Cloudy water - my fault - confusing advice

[grayson]

Hello,

I have a cloudy water problem and decided to do some reading on the net to solve this problem. One site says to do large water changes - another says to leave it alone. One site says to use commercial products and other sites say never to use them. What to do ?

Here's my sad tale :-( Two of my females had babies and I decided I would have to over feed for a while (about a week) so that food would drop to the bottom to feed them. I know...I know ...I can hear you all groaning from here. STUPID - STUPID move - I agree. I've learned my lessson. Now I have a "lovely" shade of murky white /grey throughout the tank. Bacterial bloom to be sure. The fish don't seem to be a bit bothered by this and remain healthy. Phew ! No odour from the water at all.

My ammonia is still zero, Nitrates - zero, Nitrites - trace and pH about 7.2.

The only product I can buy locally is Hagen / Nutrafin B- Clear. I tried half a dose of that as I read that using these products will cause the ammonia to rise. I've also read that doing nothing is best and it will go away in a few days. Ha ! The bloom in my tank is getting worse and worse daily. I can no longer see the back of the tank.

I have a Fluval 204 cannister filter. Last night I changed the carbon and replaced the sponge filters. I left the media alone as I need the "good" bacteria. I also changed 10 % of the water and vacuumed (python) a corner of the aquarium gravel where I thought some of the food might be sitting.

Questions - How long does this last and should I continue to python/vaccum and replace water ? How often? I've also read that this is not wise.Should I try a full dose of Hagen B Clear ?

Oh yes...I am no longer feeing too much. In fact if anything I am underfeeding.

13 platys/swords in a 33 gallon aquarium. I've removed as many babies as I could and now the water is too cloudy to see them.

Oh ...also - the tank was set up on Aug 27th and has fully cycled without incident. I've also read that this is the last pahse of the cycle. I'm not too sure about this. I've had aquariums before in my younger days and I have never experienced anything as bad as this !

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

grayson

 

[Tom.E]

Tanks with bacteria/flagellate clouds caused by quality dissolved organic matter (decaying flakes in this case) need to be cleaned out. Vacuum out as much debris as you can and as often as it takes, then can go back to your regular maintenance routine. The tank will clear.

The ‘wait out the bloom’ approach is really only applicable to mild blooms in new tank setups or large disturbances in established tanks.

Also, I wouldn’t underfeed fry. If they’re in a fry tank now just increase the water changes. Keep them stuffed for good growth.


Tom

 

[daveedka]

Agreed with Tom E. Clean it up via water changes. you should take the time to make sure you aren't dealing with an algea bloom. put some water in a clear jar or glass and hold it against a piece of white paper. if it has a greenish tint it's algea the green appearance doesn't laways show up in the tank. Algea will need to be approached differently, than bacteria blooms. Either way the water changes will help your overall situation, but they won't stop an algea bloom once it starts. A blackout will be necessary to kill algea.
Take your time and make sure you know what you are dealing with. Algea and bacteria blooms won't usually hurt your fish unless there is something really odd happening in the tank.
Dave

 

[grayson]

Dave,

I did what you said and alas the water is green ! I can't believe it. I was just dealing with brown algae on the glass about a month ago.

How long do I have to do a black out ? Won't the fish mind ? Do I feed them during this time ?

Thanks in advance for any help you have to offer....grayson

 

[Hound]

I would say a 24 hour to a 48 hour blackout should be sufficient to kill off the algae bloom. Now that you realize that overfeeding in the tank is a bad idea hopefully you won't get another bloom like that.

I notice in your original post it says you vacuumed out a corner of the tank only. Generally speaking I would go for most of the tank every two weeks for regular maintenence along with closer to 20% to 30% of the water. You might be surprised how much gunk is held within the gravel.

I also notice in your post that you changed the sponges on your Fluval 204 filter even though its only been in use for about two months. Generally speaking changing sponges that often in a cannister filter should not be necessary. True the sponges aren't meant to be permanent, but you should be able to rinse and reuse them for approximately 1 year or maybe 2. The carbon packs are also optional mostly being used to remove something (like medications) specifically from the tank. My other suggestion for this filter would be to go ahead and fill the top and middle media baskets with bio rings of some sort. That is keep the stuff that you have and add new rings to the other basket. Please note to never replace all of the bio rings at once.

One last thing. If you do plan on purposely raising the fry I believe a fry tank would be a must.

 

[grayson]

grayson here again. I am ready to pack it in although I am not new to aquariums. I guess I always just had good luck in the past.

I was wrong about it being an algae bloom. I covered the aquarium and left it for 36 hours. No change in the cloudy water.

I did 2 - 30 % water changes in 5 days and it only cleared the water slightly for a short time - hours at best. In desperation I went to my local fish store. They told me to put Polywool in the bottom section of the Fluval cannister and use B Clear by Hagen. He gauranteed me it would fix the problem in 2 days. Ha ! The water got about 15 % clearer. Three days later I decided to try P Clear by Hagen. It was supposed to clear the water in 1 - 3 hours. Again - I see no change in the water today - 2 days later.The guy at the LFS also told me NOT to change the water and NOT to vacuum the gravel. He said I am taking out the "good" bacteria. It seems to me from all the reading that I've been doing that there are 2 trains of thought on this. One is to leave it alone and correct the problem - which in my case I have done by feeding less. The other train of thought seems to be to keep feverishly changing the water and vacumming the gravel. Confusing to say the least. All I know at this point is that I can only see the fish if they come to the front of the tank.

So...where am I now except more confused? I am wondering if a Diatom filter would be of any benefit to me at this point. Opinions please ....

Also I am going to stop adding chemicals etc for a while and try the "time will take care of it approach" unless someone can offer better advice. My pH has dropped from 7.2 to about 6.8 or a little lower. The fish are still extremely happy and healthy. That goodness for that ! I really want to stop mucking around with the water and let them adjust for a bit. Opinions PLEASE !!!

grayson

PS I didn't throw out my sponge filters from the Fluval 204 cannister. I have 4 extras so I put the extras in and washed and dried the wet/used ones for future use.

 

[Swimfins]

I went through a cloudy water period, I changed the water, up to 30% every other day, then I got a new charcoal filter, and removed an amonia pack, as suggested by others in this forum. The water cleared within hours. I now have 2 sponges in the filter. I have a heavy bio-load for my tank and so it necessitates water changing at least bi-weekly (I like clean water).

It only makes sense that constantly changing water would dilute whatever is fogging your tank. Keep adding clean water. I'd do large water changes, to keep the ph up, keep the filters clear, but not squeaky clean. Rinse them in your change water, and don't add any more chemical to the water. Maybe your substrate is causing the fogging, if this is so, it should go away in time. I used aquarium sand, the silica stuff, and it seems to me as this stuff ages and with frequent water changes it eventually stops leeching (and clouding) the water.

Just a thought. Hang in there.

 

[grayson]

Update...

It seems like it's been forever but it's only been 18 days since my first post. Unbelievable.

Here's where I am now. The fish are still healthy - thank goodness ! All my parameters are still the same except the pH dropped a bit for a while when I dabbled with chemicals - which didn't do a thing by the way to clear the water. Neither P Clear OR B Clear by Hagen did a thing.

I flip flopped around for a while trying to decide what it was. Bacterial or algae bloom. At first I thought it was bacterial and then the water seemed to go from cloudy/white to cloudy/green. Wonder if I had a bit of both going on ? Anyone ever heard of this ? They can both be caused by overfeeding. Hmmmm.

Anyway...I have continued to change 30% of the water every 3 days. It seemed to clear for a few days and then started up again. I changed 30% of the water on Saturday (this is now Tues) and the water has remained a bit clearer. This is really encouraging as it's the longest period of time it's stayed a bit clearer. In the meantime I ordered a UV Sterilizer AND a Vortex Diatom filter !!! Figures - they haven't arrived yet and now I seem to be getting ahead of the problem. I am certainly not complaining. I'm sure I'll give my water a good "polish" with the Diatom filter when it arrives.

Thanks everyone for the great advice ! Any more tips would be appreciated. Hopefully the next time I post it will be with crystal clear water.

Oh yes....the haze in the bottom of the aquarium has lifted and one small (but growing) platy/sword is still swimming about ! I couldn't believe it. Just goes to show that a small amount of food will keep fish alive. I was only feeding a very few flakes at a time. I would wait until they were consumed (which would be about 4 seconds) and then I'd feed a bit more. I was sure nothing had fallen to the bottom but it must have to keep the little guy alive ! I decided that since he/she has made it through the famine AND all the vacuuming that he/she could stay in the tank. After alll isn't there room for just one more ???

 

[Beeker]

Just a small note on feeding, I read somewhere that the yolk of a hard-boiled egg is good to feed young fish. When my goldfish eggs hatched I did just that and they look great! Their scales and fins are so shiney they practically sparkle. Of course, be sure to clean out any leftovers. You may want to wait until this bloom issue is resolved first.
I had the same problem but my color was peach. It was before I discovered this forum so I had to figure it out by trial and error and through almost a year of bad advise from the pet store. Finally I just cut the food and changed the water. It ended up clearing itself up. Hang in there.