Cloudy water

[totally_tonto]

Hi,

I'm having trouble with my tank.

It was all running great until last week when my tank got a bit cloudy.

I didnt think much of it but was due for a water change anyway so did around 10% change.

The tank got worse and is now very cloudy. From the side, i cant even see halfway!

Help. I've tried checking my filter and changing 50% of the filter media. Tried another water change (around 20%) but doesnt seem much better.

did water checks.
Ammonia around 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate around 5ish (maybe 5-10)
lighting on around 6 hrs a day


Help?

 

[Eelzor]

One of my friends had a similar problem with his tank. It is either,

You need a water changed - Its dirty.
or
You may have stirred the subtrate a little - quite normal.
or
You just need to wait for the filters to get to work a little longer.

HTH

 

[freshwatergal]

It could be a algea bloom. The only thing that I might suggest is daily waterchanges of a little more then 20% til it passes.

Might be wrong though...

 

[Olive]

Hi,

I'm having trouble with my tank.

It was all running great until last week when my tank got a bit cloudy.

I didnt think much of it but was due for a water change anyway so did around 10% change.

The tank got worse and is now very cloudy. From the side, i cant even see halfway!

Help. I've tried checking my filter and changing 50% of the filter media. Tried another water change (around 20%) but doesnt seem much better.

did water checks.
Ammonia around 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate around 5ish (maybe 5-10)
lighting on around 6 hrs a day


Help?

I had this happen for the first time in eight years about 2 months ago. Turns out I had an ammonia spike. Keep changing your water, just in case. I had to do a water change almost every day for a week. I lost some fish, don't want you to!

 

[snowyangel]

That seems like my tank right now even though its been up and fine for over half a year, all of a sudden i have cloudy water and low ammonia showing and i've always been doing water changes 3x a week.

 

[Olive]

That seems like my tank right now even though its been up and fine for over half a year, all of a sudden i have cloudy water and low ammonia showing and i've always been doing water changes 3x a week.

well, at first my ammonia was down too, so I thought it would clear up, so I ignored it. Then, my algae eater's eyes stared sinking in and his skin was coming off! Man, lickety-split I started chaning the water, and somehow, I didn't lose my precious pleco. I did lose some other small tetras, but kept most of them. Keep changing water, as fish like nice clean water. You just can't go wrong that way!

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Judging by the ammonia in the water I'd guess bacterial bloom.

Something interrupted your cycle, and ammonia started to climb. You already had bacteria in the tank, and it is expanding to accomadate for the change, expanding at such a fast pace, in fact, that it's clouding up your tank.

If this is the reason, then keep doing water changes to keep the ammonia at safe levels, and wait it out. Don't clean the filters or you will be taking a step backwards. It will clear up on it's own with some time.