Help me avoid Crisis!

[Becca12]

This morning my tank has started to get cloudy! There are tons of what seem to be-tiny particles floating in the water! I immediately checked my water quality and came up with this: Ammonia 0 PPM, Nitrite 0 PPM, and Nitrate is around 20 PPM. I did a roughly 40% water change on Sunday. I need to know if this is a concern, and if so how do I fix this??? I know that the time has come to do filter maintenance on my 2 Emperor 400's. Water is starting to very slowly trickle out of the overflows. I have been trying to figure out how I should do this to avoid any spike in my tank. I do not plan on touching the bio wheels as they are turning nicely. I am using the bio3 cartridges from Drs. foster and Smith. Right now they have the carbon bags in them and I want to change those out. I don't plan on using the carbon bags anymore. I wish to replace them with cut pieces of filter floss to make rinsing them out easy.I hope that I can change one cartridge in each filter, and then in a week or so change the other 2. Anyway I am a bit perplexed at this time on how to do this. The water quality seems fine but I cannot explain the cloudy water. It doesn't seem to be bothering my fish at all. Any help would be Greatly Appreciated!:)
Becca

[Virtuoso2K12]

keep up with the water changes.

[Hooked Newbie]

How long has the tank been setup / cycled? It could be a perfectly normal and healthy bacterial bloom.

[jm1212]

could also be an algea bloom

[Becca12]

How long has the tank been setup / cycled? It could be a perfectly normal and healthy bacterial bloom. The tank has been set up for about 3 months, and it has been cycled (fishless) for about 5 weeks. If I were to guess, I would guess Bacterial Bloom, as the cloudyness/particles are not green or brown, or any color actualy LOL. I do water changes weekly without fail.

[J double R]

The tank has been set up for about 3 months, and it has been cycled (fishless) for about 5 weeks. If I were to guess, I would guess Bacterial Bloom, as the cloudyness/particles are not green or brown, or any color actualy LOL. I do water changes weekly without fail.


given the time frame of the cycle, i would definitely call this one a healthy bacterial bloom, as mentioned above by others. :)

keep on keepin on, and it will subside on its own, likely in the next few days. :)

[jaylin]

You're doing everything right. Your tanks sounds like it's settling in nicely. But it is time to start thinking about changing out your filter media. Old carbon is ... not a good thing to keep hanging around in your tank. It reaches capacity and can actually start leaching the nasties it's absorbed back into the tank. Those bio wheels hold an increadible amount of good bacteria. My guess is that if you change out one of your filter cartidges, you won't even see a hick-up in your water parameters. I'd still do them one at a time since the tank is still relatively new, but I don't see changing out a filter cartridge as being problematic for your bio-filter.

[KarlTh]

Old carbon is ... not a good thing to keep hanging around in your tank. It reaches capacity and can actually start leaching the nasties it's absorbed back into the tank.

Only in extremely unusual conditions not generally found in aquaria. I advise leaving it in; it will be colonised with bacteria now and you don't need carbon, so the "full" carbon might as well be left in there as bacterial media.

[Mr. U]

If you want, you can take your carbon packs and swish them in the old tank water you siphoned into a bucket. This will loosen up the "goop" and clean the packs without loss of good bacteria on the packs. I usually throw the bio wheels into another bucket with siphoned water while i hose out the main filter itself (my goldfish are always leaving me with "stuff" to clean out :) ) Good luck!

[Becca12]

Thank you all, for the Very helpful Info! I will slowly start to change out the carbon bags, and introduce new floss filter cartridges. My test kit and I will remain good friends LOL. Thanks Again,
Becca

[jaylin]

Only in extremely unusual conditions not generally found in aquaria. I advise leaving it in; it will be colonised with bacteria now and you don't need carbon, so the "full" carbon might as well be left in there as bacterial media.

That's not true - once that carbon gets filled up you see equilibrium rxn's starting to happen. Whereby some gunk is swapped out for other gunk in an attempt to maintain levels of equilibrium between what's in the carbon and what's in the water.

And the girl has biowheels - why the heck does she need the bacteria on her carbon?? She's already said the filters are so clogged that they're starting to back up. Why do you want to set her up for a fish spill on the carpet?