Cloudy Water :(

[joff]

hi there. im new to this forum but not new to the fish keeping hobby. ive had tropical fish for the past 3 years. first i had a small 28 litre tank then upgraded to a 60 litre. i now have a 140 litre. ive had the tank set up or about 6 months. it has been hell so far. i can never get my water clean or stop it fromturning yellow. i have a fluval 405 filter with amonia remover, phosphate remover, as well as polishing pads to go with the normal sponge filter. i dont feed the fish an exessive amount or i dont have the tank overstocked. i have a couple of neon tetras, serpae tetras, columbian tetras, a bushy nose plec, and a chocolate zebra pleco (loved how hard these fish were to get and their looks so i decided to splash out on ebay ) ive even reduced my light times in th night even though i dont think the water conditions are alge related. i dont think it could be the filter either. i have a terrapin in a 200 litre tank with a fluval 205 and the water is always crystal clear. products you buy dont help either. i was thinking about going for an undergravel filter with a power head. do you think it would help?? cant go to my lfs because i know more about the fish there than they do. please help guys thanks

 

[mislisa]

is there bogwood in the tank? sometimes it can release tannins into the tank & make the water brownish. otherwise, i have no idea. Good luck!

 

[Uriel]

My guess would also be that you have bogwood or peat in your tank or filter. Carbon can be used to remove the tannin if it is from the bogwood. Why do you run ammonia and phosphate removers if you don't mind me asking. Once your filter is mature it should deal with turning your ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate. And i haven't really heard of using phosphate removers outside of marine tanks. Good old fashioned plants can be used to remove the nitrates and phosphates and of course regular water changes.

 

[joff]

hi guys thanks for the replys. i have no bogwood. all i have are plastic plants and i have an air curtain running the full length of the tank (well a few cm's away from the intake strainer) im running phospate remover because my lfs showed me the fluval media and i read 'helps to clear water' but obviously not should i take it out?? also do you think it it worth getting an under gravel filter with a powerhead?? thanks both

 

[Skins]

Have you got ornaments, rocks, slate? I've read threads before where these items are the cause of a coloured cloudy water issue. I could suggest running some carbon in your filter but imo don't think this will solve the issue long term or possibly even short term.

Keith.

 

[Harlequins]

How long has the ammonia remover & phosphate remover been in your filter? if they've been in their a while,they may be leaching back into your tank??
I've heard before that ammonia remover sachets once full can release back out if not removed.

If your filter is cycled it shouldn't need ammonia remover in the filter,has this may be affecting the filter cycling properly.

What are your readings for ammonia & nitrite?

Undergravel filters in my opinion are harder to maintain than an external,due to having to keep on top of tank maintainance and keeping the gravel reasonably clean to stop it clogging up...

 

[Uriel]

I don't really see that an ungravel is going to help you here. If the water was white and cloudy this would most likely be caused by bacterial bloom from to much organic material in the tank. This could be countered by a good clean.

Personally if it was me i would pull everything unneccasary from the tank and do regular water changes and see what helps. I would start with both the ammonia remover and phosphate remover. Do 30% water changes each day for 2 weeks and see if this helps.

If not i would move onto plastic plants and decor remove them all and then do 20-30% water changes daily and see if it helps.

Other things you could try are giving your filter media a good wash in tank water(Not tap water) and making sure to give your gravel a good clean when you do water changes. You could try filter carbon but at best i see this as a temporary solution and i would be looking to remove the cause rather than add anything else to a tank with a problem.

I know this is a lot of water changes but if it solves the problem surely it would be worth it.

I would also concider adding some cheap easy grow plants like elondea densa(tropical pond weed) for when you remove the ammonia and phosphate removers even if you decide to chuck em away in a week or 2 once the tank is clean and stable.

 

[waterdrop]

while I agree with the others that it may turn out to be some object and that you should simplify everything bacause of that, I'm afraid that the most likely thing may be that the ammonia remover has "removed" all chance of food for your autotrophic bacteria, leaving the filter to not ever become fully cycled possibly and for a bacterial bloom of sorts to be occurring possibly.

You want to work the ammonia and phosphate removers out of your filter and replace them with the more traditional biomedia materials of sponge or ceramics. But you need to do that gradually so that if there are some beneficial bacteria on these materials (and there probably will be some) you won't remove too much too fast. (maybe 1/3 of one type at a time.. you just have to guess at it and see what's practical as only you can judge the volumes involved.)

Meanwhile, as the others have said, remove decoration and perform deep gravel cleans with fairly large water changes with good technique.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[joff]

hi guys, sorry havent been on here a while. MY TANK IS CLEAN!!!!!!! my friend recently done a large water change on his roma 240 and well, to put a long story short i stole most of the water. within 3 days my water was crystal clear. i have completed a 30% water change after a week of it running and it seems fine. i tried all of these chemicals from my lfs that claimed to clean up tanks but they never worked. i honestly dont know what caused it but the main thing is my fish are happy and healthy. i have also installed my under gravel filter as well as my fluval 305 and both are working fine and dandy. also bought some corydoras to help me with the maintinance on the under gravel filter. as of yet there is nothing left on the floor of my tank an hour after feeding. if i knew what went wrong i would try my best to avoid it in the future but its all trial and error in the fishkeeping hobby. thanks for the replies guys