Cloudy Water

[bgourami320]

I came home and checked out my tanks and found whitish/cloudy water
in the 10g. It was perfectly clear this morning, I usually check the tanks before
I leave at 5:30am. The only thing I had in the tank was a piece of zucchini, which I
found floating. The PH on the tank was 6.4 2 days ago, amonia was 0 as well as the nitrites and nitrates 0. I guess I should have checked the water when I got home but
I just ran to change the water without thinking. Could it just be the zucchini which kind
of got shredded in the water or something else?

 

[Hollygirl]

How many fish in the 10 gallon, what kind of filter, when was the last PWC etc. Lots of questions on our end before we can give an answer

 

[bgourami320]

I have 6 R. Espei, 6 pymeus cories, and 3 baby ABN's, which will be transferred to another 10 this weekend.
A whisper 20 and Saturday was the last water change, would have been tomorrow if the water was normal.
I know it seems like alot of fish but they are all so small. I didn't think it would be a problem till I got the 40b
up. I checked ammonia 2 days ago and got a 0 with the API test kit. All the fish seem fine, going about their
business.
I was just thinking if I set up the 40b tomorrow and instead of doing a fishless cycle can I just take the AC110
off my 75 and put it on the 40b or is that overkill,filter too big? And would that make the water fine for the fish. I was going
to set it up tomorrow anyhow since it's going to be snowing.

 

[jpappy789]

Is this tank heavily planted? 0 nitrate with that stock seems very unlikely otherwise, given that it was cycled.

A whitish cloud could indicate a heterotrophic bacteria bloom (not the nitrifying bacteria like some assume).

 

[bgourami320]

there is alot of java,fire and christmas moss, about 4 vals, windlov ferns and an abubias congensis.
even with the plants I thought 0 ammonia was odd because of all the fish, even though they're all
so small. So I tested the water a couple days ago to see if I had to do a water change then. I'll google
the H.bacteria bloom and see what I find, thanks jpappy, I'll see if it fits. There is sand and gravel in the
tank could that be a problem? I recently cleaned out alot of the moss's they were over taking the tank
and lots of detritus from the moss was all over the sand! that was a mess! I'm still vacuming that junk out,
but I don't think that's it eigther. I'm finally done with the dogs so now I can see if I can find this in a book or
online.

 

[jpappy789]

I'm assuming you just mis-typed "ammonia" instead of "nitrate" because 0 ppm ammonia is a good thing

The heterotrophic bacteria do consume organic matter so a big cleaning that stirred up some detritus could have sparked a bloom.

http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/waterinfo.html#HeterotrophicBacteria

That's from Dr. Tim Hovanec himself, the one who started Biospira and then Dr. Tim's One and Only. Unfortunately that website hasn't been updated in a while it seems so a lot of the references to his articles lead to broken links...

 

[bgourami320]

Thanks jpappy, things seem to be clearing up. I cleaned the tank and vac'd again and fed a little less.
No, I did mean ammonia, because I was thinking with all the fish even though they're quite small, the
fish waste would make for some ammonia in the tank, but so far so good. I think I just over fed the little guys.
Thanks for the link, something to do after dinner

 

[jpappy789]

Well in a cycled tank the ammonia should be converted to nitrite then on to nitrate. Your plants may be using up all the nitrate but I'd be careful and monitor until things clear up...Just out of curiosity, how did you cycle?

 

[bgourami320]

I did a fishless cycle. Before I set up my first tank I did some reading first and read about this.Years back I would leave the tank set up and running for 2-3 weeks and then add fish. I used to put one kind at a time so maybe that's why I never had a problem. But I did it fishless this time,there was no rush.