cause of cloudiness
- Thread starter chrysler_12
- Start date
If you fish tank is going through the cycling process I would say, cloudiness is due to bacterial bloom.
But if your tank has being up and running for while and has already gone through the cycling process, it is more than likely excess of minerals in your water.
How frequently do you change your water?
Rohn
But if your tank has being up and running for while and has already gone through the cycling process, it is more than likely excess of minerals in your water.
How frequently do you change your water?
Rohn
When you're doing your water changes, and adding the fertlizer in there, that's probably what keeps making your tank cloudy. I put fertilizer in my 10 that I'm cycling now, and it took a good 2-3 days before it was completely clear. Also, how often do you change your filter media? Usually changing it monthly will help in keeping the tank a little more clear.
As I pointed out earlier it is definetly a excess of minerals in your water.
I am never recomend anyone to add chemical to clraify the water quality.
You must first find out where this minerals are are comming from. It might be a difficult since they are can be anything from something dissolved in water to any you add to the substrate.
Rohn
I am never recomend anyone to add chemical to clraify the water quality.
You must first find out where this minerals are are comming from. It might be a difficult since they are can be anything from something dissolved in water to any you add to the substrate.
Rohn
Yeah, I would have to go with Rohn first, rule out bacteria bloom. usually water changes will clear this up. that is usually the culprit with white cloudy tank problems. Next, I also would not advise using chemicals to clear it without knowing what it is. Using Ammoloc will give you false ammonia readings if indeed you do have ammonia, have you checked this already? And if you don't have ammonia, why use ammoloc? Here is a link on cloudy water I saw here once before, just a little more info. Good luck,
http://www.totallyfish.com/tips/cloudywater.html
http://www.totallyfish.com/tips/cloudywater.html
what no one has mentioned yet and it very possibly is....did u do any vacuum cleans..iuf u have alot of debris buildup in the gravel it will cause cloudiness over time....if u havent u need to do heavy vaccuum cleans when u do a water change and u will see so much black crap get syphoned up...excess debris i think will cause amonia to shoot up causing a bacteria bloom/cloudy water....u dont need to add chemicals as of yet do good cleAns and also clean the filter media
I agree with snoce...have you done some big water changes in conjunction with RINSING OUT your filter media? (I rarely if ever replace my filter media...that alone could be causing a bacteria bloom.) New tanks have a tendency to be cloudy sometimes, and it just goes away after awhile. Chemicals rarely if ever solve something...its just wasting money on something that will keep coming back if you dont figure out what the cause is. For instance ammolock (which btw has NOTHING to do with cloudyness whatsoever) costs money, you put it in your tank/filter and it supposedly makes ammonia safe for your fish. If you cycled your tank properly you would know that your ammonia is completely gone after a couple of days naturally and will never come back unless you overstock the tank or increase the bioload immensely. Instead you put ammolock in and it gives you false readings for a very long time and you never quite know what the deal is.
If an overage of some type of mineral isn't the cause...and you do regular maintenance (25+% of water every week including gravel vaccuuming)...I'd do a couple of big water changes 50%+ and then do a blackout for a couple of days. If its still cloudy, you could try some fresh carbon in your filter for a week or so...to see if it will pull out whatever it is. If that doesn't work then you could try a particulate clear product like Pclear (made by hagen) that clumps particles together so a filter can pick them up more easily. The only time that will work though is if you put a brand new filter cartridge in, add the product, wait the reccomended 24 hours, do it again if necessary, and then completely change the cartridge again. BUT it doesnt sound like your cloudyness is really that big of an issue...it could just be minerals or dirt in your water...so I'd go through all the factors first and see if you can find the cause before trying any 'magical' cures.
ReverendShmoove - I would just do your research right here on MFT. Once you decide what you'd like to buy you can always check out www.bigalsonline.com or www.petsmart.com or your local stores to do some pricing. If your problem is cloudyness...do a search on MFT for other people with similar problems...because a LOT of people have issues with this. Dont feel like you have to reinvent the wheel.
If an overage of some type of mineral isn't the cause...and you do regular maintenance (25+% of water every week including gravel vaccuuming)...I'd do a couple of big water changes 50%+ and then do a blackout for a couple of days. If its still cloudy, you could try some fresh carbon in your filter for a week or so...to see if it will pull out whatever it is. If that doesn't work then you could try a particulate clear product like Pclear (made by hagen) that clumps particles together so a filter can pick them up more easily. The only time that will work though is if you put a brand new filter cartridge in, add the product, wait the reccomended 24 hours, do it again if necessary, and then completely change the cartridge again. BUT it doesnt sound like your cloudyness is really that big of an issue...it could just be minerals or dirt in your water...so I'd go through all the factors first and see if you can find the cause before trying any 'magical' cures.
ReverendShmoove - I would just do your research right here on MFT. Once you decide what you'd like to buy you can always check out www.bigalsonline.com or www.petsmart.com or your local stores to do some pricing. If your problem is cloudyness...do a search on MFT for other people with similar problems...because a LOT of people have issues with this. Dont feel like you have to reinvent the wheel.
pclear works very well i have used it a few times for green or cloudy water...what i do for a blackout is...first scrap the inside glass of green algae then do a 20%water change and gravel clean then add pclear then cover the tank....the pclear will clump all algae and bacteria together so the filter can do its job better...the next day uncover and it should look better...do another water change and this time rinse the filter media in the tank water(in the bucket) u will notice how green and dirty the media will be from just 1 night of filtering, thats from the pclear clumping stuff together...refill the water add another dose of pclear and recover...next day uncover and it should be even better...do another w.c and filter media clean along with some gravel clean but no need to add pclear this time refill with water and cover for a 3rd day...by the 4th day it should be perfect and should stay perfect...now for general maintenance i would do a w.c and gravel clean every 7 to 10 days also clean the filter media....try to keep to this same routine and ur water should be fine from now on as long as u keep up with the same cleaning on a weekly basis...this is how i maintain mine and i really never take any water readings (i know i should) and my water quality is always clear and my fish never die...havent had a death in bout 2 years...try this for whoever has a bacteria bloom or green water...for cloudy water it may just need a good vaccuum clean