in my fish tank....I still have a cloudy water problem in my 30gal. Ive done 40%water changes every other day for the past week now, and its still just as cloudy, my numbers are 0ppm for NO3, NO2 and amonia is at 1.5...which is on its way down from 2ppm before last week. ph is 6.0 and has been there since day one. I dont know what else to do and its really starting to aggrevate me...i'm about to get a 125 gal to transfer them into and i dont want this to happen in it. Does any one have any other ideas or thoughts that we may have overlooked? My 10 gal is still crystal clear. Thanks for any help, i'm at a total loss.
the doom cloud....
- Thread starter FishNthings
- Start date
Bacteria Bloom ??
Sometimes it takes weeks for a tank to clear up for one reason or another. I say patience and continue water changes. Is there anything else in the tank ? I'm guessing you rinsed everything off before putting it in..like the gravel/substrate and decorations, etc.....
There are some types of filter floss that will remove tiny floating particles in your tank...if you care to try those. Or you can try one of the products out there for clearing up cloudy water. All it does I believe is bind itself to the particles to make them large enough to get caught in the filter. You need to clean your filter pad after using it though.
Sometimes it takes weeks for a tank to clear up for one reason or another. I say patience and continue water changes. Is there anything else in the tank ? I'm guessing you rinsed everything off before putting it in..like the gravel/substrate and decorations, etc.....
There are some types of filter floss that will remove tiny floating particles in your tank...if you care to try those. Or you can try one of the products out there for clearing up cloudy water. All it does I believe is bind itself to the particles to make them large enough to get caught in the filter. You need to clean your filter pad after using it though.
EMG, i will look into the floss, hopefully that will help, otherwise i've tried everything else and its been cloudy since i set it up a year ago...i also tried checmicals after about 6 months, and it works for about a week and then gets cloudy again. Holly as for the 10 gal, 0ppm NO3, NO2 and amonia, pH is 6.4. Can the 1.5PPM of ammonia really be the cause?
One thing I think that you are missing is you Still have an ammonia reading. This means that your tank is still cylcing, or is in a mini cycle. A bacteria bloom could very well be your problem. Find out why you have an ammonia reading on a tank that has been set up for a year, fix that problem, and I bet you fix your cloudy water problem. Are you overstocked, are you dechlorinating your water before you put it in the tank, haev you changed any filter media, have you treated for sickness, are you overfeeding, do you possibly have a dead fish, and the list goes on. Have a geat day!!
What type of decorations do you have in your tank ? Could there be something in there that is reacting to your water in some way ?
No i dont have any live plants in the tanks...should i? I was considering it but if its beneficial i was just gonna wait till i set up my new 125 next week. As for the rest of the questions you're all throwing at me...
I thought maybe the ammonia was the problem also, but i dont know why the ammonia is there, and not in my 10 gal at all....what i'm doing wrong or different in the 30gal is beyond me. Which is probably my problem, i dont know why the ammonia is so high and i cant figure out how to get it down, water changes about 40% every other day for the past week hasnt changed it yet.
Dechlorinating my water from the tap consists of me puttin in a granular looking product called "start right" 1tsp./5gallons, overstocked i doubt all i have is a 3" blue lobster, and 3 sharks about 4 inches in length max. (oh and one danio zebra from when i first set the tank up w/ some less expensive fish) This guy has been there since day one. lol filter media someone already suggested and said all i should do is clean the media in old tank water...i do that maybe once every other week. All the fish seem very healthy, always actively swimming around. I cut down from morning and night feedings to just morning due to this problem but apprently thats not it. Deffinatly no dead fish, have had these guys for at least 10 months now and the danio from day one a year or more ago. the only 2 that died so far was one blood fin eaten by the lobster recently (oops) and one danio that managed to get himself stuck in one of the manufactured wholes in the sunken ship decoration i have. Both remains where removed immediatly though.
As for decorations, 2 fake plants, gravel, one of those redish brownish looking cave rocks, and the sunken ship...the filter media was changing colors to kinda match the color of the cave rock, so i thought maybe it was breaking down and constantly clowding my water, so i took it out, and put the one from my 10 gal in b/c my 10 has been crystal clear....this was a week ago, no difference. Otherwise thats it for decorations. And the plastic plants and gravel i have are the same exact kinds i have in my 10 gal, i bought them all at once and just split them up accordingly.
so as of now the only thing i'm not sure about is the ammonia, other than water changes every two days does anyone have ideas how to stableize this ongoing reading of 1-2 ppm??
I thought maybe the ammonia was the problem also, but i dont know why the ammonia is there, and not in my 10 gal at all....what i'm doing wrong or different in the 30gal is beyond me. Which is probably my problem, i dont know why the ammonia is so high and i cant figure out how to get it down, water changes about 40% every other day for the past week hasnt changed it yet.
Dechlorinating my water from the tap consists of me puttin in a granular looking product called "start right" 1tsp./5gallons, overstocked i doubt all i have is a 3" blue lobster, and 3 sharks about 4 inches in length max. (oh and one danio zebra from when i first set the tank up w/ some less expensive fish) This guy has been there since day one. lol filter media someone already suggested and said all i should do is clean the media in old tank water...i do that maybe once every other week. All the fish seem very healthy, always actively swimming around. I cut down from morning and night feedings to just morning due to this problem but apprently thats not it. Deffinatly no dead fish, have had these guys for at least 10 months now and the danio from day one a year or more ago. the only 2 that died so far was one blood fin eaten by the lobster recently (oops) and one danio that managed to get himself stuck in one of the manufactured wholes in the sunken ship decoration i have. Both remains where removed immediatly though.
As for decorations, 2 fake plants, gravel, one of those redish brownish looking cave rocks, and the sunken ship...the filter media was changing colors to kinda match the color of the cave rock, so i thought maybe it was breaking down and constantly clowding my water, so i took it out, and put the one from my 10 gal in b/c my 10 has been crystal clear....this was a week ago, no difference. Otherwise thats it for decorations. And the plastic plants and gravel i have are the same exact kinds i have in my 10 gal, i bought them all at once and just split them up accordingly.
so as of now the only thing i'm not sure about is the ammonia, other than water changes every two days does anyone have ideas how to stableize this ongoing reading of 1-2 ppm??
For now I would stop cleaning my filter moaterial for at least 1 month unless it clogs and won't let the water through. As for the dechloranator, does it remove chloramine also? I may would change this to a liquid kind/different brand. Something is happening to your good bacteria in my opinion. As for the ammonia goes, water changes, vaccuming your gravel is the only things i know to get this level down. Have you by chance used any ammo lock, or other product to lock out ammonia? A note about the filter media, the only time i clean mine is about once every 2 months unless the flow starts to dwindle and causes a lot of water to go through the overflow on the filter. One thing that I am thinking alos is if the water conditioner you are using is not doing its job, then you probably wouldn't notice it that much in the larger aquarium because the bcateria have aleady gottten a good foothold, just a thought. Is there anything else you can think of? No matter how silly it may sound 
Have a great day!!
Have a great day!!hmm, i just ran out of start right after yesterdays water change, and i chucked the bottle, i will check into that tomorrow. Do you recommend any specific brand that you know works good? I'm open to changing stuff, i just used that when i was younger in my 10gal i had w/ simple little goldfish and it always kept them alive for years. I'll deffinatly continue vaccuming and i'll stop cleaning the media for the next month or so. Ive never used ammo-lock...i'll check at the LFS tomorrow nite if they have it should i use it now? As for stupid things i havnt tried yet, the only thing thats in the 30 gal that isnt in the 10 is a plastic painted sunken ship i bought from the LFS...but the color isnt fading or anything like that so i didnt think that would be causing cloudy water. I think i've gone through everything possible so i cant think of what else to do, i want to solve this before i start setting up my 125 though b/c that would be horrible to have a 6ft long tank w/ nasty water in it. That would drive me nuts. Thanks again for all the ideas. (p.s, i just posted a question about filtration for the new tank- 55gal. owners or more please help)(if you can all check that out and give me your .02 i was gonna order tonight, but cant decide if i should get two cannisters or one) thanks again! This site and all you guys/gals rock, so much info!