10g cloudy question

[WickedClown4Lf]

my girlfriend ahd a 10 gallon tank with mollys and platys in it and the mollys and platys both just had babys about a month ago and the water is really cloudy and we have tried water changes every other day or so and once the babys get big enough she plans to get rid fo some of them sence theirs about 30 in the tank any idea how to get the water not so cloudy

[daveedka]

We'll need a lot more info to be able to help you . I.e. what filtration, how much food, is it green cloudy or white cloudy, or just suspended waste cloudy. Test number could be helpfull as well. Put some water in a glass jar and hold it in front of white paper, green cloudy doesn't always look green until it reaches pea soup thickness. If the fish are happyand healthy and your ammonia and nitrite are 0 I would surmise Green water. If it is a new tank it could also be a bacteria bloom that will take care of itself.
Let us know some more.
dave

[WickedClown4Lf]

well the filtration is pritty much a wisper and it looks like a white cloudy and the food doesent seem like its making a big deal they pritty much eat what she puts in their she needs a gravel vaccum btu she cant use one right now because teh babys are still to small and the tank is somewhat new she has had an ick outbreak and a fungus outbreak but she treated them but it might be bacteria bloom

[Otocinclus]

Throw a bag of activated carbon in the filter and see what happens. If it clears then gets cloudy again, something is really not right. You can throw the bag of carbon away after a few days, as thats all it will effective for anyway.

Some LFS's will do water tests for you (but most charge a small fee) if they can identify a big problem or inbalance, post it and people here can then give you all kinds of good advice.

[WickedClown4Lf]

not really familiar with a big of activated carbon actually i have nver head of it any way u can explain what it is

[Otocinclus]

Activated carbon is a highly absorbent form of carbon, the aquarium form looks like small black rocks. More specifically... (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oi=defmore&q=define:ACTIVATED+CARBON)

From a few searches it looks like the standard whisper series filter media is a bag of a combination of carbon and mesh stuff. Something like this?

(http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444177 6781&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030140&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673314606&bmUID=1094000602339)Assuming it does have carbon in it, I guess you could simply get a new cartridge for your filter, but it looks like theres hardly any carbon in those things. You should be able to fit a full bag of carbon for a different filter such as this aqua clear bag (http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=114&PROD_ID=01005970020101)

Activated carbon is not used as much these days because it can sometimes compete with bacterial colonies and plants, promotes algae, and particularly because it looses its effectiveness within days. I mentioned it because its often a quick fix for cloudy water, but its not necessarily going to be a solution.

If you are serious about fixing your problem you really should do some water tests.

[WickedClown4Lf]

thinks for the help

[LongTime]

With an ich and fungus problem I am starting to think there are major tank problems. Get the water tested and give us the numbers. How many adult fish do you have in with the 30 babies? It has got to be crowded.