very cloudy water

hi again ..as you know i am new to all this and have just set up a 190ltr tank .. i have spent a lot of money this week on water treatments ..some for helping the filter .some for putting in bacteria ..but i cant seem to get the water anyway clear..my ph is just over 6 and allthe other level's look to be ok ..my fish seem happy ..well the ones i get a peep at when they come up to the glass .. i am only feeding them once a day ..just a tiny amount and i removed about 12 litres night before last and replaced with water treated with easylife ? i have amonia remover and carbon in my filter aswell as polishing pads and bioball thingy's ..i dont know what to do ..do i just leave it for a while or should i replace more of the water ? i am using the 6 in 1 test strips at the moment but if i can afford it ..this weekend i will buy the full testing kit ..what are the most important things to watch out for regarding water levels ..i am a worrier at the best of times ..just dont want to loss my fish due to ignorance ..thanks guys

Hi Suki,

It sounds like a bacterial boom in the tank. How long has your tank been up and running? assuming the tank has cycled completly, you just need to keep an eye on your nitrate, nitrite and ammona levels.

you can get a bacterial boom in your tank, causing it to go very cloudy if you add a lot of new fish at the same time, or if the filters are not mature enough to handle the load (ammount of fish in the tank). hope this is of some help to you.

-Brian

i have this tank set up just over a week but squeezed out a dirty filter from my smaller tank to add and speed up the process..is this cloudiness good or bad ? does it mean things are well ? and how long would i expect it to last for ?there are 6 small tetra ..2 swoard tails ..6 danio's and 4 rainbow fish in there ..i have about another 10 small fish in my small tank that i will transfer when i get the new tank under control ..should i do small water changes daily to get rid of the coudiness ? thankyou for the help.

i thought removing a lot of water would mean that your taking away the bacteria needed ? i am sure no one else has been feeding my fish but i have told them here just now that they are not to do it !! i will buy the test kit this week and am also thinking of trying the organic aqua ..if i can get some locally ..i will change 25 litres tonight when i get back from shopping and get the rascels to bed ..thanks guys ..ber ..just a question ..could it be a faulty filter ? or maybe something that was in the filter ..as i bought it second had ? i washed the sand and gravel very well yes ..

It its only set up a week, i personally would not have even consided putting any fish into the tank! i would have left the tank for a minimum of 3, or 4 weeks before starting to introduce the fish, even with seeding the new filter with an old one. i would think that the filter is having a hard time handling the ammount of fish in the tank, as it is so new. i would say to do some big water changes (at least 1/4 of the complete tank volume) every 2-3 days for the next week or two.

As john said, invest in a propper test kit, and monitor the levels very closely. although the filter medium and carbon will remove anything in suspension, they will not clear a bacterial boom in the tank instantly. This will clear as the filter matures, and is able to cope with the load on it. for now, i would suggest plenty more water changes!

-Brian

Hi Suki,

i'm also new to this hobby too but must say i'm falling in love more each day with it.
I also had what your describing after a few weeks setting up my tank.
I was using aquasafe and this was happening and now i have switched over to a product called PRIME its abit smeely once you open it but thats ok.
I did 25% water changes in my case 50l treating the replacement water with this prime and bringing it to same temp as tank and using an airstone for airation every second/third day and after 2/3 changes it was ok.
Hope you find this helpful check out my earlier post Bacteria bloom its in begingers section and have a read through it as i got some great advice here.
Martin

JohnH wrote:

I'm a bit confused as Easylife is supposed to clear cloudy water - any other suggestions, lads?

Easylife lfm can cloud the water for a day or so if you add the recommended monthly dose to a tank.
If it is used as a dechlorinator you would be using less and it would cloud the water slightly but not for long.
Double check the instructions so you know if this product is causing the cloudiness.

cut out feeding while the water is cloudy. this will reduce the bio load and the fish will be fine without food for a few days.
also as john mentions gravel can cause cloudiness. i added gravel (cleaned but not cleaned enough) to an established tank recently and it looked like milk for a few days.

thankyou so much for all the information so far ..i have bought the nutrafin master test kit and run all the tests ..slight .less than 0.6 ammonia ..ph is 5 .. low ... and slight no3 ..no2 is clear ..i took out 36ltr's lst night and water is still the same ..i have added some ph up ..so hopefully it will bring it up a bit ..should i do another water change again tonight or leave it for now ? i asked in petmania today about the organic aqua and the assisant said that she wouldn't recomend it as they used it and they had a lot of deaths ..is it true that you dont need to filter your tank with it ...and just use airstone ??the organic aqua would have cost me €15 to start up then a further €20 a month after that ..i thing this is very expensive !! dont think i will try it !!its lovely to be in a forum where you get a speedy response ..thanks so much for all your help

Hi there,

Ok here we go, if it's suspended particulates you have, and I guess they are as cloudy water is due to either mineral or organic thingies being visable and not settling out of the water or dying, if you can rule out a bacterial bloom then you can buy a treatment that causes the suspended stuff to become colloidal, that is, form into lumps or groups which should settle out of the water and sink or be filtered.

I know this liquid treatment is available in pet shops.

Kev.

hiya kev "
yes i have already bought a thing called "filter aid"it is meant to do exactly what you are discribing but it says not to use with a ph lower than 6.4 .are my fish gonna be ok ?? i tried my best to catch them last night to transfer them but i couldn't catch them and didn't want to give them a heart attack ,,to be honest the ph in my small tank is also low ..so i dont think there is much point in moving them ? i wouldn't say it was susspended particals but more like green water ..should i try green away ??

Hiya Suki,

Green water will only thrive as long as there is a source of nutrient, check how much you are feeding your fish, miss every second day, it won't harm the fish, it will make them behave naturally, foraging on stuff within your Aquarium. I hate suggesting this and that, as you end up with an Alchemists Cupboard full of chemicals that go out of date or are never used. But......... you can use Poly filter, expensive but it rids your tank rapidly of Ammonia, basic food for algae etc, you only need to use a bit of it.

Kev.

Hi again,

I just plagerised this from another Website.


Sounds like your aquarium is going through the normal occurance of ammonia spikes and cloudy water. The cloudiness is caused by a sudden appearance of nutrients in a aquarium in which bacteria and possibly even infusoria which are feeding on those nutrients and their numbers are clouding the water. This is all due because your aquarium is not yet established in the nutrient level and the bacteria population. The ammonia level in your tank must be lowered down. 6ppm is very high and I worry your fish are suffering. Anytime your ammonia goes above safe bounds, immediately do a 50% water change. It's important to test after each water change to insure it was effective enough to lower the ammonia down considerably.
~Having some algae in your aquarium is not a great cause of concern. But excess means that there is likely something not quite right in the water. For example, an overabundance of green algae sometimes to the point of where the water appears 'pea-soup' green, that is due to pollution in the aquarium. Oftentimes do to high nitrates.

I have dealt with several of my aquariums in the past that had persistant cloudy water. Including a 55gal cichlid aquarium. During all that time, I have found that 98% of the time, water clarifiers do not do the job they claim. I have personally found that the best cure for this is daily 30-50% water changes until the aquarium clears. It may seem like forever, and this will take a lot of patience. But I can tell you that this method of curing cloudy water has never failed on me. It's hard to do large water changes like that on such a big tank as a 50-55gal. But that's all part of owning and commiting to an aquarium. It will clear with time I promise!
best of luck!

This is the Website.

en.allexperts.com/q/Freshwater-Aquarium-3216/Cloudy-Water-4.htm

Kev.

thanks so much
i have done another partial water change about 25 ltrs..used stress coat and stress zyme in the water and a bit of ph up ..i will continue this over the next few days while keeping an eye on the levels ..my ammonia was only 0.6 ..just a low reading ..my ph was quiet low in the 5's ..feel free anyone to comment or advise if you think i'm doing something wrong ....best wishes ber X