Cloudy Water in a 3 month old tank

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bartnl

Small Fish
#1
Jan 30, 2009
35
0
0
#1
I've had a tank up for 3 months and for the past 4 weeks the water has been really cloudy. I check my water weekly with the master kit and everything is fine. Went to the LFC and had po4 tested, came up 2.0ppm. I don't know what to do with this tank. I bought an aquaclear 50 filter about 2 weeks ago and still nothing. I bought a timer a couple days ago so the light is on only 8hrs/day. I will appreciate any help I get. This is a 29 gallon tank btw.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
PO4: 2
 

sombunya

sombunya

Large Fish
#2
Jul 25, 2008
304
0
0
67
So. Cal. USA
#2
I don't know what PO4 is but your other three params look good.

Try a 50% water change using dechlorinated water, of course. I advise using PRIME to treat the water. It only takes a little.

As long as it appears to be flowing well don't touch the filter. My opinion is; as long as the temperature is okay and the water properly treated, you can change it as often as you like because the good, nitrifying bacteria are in the filter, substrate, decorations etc. Very little good bacteria floating in the water, although there is some there.

And is it getting any sunlight? That will mess with the water quality too.
 

bmoraski

bmoraski

Large Fish
#3
Mar 9, 2009
604
2
18
Upstate NY
#3
bartnl said:
I've had a tank up for 3 months and for the past 4 weeks the water has been really cloudy. I check my water weekly with the master kit and everything is fine. Went to the LFC and had po4 tested, came up 2.0ppm. I don't know what to do with this tank. I bought an aquaclear 50 filter about 2 weeks ago and still nothing. I bought a timer a couple days ago so the light is on only 8hrs/day. I will appreciate any help I get. This is a 29 gallon tank btw.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
PO4: 2
Click to expand...
sunlight was messing me up because position of sun changed how it comes in my room and was leaving light on tooooo many hours
as a result my biggest problem was lots of algae !

i dont know what PO4 is but other params look good
good luck

Bryan.......................
 

simplyfish

simplyfish

Medium Fish
#5
Feb 18, 2008
89
0
0
#5
How cloudy is cloudy? Like fog you can't see through or just not crystal clear?

My tank has gone just a little less than crystal a few times. I had an initial 'bloom' a few weeks after setting up where I could hardly see the back o the tank. Since then most of the time my water is crystal but occasionally it is not quite what I like it to be. I find leaving things alone can sometimes help, there is an enormous temptation to mess around with things if it doesn't look quite right, but if you are generally doing things right and the water params are fine then maybe just let it run for a time see if it clears up.

Things you might want to consider: over feeding / too much sun / new decorations can all cause little problems, if any of these come in to play, then make amends but maybe sit tight for a while and watch what happens.
 

B

bartnl

Small Fish
#6
Jan 30, 2009
35
0
0
#6
ya during spring break 3 weeks ago the light was on for a week straight and there was a lot of sun coming in(I wasn't here to take care of it so i had a friend feed the fish). And by cloudy i meant that it's not crystal clear and its bothering me. I haven't added any fish to the tank since the 2nd week of having this tank. Should I keep the filter(made for a 50 gallon tank) at full blast? I have a 30g tank.
 

Whiskers

Whiskers

Large Fish
#7
Feb 29, 2008
425
1
18
central Michigan USA
#7
yah i would say let the filter run at full speed. better to have "too much filtration" than not enough, not that you can have too much filtration. i try to turn my water over 10x's the gal in the tank. in a 30 gal tank i would have filtration that moves 300+ gal per hr or as close to it as i can get. it made a diff in my 55gal thats for sure.
 

B

bartnl

Small Fish
#8
Jan 30, 2009
35
0
0
#8
i have been running the 50gal filter on my 30g tank on full power and the tank is still not clean after a week. It just looks like there is little pebbles in the water and i also see what looks like poop floating also. i don't know what to do.
 

homebunnyj

homebunnyj

Superstar Fish
#9
Jul 13, 2005
1,299
4
0
Western NC
#9
If you do weekly water changes then it's time for one anyway. Change the water, maybe up to 50%?? -- being sure to vacuum really well. Surely that will get some of the stuff out.

If your roommate overfed your fish while you were out of town, there probably is a bunch of excess poo and other stuff in the tank.
 

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