Cork and Yellow Water?

[Mturner615]

Hey all,

I know I'm far from a beginner, but I can't find any possible solutions to my problem anywhere...

I have a 29g turtle tank that I have recently set up (yes, I'm aware it's not primarily for fish, but there are some guppies and cories in there).

The tank worked wonderfully for the first 3 weeks, but now, the tank has a yellow-ish cloudiness. My first thought was bacterial bloom, but I have never had this happen with such a strange color, and my tank chemistries are showing otherwise...

I originally had a piece of cork floating in the tank in addition to a plastic basking area for the turtles, and my only thought is that the cork was bleeding out tannin-like chemicals and giving the water a yellow-ish color. Thoughts?

I am running I fluval U3, a 145gph sponge filter, and have a 50gph aeration. I've been performing 25-50% water changes every few days, and still no response.

I have attached a picture of the tanks, and my chemistries are as follows:

pH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm

 

[FroggyFox]

is the cork still floating in there? That was my first thought...but if the cork isn't in there...can you tell us what else you have in the tank? (what substrate, any rocks? any driftwood?)

 

[Mturner615]

The cork has been removed, and there are some silk plants and river rocks. The substrate is regular aquarium gravel.

Other than the filters that I have listed above, there is nothing else in the tank besides water, the animals, and an acrylic turtle ramp. There's no driftwood or anything that could release anything

 

[FroggyFox]

Your nitrate seems a little high for doing as many water changes as you are...but I don't know how turtles change the chemistry...

Maybe you should do one really big water change and then try larger water changes less often?

When you change water are you turning your filter off so that chlorinated water won't come into contact with the filter media and mess with your bacteria colonies? You said this is a relatively new tank right? Your bacteria is probably still trying to get established.

 

[Mturner615]

Yeah, I've been turning off the filters when I do the water changes. Could it be possible that my tank hasn't even began to establish yet and that's my problem?

Would you recommend I try Stress-zyme or something like that for this tank to give it a jump start?

 

[FroggyFox]

I'm not entirely sure. It wouldn't HURT anything to start using stress zyme if you wanted to try it. I guess I would try a big water change and then give it a week without water changes and see what happens. You can monitor levels and if anything gets up to a dangerous level do a big wc...

Another thought, is the tank getting any direct sunlight? The picture you posted makes the water look kinda brown, but it could also be green?

 

[Mturner615]

It isn't in direct sunlight. It does get some sunlight, but not any more light than my other 29g that is right next to it, and the other 29g isn't having any cloudiness issues.

Here's another picture of the tank that I just took today