Cloudy Water Issue

[tsimajad]

Overview: I have a 60-gallon tank, which I have had since July of 2008. I have 4 emerald corys (since July '08), some cardinal tetra, red serpae tetra, a bleeding heart tetra and some golden wonder killis. I am holding off on purchasing new fish until I solve this cloudy water issue. (oddly, tetras always seem to do well, but I have had problems with barbs the past half year that i didn't have prior). The killis have been going strong for some time now.

A couple of months ago, I removed all plants and decorations from the tank, leaving just the fish, the gravel and the water. I moved 20-gallons of water using a siphon vacuum to clean all of the decayed food etc from the gravel. All of the plants and decorations were washed by hand using just warm water, and allowed to air dry. After everything was returned and the tank filled up again, I turned on the air for the filters and the air stone, and the water was a bit cloudy, as it often is after a good cleaning and everything gets disturbed until the filters do their thing. This time, the filters didn't do their thing. The water wasn't clearing up.

To make a long story short, I have had water going from cloudy to clear and back again ever since. I was thinking algae maybe, and left the lights off for a period of time each day. Didn't seem to help. I did another even bigger water change a month later, but the problem persists.

Alkalinity is a bit low. pH and all other conditions are normal.

Water clarifiers tend to clear the water. But, when I feed them, shortly after feeding the water tends to get cloudy again. I don't want to keep using water clarifiers, but they do point to it being some kind of particulate. At one point I though it might be some shrimp-loving microorganism (whether pellets or frozen) since it seemed to always get cloudy after feeding them shrimp, but today I gave them only flakes, and the water got cloudy - not right away, but I noticed it about 30 or more minutes after feeding. Other days the flakes had no effect.

The water temperature is a stable 78 F.

Does anyone have any suggestions, or request any additional information?

 

[minnnt]

Hello and welcome to the forums! I'm sure we will be able to get you sorted asap!

How much food do you feed? Too much uneaten food will soon turn the water cloudy and the remains of it will turn into ammonia pretty quickly. Do you clean your filters media? If so do you use the old tank water? If you use water straight from the tap then this will kill the majority of the beneficial bacteria in your filter and can cause an outbreak of algae/bacterial bloom. Do you use a de-chlorinator when doing water changes? Another tip is to place an old pair of tights or a fine net over the filters outlet when switching them back on to catch any dislodged pieces of rubbish which can also cloud the water.

When you say alkalinity is a bit low but the pH is normal? What do you mean?

 

[tsimajad]

I've been very careful not to overfeed. I am not the person who feeds them every day, but I have made sure the other person doesn't overfeed as well, especially with less fish in the tank like now.

I change the charcoal in the filters with every water change. I let the water sit for a few days so the NaOCl will decompose and there will be no chlorine in the water when I add it to the tank. I do this to avoid using dechlorinator. (I only use it when I forget to fill the buckets soon enough in the week) I do rinse the charcoal before using, to get rid of the fines and powdery material, and to let small pieces that fit through the slots get out before installing them, otherwise I have pieces of charcoal floating in the tank. I used to buy a charcoal that came in uniform larger granules, but the shop stopped selling it and I have ordinary crushed charcoal. This is another thing that changed around the same time as the cloudy water issue began.

In reference to alkalinity, it is what is shown on the test strips I have, which indicate nitrate, nitrite, hardness, chlorine, alkalinity and pH. The indication of low alkalinity is the only thing that is different after the cloudy water issue started compared with before.

Hello and welcome to the forums! I'm sure we will be able to get you sorted asap!

How much food do you feed? Too much uneaten food will soon turn the water cloudy and the remains of it will turn into ammonia pretty quickly. Do you clean your filters media? If so do you use the old tank water? If you use water straight from the tap then this will kill the majority of the beneficial bacteria in your filter and can cause an outbreak of algae/bacterial bloom. Do you use a de-chlorinator when doing water changes? Another tip is to place an old pair of tights or a fine net over the filters outlet when switching them back on to catch any dislodged pieces of rubbish which can also cloud the water.

When you say alkalinity is a bit low but the pH is normal? What do you mean?

 

[Min8040]

I`m only new here and also to fish keeping so don`t take what I say in the wrong way. From my understanding Alkalinity is part of the pH test. And if its low you are supposed to use pH UP. Well that is going by the instructions on my Aquamaster pH test kit.

Min.