Cloudy water

A

aa1767a

Registered Member
Mar 29, 2005
3
0
0
Sacramento
Hi

I am new here. Not sure how this works so I'll just jump right in with a question.

I have done a lot of reading on various sites about setting up a new aquarium and a lot of conflicting opinions, so have tried to follow instructions based on several opinions and common sense.

My goal is to have a good sized but not huge aquarium with a few (4 or 5) angels grown to full size and some nice tank mates for them.

I purchased a 39 gallon tank with a power wheel and bio-filter, got a heater and thermometer and set about setting up with my goal in mind.
I let the water filter with nothing in it for about a week, then decided based on some readings to go ahead and add some 'Cycle' to get the bio-cycle working. As well, a few days later I added a catfish and a couple of platys, to add to the bio cycle. Everything OK so far.

Then a few days later, I added a couple of plastic plants just because it looked so stark, and after 2 more days I found the water to suddenly be all cloudy. I was asuming that there was some gunk on the plants which I had not washed off completely and waited for it to clear up, but the water remains fairly cloudy after a week and a half.

I am pretty sure I am not feeding them too much, and the water tests so far have shown a absence of ammonia, a PH of about 7.0 holding steady, though I keep trying to get the PH down with a chemical called 'PH Down' as I know the Angels like a slightly acid PH. The Nitites are almost non-exisitent, the Nitrates are almost non-exisitent and the bio-wheel seems to be building up a pretty good supply of bacteria. So I am not sure what is causing the cloudiness.

I just now did a 25% water change to see if that would help and changed the mechanical filter (mesh and charcoal) for the first time.
If the water change and the filter don't clear up the cloudiness, what would you suggest? Remove the plants? Oh yeah.. I added a platic 'log stump' with little hiding places for the shy ones.

If there is anyone else out there with angels currently I am looking for suggestions as to good tank mates besides the catfish and platys that are in there now. I have heard that Gouramis are good and Swordtails. I have also read that Mollys are good tankmates for Angels, but according to the scoop on Mollys they like the water more salty and I don't know if they will do as well in a slightly acidic tank.

Opinions? Suggestions?

Thanks
Alan
 
Mollies do enjoy their tanks pretty salty and they also like their ph around 7.5-7.8, i'm not up to date with angels so I don't know if they can handle it. Also, sometimes mollies can end up kinda nippy so you would want to worry about that too. But, swordtails would be a nice addition, maybe some neons, don't know how ya feel about them,

But I digress. The cloudiness. This is what I tried when I had that problem not too long ago. I got some "Stress Zyme" and used it according to the directions and put some aquarium salt(you may not want to, but a lil bit can't hurt much) and a conditioning mixture called "Prime". Do a water change every week and put the stress zyme as per the directions and in less then a week mine cleared up. It worked for me. Hope it helps some

Lakota
 
Your tankis cycleing,leave the filter media alone.
If the media is dirty rinse it out in a bucket of tank water and reuse.
 
There seems to be a common link between several of the cloudy water posts that we get around here: pH adjusters. It never fails, the one and only thing those products are good for is clouding up your water or triggering an algae bloom.

Your tank is still cycling and so things will be very unstable for the next few months, yes, months. What are your NH3, NO2 and NO3 readings? You likely should be doing at least a 50% water change per day, possibly more. You want to keep ammonia below 0.5ppm and nitrite around 0.1ppm as long as you're fishy cycling. No, water changes will not harm your cycle and excessive amounts of NH3 and NO2 will not speed things up, as long as you're measuring anything, there is a surplus and that means that the colonies will grow. It's not a matter of how much of a surplus, so long as there is detectable NH3 and NO2, the nitrifying colonies will keep growing.

Next, a 39 gallon tank is too small for 5 full grown angels. As for tank mates, mollies, platies, swordtails are all good tank mates, neons not so much, they would be the natural food of choice for an angel.

Don't worry about pH, it doesn't matter. If you plan on breeding them you may need to soften your water using something like peat or RO/DI water, but for just keeping them and keeping them healthy, a stable pH is what you need. Pay absolutely no mind to the "ideal pH" listed in fish profiles, what it tells you is the water conditions of their natural habitat. This is a good starting point if you wish to successfully breed the fish, but other than that is of little use other than a ballpark figure. I say that because you wouldn't keep a rift cichlid in pH of 6.2 water and you wouldn't keep discus in pH 9 water, but with some exceptions (like these) ambient pH is of little import except for breeding, so long as it's stable.
 
Thanks

Good feedback all.
Thanks
I will quit trying to get the PH down and keep doing water changes

I have been keeping a careful eye on the ammonias, nitrite and nitrate levels
and they are good so far

I do not know what NH3, NO2 and NO3 are. Is that ammonia , nitrite and nitrate?
 
Yes, that is correct.

But I ask for the numbers because a reference like "good so far" come up occasionally when someone is asking why their fish look sick, they'll describe classic symptoms of gill burns and state something to the effect of "my ammonia and nitrite are within acceptable parameters". Acceptable or good values for ammonia (NH3) and nitrite (NO2) are 0ppm for each. This is why I ask for specific numbers. However, since we've already established that your tank is still cycling, I'd expect to see some still present, just be sure to keep them low, below 0.5ppm and 0.1ppm and your fish should survive with little or no harm done.
 
numbers

when I said 'almost non-existent' in my original post, that is exactly what I meant.

The highest levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate have been
0/0.25/5.0

After the water change yesterday they are 0/0/0

Still cloudy though :-)

The fish seem to be happy and healthy.. just wish it didn't look like LA
at sunset :-)
 
Looks like your tank is still cycling. That just means that there's still a lot of changes happening in your tank. Keep it lightly stocked as it is and keep doing exactly what you're doing. The cloudiness will disappear when the tank settles down.
 
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