cloudy tank water

[corylover5]

A few days ago I did a 75% water change and I cleaned my filter and tank really well. My water was crystal clear after that but the next day it was really cloudy. I had the cloudy water tested and there was 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 7 nitrate. My fish were all acting completely normal. I then did a 50% water change in hopes of clearing up the cloudy water. It was clear again but the next day it was extremely cloudy again. This has never happened before and my tank has been set up a little over 2 months. The only things I added were some duckweed, a small Anubis on a stone, and some java moss. I checked my filter and it's clean and working properly. I'm not sure why the water is so cloudy. Is there anything I can do to make the water clear again?

 

[dmpfishlover]

What did you do to "clean" your filter and tank "really well"? It is recommended that you not clean your filter for the first few months after setting up a tank, and how you clean it can be very important.

 

[corylover5]

I used a gravel vacuum and I changed 75% of my water. I scrubbed the sides of the tank with a sponge and I washed my driftwood in a bucket of tank water. I cleaned my filter by rinsing the media in some tank water too. I did this because my tank just had an ich outbreak from a sick fish I brought home and I decided to do a large water change when the ich cured up. I used heat to cure the ich.

 

[tybooyahh]

I had the same problem month ago, when I was doing a water change I cleaned to much of a good bacteria from filter media and from the gravel and my water become cloudy as my tank started cycling "from the beggining" ? If I can call it like that. Basically what I did, I was doing small water changes every day till the problem stopped and I have added filter enhancement, dont remember how it was called exactly. Basically liquid that boosted new good bacteria to grove in my tank.

 

[seangee]

I would leave it and see what happens. Keep up with the weekly changes. It could just be a bacterial bloom which is common in newish tanks and harmless. If it doesn't clear within a couple of weeks we can investigate further.

 

[tybooyahh]

I have added fluval biological enhancer

 

[dmpfishlover]

You may have removed a lot of the beneficial bacteria by doing such a thorough cleaning of your tank, driftwood and filter. Your water parameters seem fine though... A lot of new tanks will go through a cloudy period... If the water is cloudy with a white/grey color, this can be a bacterial bloom or suspended particulate matter. It is possible that by cleaning your tank you may have thrown off the balance of different bacterial species and this caused a bloom. If the water is cloudy and slightly green, this could be an algae bloom, which also could have been caused by an imbalance in the tank. This should go away in time, once your tank "re-balances" itself. It sounds like you cleaned the filter properly using tank water and this should be done from time to time, but as your tank is new, I wouldn't touch your filter for a few months in order to allow the BB to build up inside.

 

[corylover5]

The water is a grey/brown color so I'm guessing it's a bacterial bloom with tannins from some of the newer driftwood. I'll keep doing weekly water changes and I won't clean my filter until a few months from now. Thanks for the responses.

 

[BoningKnife]

Evolution Aqua Pure Aquarium. It's available on Amazon.

 

[BoningKnife]

Just to add, I use that product myself. I just chuck one or two in with every water change, sometimes I forget but generally I don't. IME it's worth a tenner.

 

[corylover5]

I just looked on Amazon and it's out of stock but I'll keep checking to see when it's back in stock. It looks like a good product. Thanks for the recommendation.