any suggestions on cloudy water?

[Lady G]

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what to do? My water is very cloudy like, I have been doing about 30% water changes every other day and today I did a 50% but my water remains cloudy? Can I do or should I do more than 1 water change in a day? Should I do a water change everyday? I tested my water and results ended up being...

Nitrates: 0
NitrItes: 2.6
Hardness: 150
total alkalinity 80
pH: 6.8

I know the nitrItes are a little high and for some reason I have been battling this for a while now (about 2 weeks), I had it down the last few days I have checked it but now it is back up? :huh:

Thank you,
Gin

 

[OrionGirl]

That's massively high...Can you test ammonia? I'd suspect something has hit the bio-filter pretty hard. Any medicating? Changes to the filter? Sudden temp swings? How do you treat your water?

 

[knashash]

Your tank is obviously still cycling which is why you have cloudy water. Wait for your tank to cycle and the cloudiness will go away. Kepp doing daily water changes until that time.

 

[Lady G]

I do not have an ammonia test kit so I can't really test that, I have not done any kind of medicating, I did change the filter (the one with carbon in it) on a water change about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and there was one night when the temp did go way down it was like 68-69 it is usually around 72 or so but that was after the cloudiness started.

I do not think I could still be cycling since I've had the tank for about 4 or 5 months now...unless it recycles? I already went through the high nitrItes, then the high nitrates and all that everything was fine in my tank and I hadn't had any problems at all with any of my testing for quite awhile, then I noticed my water was slightly cloudy now it is VERY cloudy and I can not get it to go away and now my nitrItes are high also!
So I guess I'll just keep up the daily changes...but can or should I do more than one water change a day?

 

[Lady G]

opps sorry I forgot to add... I treat my water with tetra aqua "AquaSafe" with each water change for the chlorine and cloramine and it says for heavy metals also. I did see some stuff that is suppose to remove ammonia along with the other stuff should I maybe buy that?

 

[OrionGirl]

Changing the filter removes all the beneficial bacteria that it hosts--and yes, this means the tank re-cycles. Cycling is not a one-time-good-forever thing--it describes the ongoing process of bacteria consuming the wastes in the tank. So anything that removes or kills the bacteria forces the system to recycle--ie, the bacteria colonies have to regrow to their former size to cope with all the waste.

Verify that the AquaSafe binds the ammonia that results from breaking the chloramines down, if you do in fact have chloramines in your water.

 

[Lady G]

Ok, but I didn't change the black filter that is in front of the white filter with the carbon in it, I just changed the white one. That is what I thought was ok to change as long as I didn't change the black filter ( I just take it out and swish it in the old water) is that wrong then?
So then it sounds like I am re-cylcling huh? That really stinks, well I will keep changing the water and hope my fisheys all make it though the cycle then.
I did read the back of the AquaSafe and it says: "makes tap water safe for fish by neutralizing chlorine and heavy metals present in municipal water supplies. also neutralizes chloramine by breaking sown the bond between chlorine and ammonia while reducing bothe the fish-toxic chorine and ammonia componets. Additionally, provides a slime coating to help wounds heal and protect fish from abrasions.
Really I have know idea if I have chlorimines in my water or not, but if I keep up with daily water changes (like what 30-50% what is safest?) it should be better soon right? At one point my nitrItes were back to normal, then they got high again. Also not that it matters much but the reading was .25 not .26, I must of hit the 6.