cloudy water after using ferts

Linda S

Linda S

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Sep 6, 2009
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Killeen, TX
Real Name
Linda Sholly
my tanks get a little cloudy after I dose with my seachem ferts. I am currently running my Magnum HOTs with the micron filtesr, will this clear it up? I don't want to do a water change- defeats the reason for adding ferts in the first place. Does anyone else have similar experience? would dosing dry ferts not have this same effect? It has only been the last two or three applications, could my water district have changed something and the ferts react to it? I use amquel plus to condition my water. TIA

readings on both tanks are normal as of yesterday. nitrates between 5-10ppm phosphates around 5 ppm I know that's a little high but I didn't want to do a water change. will dose less next time.
 
I experienced the same thing when I was starting out. For me it was the Iron specifically, it would precipitate with something in my water, and would take around a day to clear.

I've been using Dry Ferts ever since, and if I need extra Iron, I just dose more micro nutrients. If you're confused, read the sticky at the top, it goes more in depth and provides more links.
 
Same here. I read somewhere not to dose iron and potassium on the same day. If I did the result was cloudy water. Dosing on alternate days took care of the problem.
 
i got green water bad with the seachem stuff. like pea soup. viscous and just nasty. i was also following the instructions on the bottle, which are vague at best. but soon, i realized that i couldn't dose iron at the exact same time as the macros. wait a couple of hours at least in between the two. every other day works well too. also, cloudy water can be more of a bacterial imbalance in the water that will work itself out in time in a healthy aquarium. but my iron didn't seem to cloud the water as much as it would produce brown globs of stuff that would settle and lay on the leaves. not very pretty.
 
I guess having too high a level of phosphates, and adding iron today is what did itmy substrate is flourite so I had cloudiness when I added the phosphates by themselves, but I doesed iron today with the phosphates haning at 5ppm already. I'll try alternating them from now on. My micron filter has been on for 3 1/2 hours and it's still cloudy.
 
if you are being frugal with ferts, then you have plenty of PO4. you could even cut that back a little if you want. Flourish is expensive. presently, i have at least that much PO4 and i dose 3ppm of iron weekly. somewhat high levels, right? dose on seperate days and you will not get clouding caused by ferts. there may be something else at work though. is the tank mature? have you been dosing for a while now?
 
tank is up since October, so I wouldn't say it's mature, I've been dosing this whole time, but not all at once. I try to do trace, and excel every other day the others once a week after water change and parameter checks.

I have had planted tanks for many years, but I'm new to ferts
 
Give the tank some time. I think you might have some sort of bacterial thing going on. It should work out in time. Are your plants happy?
 
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