My tank is a 65 gal tall tank with 4 clown loaches 3 gold fish a red tailed shark and gobby dragon. The tank has been up and going for 2 or 3 months now but I noticed I have to change about 15 gals of water a week out and the tank starts to cloud up badly a week later. all the levels show good on the test strips but I would like to know if anyone knows why the water clouds so fast and what can I do to prevent this. when I vacum the tank I do not get any old food etc from eth gravel and I carfully watch what I feed the fish. Thanks in advance for any help/advise.
Cloudy Aquarium Help
- Thread starter MPaulley
- Start date
I do not know the exact reason behind your problem but maybe it has something to do with the three goldfish you are keeping. Goldfish excrete alot of waste and put a huge bioload on tanks. Also they are coldwater fish and should not be kept in heated water alongside tropicals.
goldfish are not tropical fish and should not be maintained with fish species that are. moreover, 15 gallons a week is not sufficient to maintain your tank. try 50 percent a week and vacuum the gravel concurrently.
I agree with the pervious posts. I would also suggest getting liquid tests. They tend to be more accurate than strip test.
Also what kind of cloudy is it? White, green, brown? Different colors can indicate different causes.
Also what kind of cloudy is it? White, green, brown? Different colors can indicate different causes.
When you vacuum the gravel, be sure to really dig the siphon end down into the gravel, rather than just skimming the top.
It is a white cloud and yes I will go get a liquid test kit tonight and check that agin also when I vacum I dig way down in the gravel so that I can see if I am overfeeding them and I still get nothing from the gravel because my first thought was over feeding.
what kind of filtration do you have? i have a mechanical filter insert (to replace the pre-packaged filter refills that have carbon in them) that's just a thick piece of felt. it traps anything less than 100 microns in size, so i have crystal clear water without the need for activated carbon.
No i don't I use the penguin biowheel and I have two of them on my tank plus a small submersable (sp) 
in the tank I want to say the bio wheels are the 170's and the submersable one is rated at 30 gals I know it is small but I thought it was just "extra" and wanted to keep the water near the bottom moving would I do better without th carbon? I just purchased a liquid test kit as suggested and sure enough the test strips are way off my Nitrate is at 40 ppm, ammonia is 2.0ppm, ph is 6.8, Nitrite is 2.0. it appears that i'm am starting to cycle again. I just chaged 50% of the water last week and lost 4 redtail barbs and 7 bala sharks when I did it and I'm wondering if teh tank started to cycle again? if this is the case is there anything I can do to keep from losing the remaining fish? the lfs guys told me to put "cycle" in the tank and it appears the bloom is a bacteria bloom? Thanks in advance for any input or advise.
in the tank I want to say the bio wheels are the 170's and the submersable one is rated at 30 gals I know it is small but I thought it was just "extra" and wanted to keep the water near the bottom moving would I do better without th carbon? I just purchased a liquid test kit as suggested and sure enough the test strips are way off my Nitrate is at 40 ppm, ammonia is 2.0ppm, ph is 6.8, Nitrite is 2.0. it appears that i'm am starting to cycle again. I just chaged 50% of the water last week and lost 4 redtail barbs and 7 bala sharks when I did it and I'm wondering if teh tank started to cycle again? if this is the case is there anything I can do to keep from losing the remaining fish? the lfs guys told me to put "cycle" in the tank and it appears the bloom is a bacteria bloom? Thanks in advance for any input or advise.
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the bloom happened after you added Cycle, or has it always been there?
Cycle, StressZyme, Stability, and those other bacterial additives, by the way, are pretty much useless as they contain the wrong species of bacteria. The only bacterial supplement that really works (in FW at least) is BioSpira because it contains Nitrosomonas, Nitrosospira and Nitrospira bacteria.
Yes, it appears that you are going through another cycle if you have any ammonia or nitrites in your tank. What happened to kill your old biological filter? Did you replace filters or use an antibiotic? It's also possible that your initial cycle never completed, but you didn't know that because you didn't have the right test kits.
The bloom could be a cloud of bacteria trying to find a place to settle. I would suggest not adding any more Cycle as it will probably make things worse. Your filtration sounds more than adequate. But do you have a foam insert for the good bacteria to settle on?
Cycle, StressZyme, Stability, and those other bacterial additives, by the way, are pretty much useless as they contain the wrong species of bacteria. The only bacterial supplement that really works (in FW at least) is BioSpira because it contains Nitrosomonas, Nitrosospira and Nitrospira bacteria.
Yes, it appears that you are going through another cycle if you have any ammonia or nitrites in your tank. What happened to kill your old biological filter? Did you replace filters or use an antibiotic? It's also possible that your initial cycle never completed, but you didn't know that because you didn't have the right test kits.
The bloom could be a cloud of bacteria trying to find a place to settle. I would suggest not adding any more Cycle as it will probably make things worse. Your filtration sounds more than adequate. But do you have a foam insert for the good bacteria to settle on?
I didn't add cycle that is what the lfs told em to do but I wanted to check here first because I have seen the results of listening to lfs guys it started after I did about a 50% water change and I change my filters about once every three weeks rotating them I will change the filter on one biowheel then the filter on the next one three weeks later. The cloudy water started after I did about a 50% water change and this water change for some reason killed 7 bala sharks and 4 red tail barbs. The water temps matched up and I used amquel on the water before I put it in but the fish died minutes after the water change. but from your advise now I won't spend the 20 bucks on a worthless product so thanks
it started after I did about a 50% water change and I change my filters about once every three weeks rotating them I will change the filter on one biowheel then the filter on the next one three weeks later. The cloudy water started after I did about a 50% water change and this water change for some reason killed 7 bala sharks and 4 red tail barbs. The water temps matched up and I used amquel on the water before I put it in but the fish died minutes after the water change. but from your advise now I won't spend the 20 bucks on a worthless product so thanks