Cloudy water?

[myfrint]

Well, it's not that much cloudy, but my tank is still cloudy.

My tank is 10 gal planted tank with 4 neons, 4 black neons, 3 peppered corys, and 2 otos.

It is like 2 months old, and of course, it's done with the fishless cycle.

pH is around 7, and ammonia and nitrite are 0.

Nitrate is around 20~40. Not that high. Temperature is like around 82.

I do 20~30 % water change every week.

Hm. What causes that cloudy water? I guess it's not from bacterial bloom, since my cycle is done.

Any answers?

 

[Earthgirl]

Hello,
I had that I think, and still do, I had bacteria bloom. I shut off the lights a little earlier than normal and had to put the blinds down to no natural light came in. I really did help. Hope your problem does too!

 

[Dragonslair]

This may sound a silly question to ask you, but your answer to it may give you the answer.
What does the water in the tank smell of when you open the lid/hood?
If it smells of "water" with no other unplesent odours then the cloudyness may be just a disturbance of the filtration system and the particules are still in suspension in the water. Something like Accuclear will clear the water quickly or if you wish you can just let the filtratration system clear it. It will take a little longer.
If, however you smell,"fishy" or sulphur(rotten eggs), then you have a decay problem, and the bacteria bloom will be caused by the decaying process. This can happen for a number of reason, for newbies it's usually a sign of overfeeding. Other causes are dead or decaying vegetation or fish. The smell is the nitrogen cycle in process.

 

[myfrint]

My tank doesn't have any smell.

I can't smell anything from it.

One thing that i noticed was that the water is not white-cloudy, but it was like greenish-cloudy.

So, can it be caused by algae?

I have some amount of algae in my tank.

I just put 2 otos in there to help that problem.

Well, i think i'll try reduce the duration of lighting.

 

[tstenback]

green cloudy water is an algae bloom. this is another thing that often happens in tanks. Usually caused by high nitrates and/or high phosphates combiined with lots of light. The light is easy to control just cut back a bit. The nitrates and phosphates can be controlled by the water changes but the phosphates shouldnt really be there unless they are in your tap water. The biggest cause for excess phosphates, if you have them is overfeeding. Phoszorb will remove them from the water for you.
You are already doing the water changes but you should try to keep the nitrate level below 20 if you can. So try the lighting and get the nitrates down and see if that helps. Also adding a fresh carbon insert will help get rid of this. HTH

 

[csr mel]

you can try that cloudy water treatment stuff. i have used that in the past and it works great.

 

[myfrint]

Thx a lot for those replies.

I'm currently using Aquaclear 30 filter.

It has sponge, activated carbon, and biomax filter media in there.

I heard carbon media is not that necessary unless if i put medication in my tank.

So, should i change the carbon media with other media? Or just change to new carbon media?

If i change to new media, wihch media will be good?

Oh, and my problem with tap water is that my tap water already has some nitrate in there. (like 20~40?)

So, what should i do with that?