Big Sad Sigh

My cloudy tank problem has got so bad that I phoned the shop where I bought the aquarium and asked them to do a house call and check what's wrong.

They agreed but haven't turned up.

The tank was so bad tonight that I could not see the fish swimming in it so I decided not to wait for the aquarium crowd and did another 30% water change. In the course of it I discovered that something thick and cloudy looking is growing in my tank. Some of it broke up and is now lodged in the bottom, some of it floating in tiny bits.

I added the tank treatment to dechlorinate the water and also a filter aid, but is there anything else I can be doing 'till the experts arrive?

Needless to say I am losing fish at the bat of an eyelash!

Sabrina

Have you got any bogwood in the tank. I'm just trying to figure out what you mean by white stuff breaking off...

Regards
Richard

Hi Sabrina,

Do you have a test kit? If so, can you post your water parameters? How long has this tank been up and running? What size is it and what do you have in it?

Sorry for all the questions, but we need a bit more informaiton in order to help you.

have you got tonic salt add one teaspoon for every ten gallons dissolve in warm water before adding to your tank.

then using a net try and remove as much of this solid cloud as you can! look for hidden patches were there may be uneaten food or something trapped.

To answer some of the questions.

The \"cloud\" looks like, well, pieces of toilet paper that have softened and broken up in the water (or even like fluff from a blanket). It came overnight and the tank was completely dark with it this morning. Right now I can at least see my fish through what looks like a snowfall of this stuff.

It's a 260l tropical tank and was set up on 23rd July with mostly gouramis, tetras, and mollys.

There's no \"real\" bogwood, just some very real-looking artificial logs.

I just did a full API test and these are the results:
Ammonia 4
Ph 7.2
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 0

Right now there's a layer of this \"fluff\" coating the bnottom of the tank.

I removed most of my plants as they had black hair algae.

Would I be as well to remove the logs in case there are dead fish inside?<br><br>Post edited by: SabrinaSummerville, at: 2007/08/20 22:18

So sorry, that Nitrate should read 0.

Ammonia 4mg/l? Your tank isn't cycled. Massive water changes (80% with temperate water)and you might as well suck all the white stuff out while you are at it. Keep doing it until your ammonia and nitrite come down to 0. Up to 50mg/l of nitrate is accetable

Hi Sabrina,

Your ammonia is very high. You need to do another water change urgently. I'd day at least 50%. You should monitor daily and try to keep ammonia no higher than 0.25 ppm. That's what's killing your fish.

Your tank has not yet cycled and you have too many fish in there. Frequent water changes are key to minimising future losses.

How much are you feeding each day? For the moment, I wouldn't feed your fish until you get the ammonia well under control.

Whatever is floating in your tank is the least of your problems at the moment.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. As you probably guessed, you have full blown new tank syndome as you added too many fish before your tank was cycled. It's a common mistake, but you can rectify it by monitoring levels and water changes.

havnt had the pleasure of ammonia that bad so i may be wrong here but the white bits sound like the filter media breaking down. i dont know if you have an external or not. but what media do you have? i made a similar boo boo setting my new 240 up 6mths ago. i forgat to rinse the media first:blush: and couldnt work out were the white dust was comig from. just a thought.

I recall that Mr Algae,someone pointed out it was because you hadnt washed your (bio)balls before you put them in the filter!

I have a Juwel tank with standard Juwel filter. I haven't a clue what bio balls are but then mine is a girl tank so I guess I wouldn't

Thats right.
Mr algea did not wash his balls.

Acara wrote:

I recall that Mr Algae,someone pointed out it was because you hadnt washed your (bio)balls before you put them in the filter!

thats because stupid mralgae thought his(bio)balls were clean enough.
it was actually the media that came with the eihem filter i didnt clean:P thats what i thought sabrina my have had in the filter. but not so as it is the standard jewel filter.

Thanks Mr Algae. I'm sure your (bio) balls are now in pristine condition

The stuff in my tank looks like a giant algae grew overnight.

I'm afraid Sabrina that you are back to square one here.
I had the very same problem, but my cloudiness didn't get as bad as yours as I cought it earlier. (If its the same cloudyness).
Basically the cure is simple but effective.
Clean the whole damn thing out and start again with fresh water.
Theres a very strong chance that all the fish you have are going to die, if not now then later as the very high ammonia levels has without a doubt damaged their gills by now.
I took out my fish and put them in a bucket of fresh water around the right temperature (treated for chlorine of course).
Then I took apart the tank.
Plants, rocks everything got cleaned and 100% new water.
The whole thing stank of p!ss, it was disgusting.
Rinse out the filter medium in fresh water if you like, killing what good bacteria you have won't make any difference now.
You can then refill the tank with clean water and bring it up to temp with boiled water. Its easy and quicker.
Then put the fish back in.
They will be better off straight away with clean oxygenated water.
Your filter will now be dead and you absolutely have to boost the cycle with dirty filter medium from the LFS.
Ask nicely first then freak out on them if they won't give some over.
Get about as much as one of the Jewel sponges in size and place it in the middle of the stack of filter blocks. Don't worry if you dirty the clean new water, this will be short lasting. Now you must keep an eye on the water, with regular partial changes, about 1/4 every 3/4 days. And feed sparingly.

During my cycle disaster I lost half my stock before the 'big clean' and only three out of the remaining ten fish after it. In fact I still have 3 of my original Albino Cories and only recently gave away the 4 Gourami.

I'm sure this drastic measure may not go down with all the members here, but it worked for me. Good luck!

SabrinaSummerville wrote:

The stuff in my tank looks like a giant algae grew overnight.

any chance of a picture sabrina?

I'm having problems loading pics on this site. I keep getting messages that they're too big. How do I reduce the size? I am taking my pics in 2mb size but if I reduce them to 1mb will they load?

not 100% sure to be honest. give it a try and see what happens.

up load to photobucket.com and paste links

mwdragondk wrote:

up load to photobucket.com and paste links

just been trying that myself and it wont work for me.

Just download them to photobucket and copy the IMG to this site

apistodiscus wrote:

Just download them to photobucket and copy the IMG to this site

tried that a well but didnt work?comes up with the writing or the little red x box that dosent show the pics.

hay who did that? its working now:huh: when you preview it dosent show the pics only the link code but ifyou post it shows the pic.<br><br>Post edited by: Mr Algae, at: 2007/08/21 14:22

very nice Mr Algae is that two air stones on the left or one air and one co2?

black airstone(now removed) and c02 at the back. plus one algae scraper.

Wow, gorgeous tank! How long is that set up? I want mine to look like that some day.

What's the red and black fish?

Anyway, I think I've solved my problem. I set about sorting it in a major way this afternoon - determined to follow the advice of starting from scratch. When I took out the Juwel manual I discovered that I had never set up the filter pump properly in the first place. No wonder it was a disaster.

One question - can I add BClear or similar to the tank in addition to Fresh Start?

SabrinaSummerville wrote:

Wow, gorgeous tank! How long is that set up? I want mine to look like that some day.

What's the red and black fish?

Anyway, I think I've solved my problem. I set about sorting it in a major way this afternoon - determined to follow the advice of starting from scratch. When I took out the Juwel manual I discovered that I had never set up the filter pump properly in the first place. No wonder it was a disaster.

One question - can I add BClear or similar to the tank in addition to Fresh Start?

thanks sabrina. sory to highjack your post was just trying to down load a test. have a look in the photographs threads for my tank.

any way i dont know if any one else has used BClear but i did and it didnt work for me. my way to clear what you have in the tank would be to put the carbon in the fiter for a couple of days that should clear it up for you if you are sure you have the problem sorted out. it sounds like the pump was in reverse so pumping it all backwrds. the carbon wont do any damage at this stage and wil clear it up. dont leave it in for more than a week though.



ps. if it is the fish in the middle of the tank it is an angel. its actualy black and silver. just the way the light is shineing on it.<br><br>Post edited by: Mr Algae, at: 2007/08/21 22:13

It appears to be the fish below the angel.....

I am interested in what you said about the carbon. My filter is set up so that the carbon sponge is supposed to be there all the time - should it not be?

In fact, the horrible cloudy thing grew when I took out the carbon to medicate that sick gourami whose eye was hanging out.

carbon is always good except when you are using meds.