Clarity is a state of mind…

[Lady Fire]

…and unfortunately not my well established tank.


I’ve had my 55 gal tank set up for months, and the water has stayed clear and beautiful. Happy fish are so AWESOME!!! The levels stayed great, and the fish stayed happy. Unfortunately, something is now amiss bringing cloudy skies to a once crystalline world.

It was an out of the blue thing, and I can’t figure out what’s causing it. The water just clouded up on me, and looks like somebody dumped milk into the tank.

My levels were all good, and I’ve even treated for a very slight algae bloom, (much to the dismay of my algae eater, I’m sure). After more than a week of cloudy water, I did a 50% water change and changed both my charcoal filters a week and a half ago to no avail.

I’ve even tried several of the “over the counter” water clearing treatments that included both fizzy tablets and some sort of red colored stuff that looks like dye. Heck I’ve even tried to just leave it alone thinking it might clear up on its own, but nothing’s helping. Other than the ammonia being a little high at the moment as it recovers from the water change, everything’s pretty good.

I might be a little overcrowded, but everybody seems to be getting along quite well, and the water was clear for months. (I did mysteriously lose a butterfly fish, but that was well after the water clouded up, and I’m hoping I didn’t suck him up in the vaccum. I’ve even moved all the stuff around in there looking for him.)

I’d hate to have to empty out the tank and start over and try to re-establish, but that’s what it seems like I’m going to have to do to clear up the water! If anyone has ANY suggestions (short of electrifying my fish), I’d love to hear them!

Please, please, pretty-please…

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I miss my beautiful tank.

 

[FroggyFox]

"looks like someone spilled milk in the tank" is a bacterial bloom. Something you did upset the bacteria on your filters...you replaced them or cleaned them or accidentally rinsed them with chlorinated water or used a medication/treatment on the tank that made your bacteria go into overdrive.

Best thing to do would be to leave the tank alone. Assuming the green water doesn't come back (and make it milky green, yuck) you just need to let your bacteria settle back in and hope that you dont have to re-cycle the tank.

Emptying the tank out to re-establish makes no sense whatsoever Dont fret. Keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels...if you see either of them jump up more than 1ppm or so you should probably do a water change. Usually messing with it just makes it worse...you just need to leave it alone. The cloudyness only bothers you and really has no effect on your fish whatsoever...

 

[GeraldTheMouse]

Like Froggy said, its a bacterial bloom. Eventually, it will go away.

 

[Lady Fire]

Thank you so much! And yes, it's only driving ME nuts. My fish don't seem to be fussy about it at all.

My amonia level is about 4ppm, and yes, I know that's pretty high. It always seems to spike like that for a short time after I clean and vaccum the tank. I used a slight amount of AmmoBlock, but I do usually prefer to let it clear on it's own. I just don't want to hurt the fish in the process.

I'll do a water change tonight, but I don't want to change TOO much water. I'm wondering if that's what started the whole process to begin with. Any suggestions on how much to change without messing everything up again?

And thank you again!!! I'll sit on my hands and try very hard to leave it alone to balance itself all back out again.

 

[FroggyFox]

Yeah...4ppm is pretty high, you want to do a change...and it sounds like the tank is probably going to have to cycle again...keep an eye on nitrites and nitrates too (if the nitrates start going up thats a good thing, but because you're doing extra water changes you *probably* wont see them go up much) A water change really shouldn't upset anything, since a healthy tank is used to getting like 35% a week at least. To make sure you dont hurt that bacteria on your filter when you do a water change you need to turn your filter off when doing changes. Depending on how you do them and assuming you have a power filter of some kind and not an undergravel filter...generally as long as you dechlorinate your water in the bucket before putting it in the tank or directly before or after you put it in the tank, and its within a few degrees of your tank water you should be fine.

 

[Lady Fire]

Yup, I've got one of those Melinnium 3000 filters that was highly recommended by everyone I spoke with.

I'll do the change tonight, and yes I always turn the filter off. I try not to dump anything straight into it that might fuss with the filters, and I've had really good luck with StressCoat in treating the water.

Thank you again, Froggy. I usually do the water change every other week, but now it looks like I might need to start doing it weekly.