Overnight cloudiness........(and intro) - Help.

[Gulp]

As my first post......I have a question for you all. I have a 110 gallon aquarium that has been set up now for about 3 weeks. I transferred my Oscar (Gulp) from his old 55 to the new home 2 weeks ago. For filtration, I have a Emperor 400, and (2) Magnum 350 (one with regular media, the other running the micron filter). Up until this morning the water has been crystal clear....but now it is cloudy...

On Saturday I hooked up the 2nd Magnum (taken off the 55 gallon, but with fresh carbon and sleeve), and switched the micron filter off the other Magnum for a clean one. I tested the water on Sunday and everything but the ammonia was fine (amonia is still around 2 ppm...). Any ideas on what could cause the water to go cloudy overnight? This was definitely not a gradual change....... I was in a hurry this morning to get to work so I was not able to test the water.

Here are a few pics of the aquarium when it was clean just to introduce you to Gulp.

My Grand Pa built me the cabinet and hood just for the aquarium.

With hood open:

Inside hood before Magnums were installed:

My wife looking at the goldfish that lived there before Gulp ate them all:

The clear water a few days ago:

That should be enough pictures to bog you down for now.

I have had my 55 gallon with various fish for almost 8 years, but have never had the water become cloudy overnight......especially with 3 fairly decent filters pumping 1100 gallons per hour..... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[OrionGirl]

Most likely, this is a bacterial bloom. Not uncommon with new tanks, usually clears up in a few days on it's own. These are NOT the beneficial bacteria that are part of the nitrogen process, but rather bacteria that consume other organics from the water. Right now, their food source is apparently plentiful, and so they are too. As they consume this food source, they bloom will fade. A few water changes should help clear it up for you. I would be doing water changes anyway, to dilute the ammonia and nitrite and keep Gulp healthy.

Nice looking fish, BTW--looks like he's got a good home.

 

[TKOS]

Yeah, I would keep those ammonia levels to below 1ppm.

That is a great looking fish and tank setup. Congrats to grandpa for building that great hood and stand.

 

[Gulp]

Thanks for the responses. I suspect the wife is feeding Gulp a little too much. He begs so much....and she can't resist. I will defintitely do another water change tonight when I get home. The problem with the Oscar is half his food seems to go out his dang gills when he crunches the pellets. I need to find a fish to put in there with him that will eat his leftovers.......and not get eaten.

As far as the ammonia, I have White Diamond ammonia stone in both the Emperor 400 and one of the magnums. I can't get it to come down. I put some ammo-lock in on Sunday. I miss my fully established 55 gallon already. I am not used to having problems and cycles to deal with....it's been so long.

Thanks again for the help. Gulp is going to go on a little diet for a few days and I will see if that helps clean things up a bit.

 

[rich]

yeah mabye throw a bristle nose in with him to clean up some of his mess. they get big enough not to becoma snack.

 

[125gJoe]

Welcome to:

Over-feeding is so easy to do!!

Do you have frontal pics of the tank with the Oscar in there? Nice tank!...

 

[Gulp]

Originally posted by 125gJoe


Do you have frontal pics of the tank with the Oscar in there? Nice tank!...

I have a crappy camera that takes way to long to take a pic...I have to hide from gulp to take any picture (reason this one is so low). If he sees me....he goes nuts and swims too fast. Picture ends up looking like a brown blur in the water.

This pic was taken about 10 minutes after his transfer to the new home. As you can see.....the poor goldfish were very curious about their new roomie. A few of the braver ones were pecking on him. They didn't last long.... (surprisingly, 3 of the 8 lived 3 more days as they knew all the good hiding spots)

 

[Gulp]

Since I tend to over post on most of the boards I join, I will go ahead and get a few more pics out of the way.

This is behind the aquarium. I painted the glass with the paint used on the walls. Actually turned out decent looking since the glass turns it a little green when you look at it from the front. It's hard to see, but Grand Pa put a raised lip along the back so nothing could roll off behind the cabinet. He also notched out an area for the hoses so the cabinet could sit close to the wall. We both forgot about the Emperor 400.....so the aquarium does not sit back as far as we planned:

The ugly black thing sticking out the back of the aquarium glass is an air regulator for bubble wands and such. I bought the aquarium used, and it was already there. If I were going to actually use bubble wands it would be a pretty cool feature. Keeps the air hoses from hanging over the tank and running down the back.



Gulps old 55 gallon home (used to sit where the 110 is, so I had to slide it over into the room for about 1 week):

This is the center area of the cabinet, with the open back for hoses. The two Magnums are in here now:

O.K. Don't want to over do it on my first day so I will not post anymore pics for a while. I am just a little proud of what my Grand Pa did for me. He is 80 years old and can still do amazing wood work! He wouldn't let me, or anyone else help him on it.

 

[TKOS]

If you are using an ammo lock type product then most likely your ammonia test kit is actually picking up ammonium which isn't harmful. Some test kits don't know the difference. Either way I would do a daily water change as long as there is cloudy water and that should also help keep any ammonia and nitrite levels low at the beginning phase of the tank.

 

[as40]

Man... Nice stand/hood. Nice tank too! But the stand/hood... Hard to find good stuff nowadays that is handcrafted like that. I'm trying to get my old man ready to build me a stand for the 250+ gallon I want to eventually get. Figure by the time he makes it for me I'll have a place and the money to actually get it.

Good luck with the new setup!