Cloudy water...

Hi all,
This has just recently become a problem with my 55 (see sig). I did a water change a few days ago, and all seemed well. I woke up the next day and the water was milky-cloudy. I added Tropic-Clear ( link here. )
Now it looks basically the same, if not slightly worse. I have live plants in there, so I'm not sure if it's phosphates.
Thanks!
Robin

I see that you are doing a major renovation to your tank via the signature.

It almost sounds like a bacterial bloom.

How much water did you change out?
Did you clean your filter out with the water change?
Are you using any chemicals to rid the water of Chlorine, Chloramine, and Phosphates? And if so, are you using going by the directions posted? Or are you adding more than directed.

Thanks for replying.
Ok, the reason I had that Major renovation thing is that my aquarium was attacked by a fungus (which is still there, it will be there forever) and most of my plants died. Plus I'm upgrading to a heavily planted tank.
I am using no chemicals at all, just aquarium plant fertlizers and the bacteria that I mentioned before. I have used Amquel+ before, but that was really last year. I have also added Malachite green about 1-2 months ago, and nothing similar to this happened.
I did a regular (albeit frustrating because I don't have a No spill clean+fill) 25% water change, nothing really major. I did clean out my filter, And I replaced one of the pads, but realized I didn't have the second one, so I just rinsed out the least dirty old one of the 2. In the inner part I have lava rock and bio-balls, and I simply rinsed those out, not even taking them out of the containers.
Yes, I definitely agree that it sounds like a bacterial bloom. That's why I added the bacteria.
Here are the test results, I did a whole testing of the water.

GH-6 or 7 dGH
pH- 6.6 I found this alarming, as my ph has always been 6.0- 6.2 average.
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate- about 40 ppm.... Is this really bad??
KH- 1 dKH

pH for tap water(straight out of the faucet I used for water change)-6.1 ppm

HTH!
Robin

When you say that you rinsed out the bio balls in the caontainer. Did you actually change the water out of there as well?

And while cleaning them were you rinsing the bio balls with the same aquarium water or with new water? If new water was it the same or similar temperature as the water in the tank? How long were the filters before they were changed?

Here's my reasoning for asking these questions. I'm thinking that if you washed the balls with colder or warmer water that what was in the tank it might have destoryed a portion of your bacterial colony, same goes for your filters. And if it's been sometime from changing your filters the bacteria could have built up a colony in the filter media, therefore when you changed the filter out and rinsed out the old one you're potentially knocking the bacteria out again.

This is just my take and unfortunately it seems that it's going a bit above my head. Hopefully some of the more advanced peeps might be able to help.

No no, I think you're right. I did rinse the bioballs with cold, new water. That must have been it. I use a powerhead with 2 quickfilters attached and a 3 foot spraybar.
So what can I do to accelerate the bacteria growing back? How do I prevent this from happening again?
Thanks so much,
Robin
Edit: Yes, it's been a long time since I've done maintenence. (Kicks self) ahh, well. I'm hoping for a No Spill Clean and Fill for my birthday... it's on the 13th!!
~Robin

The bloom (white cloudy water) is the bacteria replenishing itself in your system. Just give it time and it will do so on it's own. I would assume after a week with out a water change it should clear up and be back to normal and you can continue on with your water changes as normal.

Though I would be more diligent on your cleaning of filters. Let the bio balls be the bacteria media, that's what they're made for not the filters.

Hopefully we're on the right track!

Thank you so much, MaxOverKill... I have just realized the cause for my problem (also the filter cleaning did play a role I'm sure)! I went downstairs tonight to shut down, and I realized I forgot to plug my filter back in when I was done cleaning it!
I'm definitely hoping for the siphon and will definitely pay more attention to my poor little fishies.
Thanks again,
Robin

guppygirl said:

Ok, the reason I had that Major renovation thing is that my aquarium was attacked by a fungus (which is still there, it will be there forever) and most of my plants died. Plus I'm upgrading to a heavily planted tank.

Click to expand...

i hope your not using that tank as the heavily planteder cause then that statement would seem odd


unless you plan on stripping it right down and starting from scratch. and may i ask what a pork chop tetra is, never heard of those

Ok, I will explain. The reason my PLANTS died was I used this medication to kill the fungus (which, might I say, didn't work) and instead it killed the plants. It didn't TOTALLY kill them, it just killed most of the growth.
So now my tank has recovered and I'm upgrading. I periodically use Malachite green to beat the fungus down again, but I haven't been so good about my water changes.

Also an answer to your pork chop tetras question~
Those fish are actually rasboras, that's just a fish store name that sorta stuck.
Here's a pic~ (yeah the pic's bad, but that's because it's cropped and I took it with a bad camera)