Tank water is cloudy!

[Roan Art]

Then whats the diffrence between that and changing water? I would love someone to explain this BUT I rather get to the bottom of my problem first

LFS are not keeping fish permanently. They are stored on a temporary basis. Goods to be sold. Those that DO keep fish on display usually do so in a proper sized tank because they don't want those fish to die. Those that cramp them have employees that can monitor the fish all day.

As for the waterchange comment: You going to change water 24hrs a day? I'd argue about the fish being healthy as well. LFS have a high turnover in fish. Fish come in, fish go out. How they go out is the question: they are either sold or die. Every morning someone (SHOULD!) goes around taking the dead fish out of the tanks. Some of them do it every morning and night so that customers don't have to look at that. Dead fish don't do very well for sales. Unhealthy ones don't either, but newbies tend not to realize that a sick fish in a tank usually means that the other fish in that tank are probably sick as well.

Hey, if you want to take dead fish out of your tank every morning and night, more power to yah

Roan

 

[adzigogov2001]

Here in the fish stores they have a drill. Every saturday they change 60-70% of the water they put it out of a hose( tap water) they have internal power heads attached to big sponge they clean it once in 3-5 monts but they allways have some sort of medicine in them (they call it red drug) and the feeding they feed the fish once a week, all the plants are arificial so what can i say if that is something other than torture. so if tou want to keep your pets this way go ahead ( and we will alert the pet police LOL)

 

[infidsg35]

Good news my tank is starting to clear up a bit! Im also keeping the lights on a little less. From 12hrs to about 8hrs.

The CO2 reading is from a test kit. Maybe I have to do a conversion with that number?!?!?! Its like once you get your start color you add 1 drop of solution number 2 till it turns the end number. That took 8 drops... So basically I have no idea LoL...

Yea PH of 8 is a little high. Never realy had it so high before.. So im guessing the next step is to wait... As the C)2 is injected it will bring down the PH... And the Nitrates will build up over time with waste..

 

[Roan Art]

Good news my tank is starting to clear up a bit! Im also keeping the lights on a little less. From 12hrs to about 8hrs.

That's a good idea until you get the CO2 going again.

The CO2 reading is from a test kit. Maybe I have to do a conversion with that number?!?!?! Its like once you get your start color you add 1 drop of solution number 2 till it turns the end number. That took 8 drops... So basically I have no idea LoL...

Nah, throw the kit away. Seriously. I had one, Red Sea. Called and spoke to a rep about another issue and asked him about the CO2 and O2 test kits. He told me (paraphrased), "Yah, they work. So long as you are standing right over the tank when you are using it and get everything done *immediately*." In other words, it don't work. I chucked both of mine in the trashola.

Yea PH of 8 is a little high. Never realy had it so high before.. So im guessing the next step is to wait... As the C)2 is injected it will bring down the PH...

Exactly.

And the Nitrates will build up over time with waste..

Don't hold your breath Plants will suck your nitrates out like there is no tomrrow. Course some plants eat more than others. I dose 30ppm nitrates every three days. Fourth day -- GONE.

Thing is this: A lot of tap water contains phosphates. Algae need phosphates to flourish. Not good. Plants need nitrates to grow. As they consume nitrates, they will also consume phosphates. Good! But . . . if the plants run out of nitrates, they stop using phosphates and the algae takes over. Not good.

The trick is to find out if your tap water has phosphates and how much. If there are none, you are golden and will probably have to dose it in small quantities. If you do, then you need to make sure your nitrates are in a 10:1 ratio with the phosphates. Ie: nitrates 10ppm and phosphates 1.0ppm.

Roan

 

[infidsg35]

Ok kool sounds like im on the right track. What do you mean you add Nitrates?

One thing I noticed 1 hour after I did the water change my plants were producing o2. Lots of bubbles comming out of the plants. By the next day this didnt happen anymore and hasnt happened since. This used to happen on and off. Like 1 day they do it next 5,6,7 they dont.. My plants grow (not fast) but grow. But only once and a while do I see them producing bubbles of o2..

So maybe I need to add some NitrAtes to my tank. I also need to get a Phosphate kit so I can test that too... What would cause this exhausted nutrients?

 

[Roan Art]

Ok kool sounds like im on the right track. What do you mean you add Nitrates?

Yes, you are definitely on the right track. Congratz!

KNO3, postassium nitrate. I buy it in dry form and mix a solution to dose all my tanks with. Plants gotta have postassium (K) and nitrates (NO3). They gotta have a crapload of other stuff, too, but I'm not there yet

One thing I noticed 1 hour after I did the water change my plants were producing o2. Lots of bubbles comming out of the plants. By the next day this didnt happen anymore and hasnt happened since. This used to happen on and off. Like 1 day they do it next 5,6,7 they dont.. My plants grow (not fast) but grow. But only once and a while do I see them producing bubbles of o2..

Two reasons I can see:
1) DIY CO2 isn't very consistent and your rate goes up and down up and down

but more likely:

2) plants have consumed all the nitrates and cannot grow (and release O2) until they have access to more. Once they have access to more, they start pearling (releasing O2 bubbles) again. My plants, under pressurized CO2, pearl all the time as long as they have access to nitrates. When my nitrates are 0, I get little pearling.

So maybe I need to add some NitrAtes to my tank. I also need to get a Phosphate kit so I can test that too... What would cause this exhausted nutrients?

Plant consumption, algae consumption.

Definitely get a phosphates kit, test your tap water, and see where you are with that.

Roan

 

[infidsg35]

Ok I got a Phosphate Kit. All I can say is.... This can't be good!

Out of Tap:

Phosphate = 0.5 ppm
In Tank:

Phosphate = 10 ppm

I have NO CLUE what to do or even think about this.

I bought Flourish Potassium, Flourish Comprehensive, and Flourish Nitrogen.

HELP HELP HELP!!!

 

[Roan Art]

Ok I got a Phosphate Kit. All I can say is.... This can't be good!

Out of Tap:

Phosphate = 0.5 ppm
In Tank:

Phosphate = 10 ppm

I have NO CLUE what to do or even think about this.

I bought Flourish Potassium, Flourish Comprehensive, and Flourish Nitrogen.

HELP HELP HELP!!!

HOLY CANOLY! How the heck did you end up with .5 out of the tap and 10ppm phosphates in your tank? Put the flourish on the backburner until we can figure out how the halla this happened. Good gravy, that's your algae in a huddle right there. WOW.

Are you SURE of those test results?

What had you been adding to the water? Need a list so we can see what could cause the phosphates to climb like that. There is no way we can deal with 10ppm phosphates. It has to go -- somehow. Have to get it down to at least 2ppm.

Roan

 

[infidsg35]

Oppps! I added the Potassium already and the Nitrogen!

I just got done testing water 2 HRS after adding Flourish.

NitrIte = 0
NitrAte = 10
PH = 8.0
Ammonia = 0
GH = 5
KH = 4
Phosphate = 10 (ran it a second time)

I changed the water (60%) I used Aqua Plus and Baking Soda to bring up KH to 4. Used 1 dose of Flourish Comprehensive and 1 dose of Trace Minerals. I recently changed my CO2 mixture. I run the light 12 Hrs a day 12PM - 12 AM.
I stopped using the 7.0 buffer when you said use crushed coral.

In my filter I have Filter Floss, Foam, Carbon, Purigen, Bio-Max, Crushed Coral, and Phos-x (which is suppose to remove Phosphate!)

I did also add a dose of Stress Zyme...

Ummm wait before I posted this thread I did use one dose of Algae Fix. I dont have a lot of algae growing right now just a VERY small line on front of glass...

Thats about it....

 

[Roan Art]

We need to move this over to the plants forum. 10ppm phosphates is beyond me and there are people in there who know their stuff. They don't post in other forums.

Would you please post in the plants forum: a summary of what's been going on (not long, just a rough outline) with a link back to this thread and all of your latest post?

Trust me. Those guys know their stuff and they'll help out.

Thanks
Roan