cloudy water

Byron said:

You will have to give us more info on just how this tank was set up. Starting with the substrate material and how you rinsed it, the decor (I cannot see any! But it may be in there). Filter, and how it is placed. The filter should not be spewing bubbles into the tank unless the return is above the water, or there is air trapped inside the filter, or entering somehow from the air. Also parameters (GH, pH, temperature).

Also, run a glass or jar of tap water and hold it to the light and see if it is cloudy or has suspended particulate matter. Snow melt and rain can wash sediment into the reservior, depending where it is located, and cause cloudy tap water. Several years ago this happened in Vancouver; after each week's water change I couldnot see the back of the tank for almost 2 days. Harmless if it is just sediment.

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JuiceBox52 said:

Could be a bacterial bloom. Do large water changes

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Meg0000 said:

I washed the substrate in a bucket and I was pretty impatient but as I remember, it was not really dirty, I also washed the rocks and scrubbed them with a tooth brush. I have this filter but the outflow is not touching the water of the tank so it is pushing air in the water. I tested and my tap water is clear. GH: I don't remember exactly but you told me it was soft to very soft, PH: 6.8-7 temperature: 78 or 26 °c

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Byron said:

That explains the air bubbles. They are harmless, but you might want to decrease the space by raising the water (probably easier than somehow lowering the filter). A disturbance on the surface, sort of ripples on the water, is all you need for the gas exchange.

The cloudiness may then be a bacterial bloom. I wanted to eliminate other possibles before getting to this. Organics are in the tap water, no matter how clear it is or how much they disinfect it, it is really amazingly full of dissolved organics. When this is placed in an aquarium, especially if dechlorinated, the bacteria that feed on organics multiply very rapidly, making the water cloudy or hazy. This can last several hours, several days, several weeks. Water changes often make this worse, because they are simply bringing in more organics.

If you have no fish in the tank, you could fill it with non-conditioned tap water. If you only have chlorine in your water, this will dissipate out in 24-48 hours anyway. If you have chloramine, that needs a conditioner. If you do decide to refill, place a bowl and run the water into this so it overflows, stirring up less of the substrate. The bacteria (if that is what this is) will still appear but more slowly in chlorinated water.

Blooms can be bacterial, diatom or organic. I had the latter in my 90g tank for over two years. It was always hazy, variable from slightly to more, obvious because the other tanks in the fish room were crystal clear. I never did track down the cause, but the organics level in that tank was quite high. I considered it might have been the wood.

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