75 gal suddenly cloudy?

rainbowcharmer

rainbowcharmer

AC Members
Jul 30, 2007
1,683
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East Coast, USA
Hey guys,

I'm trying to figure out what is causing my 75 gal to be so cloudy, and how to remedy it.

Tank was set up at the end of October, fishless cycled through December w/ liquid ammonia. Currently running Eheim 2217 and Whisper 3. Added carbon to the Whisper 3 a few weeks ago because the tank smelled a little funky. Smell is gone, but now it's cloudy.

Parameters - Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - < 5, Temp 78, PH 6.8

Current occupants: Mollies (7 adult, few fry), Red-eye tetras (15), Julii cories (12). Everyone seems healthy and happy, but the water is bugging the crap out of me. None of my other tanks are cloudy. I can't figure out why this one is.

I did a 70% w/c yesterday. It cleared up somewhat but as of this morning it's back to cloudy.

Normal w/c schedule (at this point) has been weekly about 40%. The cloudiness started about a week ago (after my prior water change).

The fish eat spirulina algae flakes, tropical flake mix and sinking algae wafers. The flakes are usually gone within about 20-30 seconds, and the algae wafers are gone by morning (I put them in before bed for the cories). I'm pretty sure overfeeding is not the issue.

The tank is fairly well planted - all low-light plants. Pool filter sand substrate (well rinsed prior to adding in October). I also have quartz rock from my yard as decorations - all added prior to fish being introduced in December. It was soaked in bleach, scrubbed with a tough-bristle brush, followed by boiling in plain water, then soaked in water w/ dechlor, and then well rinsed prior to adding to the tank.

It is not *severely* cloudy, just somewhat. And in comparison to my other two tanks which are crystal clear, it's making me crazy.

Help??
 
Is it air bubbles?? Maybe a bacteria bloom. You have a micron filter available??
 
Try putting some filter floss in your filter, and let it run for 24 hours. It's probably just some floating particulate matter in your water column that filter floss would filter out pretty fast.
 
snoopy65 said:
Is the cloudiness white or green? White is bacterial bloom. Green is algae bloom. Treatment for each is different.
Click to expand...
He made it sound like it is white.

Please specify!

Couldn't it be just floating particulate too?
 
If I had to pick a color for it I guess I'd go with white. Although it's really not white OR green.

It is definitely not air bubbles.

I'll have to see if I can hunt down some filter floss this week at the LFS. I have whatever came with the Eheim in the eheim (I don't think Floss was part of it??) and then I've got a sponge, blue bonded filter pad, a small amount of carbon and some filter fiber in the whisper 3 (I didn't like the setup with the single cartridge w/ carbon only, so I re-did it when I put that filter on back in December).
 
Nevermind, I just re-read the thread. It seems you have a bacterial bloom.
"White cloudiness is usually the result of a bacteria bloom. Keep a careful check on ammonia levels, if the bacteria is a result on bacteria die off, you may experience increased ammonia levels and your tank maybe recycling. Bacteria also consume oxygen, so just as with an algae bloom, you want to increase circulation while treating the tank."
 
Do you have a missing fish? Whenever I have an established tank suddenly go cloudy, I find a dead fish inside a cave/ornament.

If you start adding more bio-media, filter material, or additional filters; you may have the cloudiness clear up. In reality, you just delayed long enough for the fish to be consumed by other fish or bacteria.

Look for something dead before messing with filters and media that worked for you before the tank went cloudy.

BTW - The smell you cleared up with charcoal is a tip off that something is rotting in your tank.
 
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