Water permanently cloudy and fish skittish?

[Killerbro511]

Pack as much carbon as you can without risking overflowing the filter. do your diligent water changes. vacuum by sections.

I differ from Gary on that point. OTS is perfectly reversible as long as it doesn't reach swamp level. And adequate measures are taken to reduce all forms of nutrients to a low level. And maintained afterward.

Carbon will not help with phosphorus and if the fish where good for the last years, I doubt it's the cause but it can participate. it's the other building compounds that creates your new haze that are targeted. those are byproducts of solid and chemical waste dissolved. Bacteria multiply from this food, consume all oxygen, make beneficial bacteria die ammonia rise follows, fish start to panic. Removing this compound is key.

Also I agree that your could remove some substrate to lower that to 1-1/2 inch. These soils are very rich in nutrients and when not consumed or rinsed with water changes they build up in the substrates and emanation of concentrated nutrients can occur when it gets disrupted.

Cheers im going to continue doing frequent water changes for the forseeable future and monitor the water quality and such. How often do you reckon I should change the carbon?

See id lower the substrate if i could though idk if that is like feasible without like permanently screwing the water and fully restarting as im pretty sure itd release just about everything in it. So i might just have to stick with the occasional gravel vac like someone mentioned.

once again thanks.

 

[MaloK]

Change it every week until the problem is resolved.