my poor tank

[bethkira2000]

about a week ago I added two kinds of live plants, now my tank is all cloudy. Is it because of the plants, do I have to take them out, or do I add something to help. Please tell me what I need to do.:uhoh:

[Rbishop]

Can you tell us a bit more about your tank...?

Size, how long established, how many/what kind of fish? What kind of plants?

Current water parameters?

[bethkira2000]

28789everything I have tested is normal, or where it is safe, it is a 55g with 10 fish,
eight gourami, and two tetras. I don't know what exact kind of plant but I will put a pic on here.

[b19fish]

i have a few ideas that might be the problem you could be over feeding the fish or you could have the fistank light on for to long you should do a water change a least twice a month.

[bethkira2000]

I just did a whole cleaning and tank change down to nothing two weeks ago, and The light is only on for day time hours, so like 6 in the morning until 6 at night, and I might be over feeding but nothing else is wrong.

[wataugachicken]

what exactly did you do during this "whole cleaning and tank change down to nothing"? i think that is the most likely cause of your problem right there.

[bethkira2000]

we took out everything, and cleaned it including the gravel, we changed the filter, and then put it all back together. Everything was fine until we added the plants. Which was about a week later. But all the plants seem to have begun to turn brown, and the floaters have been sucked to the filter, and stayed there. And I have had this tank with most of these fish for two years.

[Marinemom]

What kind of lighting do you have on the tank?I don't think the plants have anything to do with the cloudy water. Why did you break down the tank? That is most likely the problem right there since you have now forced the tank into a new cycle. Cleaning it that way most likely killed all of the good bacteria needed to help the tank be safe for the fish and plants to live in. What is you water change schedule like? How often and how much? How big is the tank? We need more info on the tank which will help us help you with this problem.

Marinemom

[wataugachicken]

we took out everything, and cleaned it including the gravel, we changed the filter, and then put it all back together. Everything was fine until we added the plants. Which was about a week later. But all the plants seem to have begun to turn brown, and the floaters have been sucked to the filter, and stayed there. And I have had this tank with most of these fish for two years.

tanks stay nice and stable because of the beneficial bacteria that turn fish wastes into nontoxic compunds, which can be removed through water changes. when you totally broke the tank down and cleaned it, and changed the filter, you completely killed off all of your good bacteria, allowing ammonia to build up in the tank during this time. the plants dying and breaking down is adding even more bad chemicals into the water, and the cloudiness you are seeing is a bacterial bloom due to all the "free food" in the water - ammonia, nitrites, decomposing plant bits, etc.

do you do water changes for the tank? how much and how often?
how often do you "break the tank down" and clean it completely?
what kind of test kit are you using? strips or a liquid kit?
what are the EXACT numbers for the tests?

[Rbishop]

What are the exct ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings? Liquid test kit, or dip strips?

[Viettxboii]

did you clean them out in tap water?

[Star_Rider]

I suspect your full tank cleaning may have caused a bacterial bloom.

you need to also check your water parameters as this full cleaning can be harmful to the tanks bacteria in the cycle.

in any case the 'white ' water is most likely due to an imbalance in the tank.

can you post the water parameters. Ammonia, Nitrites, nitrates?
btw,, full tank cleanings are rarely done..once established tanks need regular water changes and most of the mulm is handled thru gravel vac's

[bethkira2000]

the full cleaning has only been done twice. Once when half my fish were dying off due to a parasite infestation, and now. My test kit that I use is dtrips, and the readings are as follows:nitrate 0, nitrite 0,water soft,alkalinity moderate-ideal, ph 7.8. I usually do a 25% water change once a month, and that works for me. But with the total cleaning I am going to wait a while. The fish themselves are fine, but the water is reeally a problem.Oh and my light is the regular flourescent that comes with the tank.

[wataugachicken]

the dip test strips that you are using are almost notoriously inaccurate. plus, they don't have the most important test that you need - ammonia. ammonia is the first thing produced by the fish and by the decaying plants - the reason you are showing 0 in both nitrates and nitrites is because there are no bacteria present to convert the ammonia into either of those chemicals. if your bacterial colonies were working properly, you would have a nitrate reading.

[bethkira2000]

My test strips happen to be one the best out there. And I have freshwater and high nitrite levels are not good for a tank. My bacteria level is fine we have a bio filter and never changed that. And that is where most of our bacteria is.

[wataugachicken]

soo. . . . what about those ammonia readings?

if your bacteria level was fine, you wouldn't be having a huge problem with cloudy water. and while nitrites (with an I) are not good for the tank, nitrates (with an A) are an indicator of proper bacterial function. no nitrates almost always equals no bacterial cycle. a heavily planted tank can use up nitrates, but your two dying plants are not going to do that.

what kind of biofilter do you have? how long was it dry while you were breaking down the tank? did you clean it? maybe rinse it in tap water?

[Rbishop]

I haven't found any test dip strip to be reliable.

Could you post your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings..?

[Linariel]

My test strips happen to be one the best out there. And I have freshwater and high nitrite levels are not good for a tank. My bacteria level is fine we have a bio filter and never changed that. And that is where most of our bacteria is.

They might be a good brand, but any test strip is subject to absorbing moisture from the air. So that messes with the chemicals on the strip, making your readings inaccurate.

Ammonia and nitrite are the two things you need to worry about right now.

The cloudiness probably has nothing to do with the plants, but just coincided with the bacterial bloom from you cleaning your tank.

How did you ensure the bacteria did not die on the bio wheel while you cleaned everything? Did you keep it in a bucket of water with aeration? Otherwise it's probably devoid of life.

And it's not just the biowheel that holds good bacteria, by cleaning out all the gravel you probably lost most of it right there.

[khombre]

Get something to measure your ammonia levels. Your 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates probably means that you have an uncycled tank with ammonia>0 readings. Just like what everyone said, you could have "un-cycled" (if there is such a word) your tank by completely breaking it down.

If you happen to have ammonia readings greater than 0, counter it by doing frequent partial water changes. I don't think the plant has anything to do with your cloudy water.:)

[Lady G]

I had a tank do this to me once...was using the same test strips, everyone here convinced me to buy a liquid test kit once I did I found out my nitrates/nitrites, ammonia (not sure now which trates or trites) it's been a while anyway they were way off. I had to do 30-50% water changes every 2-3 days for a while until my levels were all safe after that, I have mantianed about a 30% WC once a week and have not had a problem since.

[bethkira2000]

okay, okay I give, I went out yesterday and bought some things for my tank. Sadly I lost my prized red gourami after I did a 25% water change. I bought some Start Right with Allantoin, and added it last night, and I bought some Stress Zyme and put that in. I found out that te bio filter was infact cleaned and removed of all life. So my apologies to wataugachicken, and everyone else. I hope now to save the rest of my fish and once it stabilizes I will purchase my red gourami again. My thanks to everyone who helped me, and put up with me.

[Star_Rider]

the chemicals you add will most likely not help the problem you face.

you will basically have to recycle your tank.

you will need to test daily ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. these will give you an idea of how toxic the tank may be.
the ammonia and nitrites should not get above .25 ppm to keep the levels low you will need to do daily water changes.
if the levels get higher than that you will continue to lose fish.

after the tank has cycled you may want to consider weekly water changes..if you can;t do that consider every other week.
the proble you can face by doing monthly tank maintenance is what is know as OTS(old tank syndrome) where the fish get use to high nitrate levels and sudden drops in the nitrates may cuase issues or death. by doing more frequent changes you reduce the nitrates and stave off OTS.

[bethkira2000]

Umm thank you,star_rider, however my levels were all tested bi-weekly and were alway normal, that wasn't the problem. The problem was we boke the whole tank own, and cleaned everything, and I mean everything. So the levels are all at zero, meaning I have no bacteria in my bio filters, and they are not breaking down ammonia. So it would basically be like a brand new tank, never having fish in it.

[kimmisc]

Tested bi-weekly with dip strips, right?

[n0zqh]

My test strips happen to be one the best out there. And I have freshwater and high nitrite levels are not good for a tank. My bacteria level is fine we have a bio filter and never changed that. And that is where most of our bacteria is.


I did that once relying on my bio-wheel to keep the cycle going, and washed out my gravel. I just started up a new cycle by doing that because my gravel was loaded with bacteria and I'd just killed it off.