of undesirable ones.

Also your thickness of substrate is pretty deep, If your water already has high phosphate it can become OTS fuel.

Glass surfing is a sign of stress cause by water conditions that are not acceptable. Not larger water changes should be done atm but more often twice or even trice. But don't go too fast because it's going to be dangerous for your older fishes.

Slow but steady, bring the parameters in your tank to the same as your source... if you vacuum the substrate make sure the disturbed water completely exits the tank before moving. take your time and keep disruption at the lowest possible.

Repeat until balance comes back, then you will be able to do much larger changes.

For the time being I would also suggest using a large amount of activated carbon to put all chances of removing the maximum of dissolve organic compounds and many toxins on your side. it's not a OTS cure, but it sure help a lot. With a very fine mechanical filtration media maintained on daily basis.

You might need to persist more than a month to bring nutrients in the tank to a sane level. You can also cut back on food during this period to help some more.

Make sure you have strong aeration too. The fish should stop surfing the glasses as conditions gets better.

It can take 10-20 sustained water changes to tilt the balance back in place on some setups. Patience and determination.

But overall it's a lot more easy to do and is a lot less stressful than a complete reset.