Cloudy water / established tank

[jonny toe tags]

I have cloudy water in my 3 month old established tank.
It looks like a bacteria bloom.


Is there anything to do or should i wait it out?

 

[cutecotton]

i dont' have much expierience with sudden cloudiness, but i believe you should be doing more frequent water changes?

 

[Tjimbsoj]

Have you checked your parameters?

If not, then it could be due to overfeeding. Look into giving the tank a 20% water change using dechlorinated tap water and syphoning the gravel.

 

[SirMinion]

I get this problem if I don't remove uneaten food quickly enough.

solution.. 30% water change and a dose of a filter booster such as 'stress zyme'

 

[shmax101]

Never had this problem personally, but at a lfs near here, they have a 120 gallon planted display tank, and it has the same problem. They've done EVERYTHING trying to get it back to normal. Water changes, treatments, phosphate checks, parameters checks, they did a 75% water change like 3 weeks ago, and it cleared up, but then 2 days later(with only 1 small feeding in the 2 days) it was back. It looks awful, and they have no idea why/how/what to do to fix it. er... I guess this isn't helpful at all, but sometimes just knowing you're not the ONLY one helps..?
If they figure it out, I'll post again and maybe be more helpful

 

[jonny toe tags]

I do weekly water changes.
I'll get the test kit out and test it.
Here's what it looks like:

 

[jrd77]

That's not that cloudy at all (yet); you should see mine. The same thing happened in my well established tank out of nowhere. I did water changes almist daily for about 3 weeks (but when I skipped a day it went from bad to worse) then decided to just do nothing for one week and see what happened. It's horrible. Now, I'm back to doing water changes all the time. My parameters are always the same at Ammonia=0, Nitrites=0 and nitrates at 12.5 My pH is a 7 and temp at 78 F. The water here is slightly soft but not bad. I cannot imagine that after changing my water and gravel siphoning all the time its due to over feeding and I have 2 biowheels with well established bacteria so I cannot imagine a bacterial bloom.



I have been dealing with your probelm for almost 6 weeks. If you (or your local fish store) figure anything out, PLEASE let me know.

I know I did not help you; its just another desparate rant about my poor tank.

Good luck and please keep me updated as to what's going on...

 

[jonny toe tags]

I'll be stopping by my LFS tomorow.
It's a pain because my 20 gal is crystal clear. I do water changes the same day and they have the same parameters.

 

[jrd77]

My 10 gallon is clear too...weird huh? Well good luck! Maybe your LFS has learned something...

 

[jonny toe tags]

I asked a couple people at the LFS.
They basically said do a 30% water change and see.
It's probably a bacteria bloom, since the fish are fine and the levels are ok.

I'll be doing that 2night.

 

[jonny toe tags]

Well...i did a 40% water change last Wed.
It's Mon and the water is clear as can be.
I guess it was just a bacteria bloom.