Cloudy tank won't clear up

myswtsins said:
Yup, source water changes is the first thing to come to mind.

SAE eat a little hair algae but not Otos or plecos so much. Amano shrimp are pretty good with hair algae though and highly entertaining with small bio-loads. CO2 will help by keeping your plants healthier, outcompeting the algae for nutrients but that still requires the proper balance and something is out of balance right now.

How old is the 40B?
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The 40g is about 3 and a half months old now.

I had two amano shrimp in here for the longest time but i haven't seen them in a while, they just kinda vanished, just like one of the guppies i had in there. They got big enough to where none of the fish in there could eat them. My only guess is they died somewhere and my synodontis cats ate them before i could find any corpses. Or the cats ate them while they were alive i'm not sure.

I also went to test both my tank water and tap for phosphates and my tank had less than the tap did, which was zero. so i'm kind of at a loss on what is causing this. I set my timer to lower the time the lights are on from 11 to 9 hours cause that's the only other thing i can think of. Although my sister's tank's lights are on for many many hours longer than any of mine.
 
Synodontis are incredibly predatory with massive mouths. They can and will eat anything up to about 1/3-1/2 their own size.

I suspect your test kit is not accurate, or other issues there, since phosphates and nitrates being 0 seems very unlikely.
 
I would make sure you are using your test kit accurately and to the letter.

for example, the reagents for the API/MARS liquid test kit are notoriously finicky and do need to be shaken for as long as the directions say.


I honestly wouldn't be too worried by phosphates.. it's not as delicate a thing as it would be for a Saltwater aquarium.
 
trigiver01 said:
Does your sister's tank have the same substrate and water treatments that yours does?
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Yes, we both have the same substrate and same plants and same water. The only difference is i think she's more inconsistant when dosing excel in her tank than i am.

OrionGirl said:
Synodontis are incredibly predatory with massive mouths. They can and will eat anything up to about 1/3-1/2 their own size.

I suspect your test kit is not accurate, or other issues there, since phosphates and nitrates being 0 seems very unlikely.
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Well, that explains that then! Guess i shouldn't keep shrimp in there anymore then.

Also i never said that the tank had zero nitrates, it has the normal amount of just under 5. I'm always sure the shake the bottle enough just as the instructions say, i even time it just to be sure i'm getting the most accurate reading. Both my test kit and the one at my lfs gave the same reading so i'm not sure how inaccurate it is.

I'm going to try dimming the lights on both tanks and cover any nearby windows to see if that's the issue. My betta's tank has blackout curtains behind it so it shouldn't be the problem for that, but my 40 gal has a window close to it. Not close enough to really give the tank any direct sunlight but who knows if that's the issue all along.
 
So i've been looking around a bit for a solution to this cloudy water, which i can believe it caused by excess nutrients, and i've seen people suggest a uv sterilizer. Should i get one? Would it actually fix the problem that i'm having here? Are there any downsides to having one?
 
I'm not a fan of adding equipment when you haven't identified that cause. It won't always help--you're killing anything that is free-swimming in the water column, but not removing that organic matter. Instead of having a living organism that is consuming the excess waste in the system, you now have even more dead matter to decompose. UV can be very effective, but they are finicky, and the bulbs have to be replaced regularly. If you don't know why you have excess waste, a UV won't be a long term solution, IMO.
 
I agree with oriongirl. I bought a UV when I was a newbie for the same issue you're having and it did help with cloudiness but it seemed to negatively affect the overall eco-system of the tank and with just a bit more research and trial and error I got my tank balanced, removed the UV and then whole tank improved. Now it sits in my storage taking up space for years. I only keep it for that just in case where it might help with a fish illness, has not happened in the 9 years I've owned it though lol.

The cloudiness is a symptom, need to find the root cause. A UV will only treat the symptom (in this case) but the cause will still be there.
 
Alright, i'll just keep doing water changes everyday, already dropped the light down to 8 hours and adding less excel and food than i normally would.
Thanks for the help!
 
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