I'm sure this topic has been covered many times but when I search it I get an error page. After doing my last water change about two days later my tank became a bit cloudy. I left it for another day or so and it got worse. Here's my stats...3 year old 21 gal freshwater, temp 77-79, ph. 7.4 stable, ammonia 0, nitrite, 0, nitrite sits between 10 and 20. I have been doing approx. 25% water changes twice a week for about 4 weeks, before that 40% change once a week, consistantly. Why would my water cloud now?? It so hazy I can just make out my intake on the back of the tank. I did a water change today of about 20% and it looked a bit clear but now 6 hours later, it looks worse again. Whats up with that?? I haven't had cloudy water since I first set up a few years ago!
Suddenly cloudy water?
- Thread starter ET1
- Start date
If it is white cloudy then it is probably a bacterial bloom. This can happen if the tank is thrown into a mini cycle. Did you clean out any of the filters? How much water did you remove and did you gravel vac? At any rate if it is a bacterial bloom it will fix itself once the good bacteria being produced decides where it will be most beneficial for the life in your aquarium. This could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks but one day you will wake up to crystal clear water.
Marinemom
Marinemom
Mini cycle Id say, if the cloud is white. If it is green, it is an algae bloom. To take care of it you should buy algae destroyer advanced by API. Its great and cured my algae bloom.
It doesn't really look green. I gravel vac'd twice a week for the past 4 weeks, changing about 25% of water, but I only rince the filtre media once a week in the old tank water. I keep reading that 2 smaller water changes is better than 1 larger one so I thought this would be a good idea. Would my parameters stay consistant if it was an mini cycle?
My tank has been cloudy for a few weeks too but the water parameters are good and it gets a weekly 40% water change whether it needs it or not. I'm hoping just to ride it out but it is frustrating.
Stasia
Stasia
It seems that the cloudiness might be a result of your gravel cleaning. Cleaning the gravel seems to release trapped chemicals which help to create a bacterial bloom.
Here is a quote from an article at Marineland.com:
"As mention in the opening paragraph a simple process such as cleaning the gravel can touch-off a bacteria bloom which turns the water milky white. Why? Many hobbyists think this is a bloom of nitrifying bacteria in response to ammonia being produced in the tank. This is not correct and, besides, ammonia and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria are too slow growing to cloud aquarium water. The autotrophic nitrifying bacteria double every 27 to 33 hours in good conditions. Heterotrophic bacteria, on the other hand, can divide every 20 minutes. What actually happens in that over time when the gravel in the aquarium is not disturbed certain chemicals start to accumulate in areas of the gravel and are basically trapped there. In many cases, these areas are anaerobic (meaning devoid of oxygen). In these areas, the further decomposition of the chemicals cannot occur due to the absence of oxygen. However, when the gravel is stirred up by gravel washing these chemicals are released to the water in the aquarium and become nutrients for the heterotrophic bacteria which quickly increase in number causing the water to become cloudy."
Here is the actual webpage:
http://www.marineland.com/science/reports/5basicmicro.asp
Here are a few other sites that discuss this:
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/cloudy%20water.html
http://www.algone.com/cloudywater.php
Here is a quote from an article at Marineland.com:
"As mention in the opening paragraph a simple process such as cleaning the gravel can touch-off a bacteria bloom which turns the water milky white. Why? Many hobbyists think this is a bloom of nitrifying bacteria in response to ammonia being produced in the tank. This is not correct and, besides, ammonia and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria are too slow growing to cloud aquarium water. The autotrophic nitrifying bacteria double every 27 to 33 hours in good conditions. Heterotrophic bacteria, on the other hand, can divide every 20 minutes. What actually happens in that over time when the gravel in the aquarium is not disturbed certain chemicals start to accumulate in areas of the gravel and are basically trapped there. In many cases, these areas are anaerobic (meaning devoid of oxygen). In these areas, the further decomposition of the chemicals cannot occur due to the absence of oxygen. However, when the gravel is stirred up by gravel washing these chemicals are released to the water in the aquarium and become nutrients for the heterotrophic bacteria which quickly increase in number causing the water to become cloudy."
Here is the actual webpage:
http://www.marineland.com/science/reports/5basicmicro.asp
Here are a few other sites that discuss this:
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/cloudy%20water.html
http://www.algone.com/cloudywater.php