Help With Water Clarity

[deannaerin]

After doing 35-45% water change, siphoning the sand, AND changing the filter cartridge, my water is STILL cloudy. I don't know if I'm either seeing things because I don't think it was ever this cloudy unless I just did a water change or messed with the sand in some way, in which the filter usually will have it clear again in about 20-30 minutes.
I have a 10 gallon containing: 2 live plants, 2 mystery snails, 3 long-finned danios, and 3 phantom tetra. If it helps, I have a heater which keeps the temperature at a constant 78 degrees, air stone, and I feed them TetraMin Tropical Flakes & Bloodworms, Algae Wafers for the snails if there is no food floating on top of the sand. When I change my water I use Prime and TetraAqua AquaSafe. I also tend to put in 1 TSP of Melafix after a water change in case the fish get stressed out.

Where am I going wrong?

I really appreciate any replies and advice I receive. Thank you.

 

[hollanda88]

After doing 35-45% water change, siphoning the sand, AND changing the filter cartridge, my water is STILL cloudy. I don't know if I'm either seeing things because I don't think it was ever this cloudy unless I just did a water change or messed with the sand in some way, in which the filter usually will have it clear again in about 20-30 minutes.
I have a 10 gallon containing: 2 live plants, 2 mystery snails, 3 long-finned danios, and 3 phantom tetra. If it helps, I have a heater which keeps the temperature at a constant 78 degrees, air stone, and I feed them TetraMin Tropical Flakes & Bloodworms, Algae Wafers for the snails if there is no food floating on top of the sand. When I change my water I use Prime and TetraAqua AquaSafe. I also tend to put in 1 TSP of Melafix after a water change in case the fish get stressed out.

Where am I going wrong?

I really appreciate any replies and advice I receive. Thank you.

When you changed the filter pads did u only change half at a time?

andrew

 

[pammy172]

Have you cleaned the glass?

 

[The Village Idiot]

What type of sand are you using? I find that, generally, my water will be a bit cloudy after a cleaning. However, in my aquarium which contains artificially colored white sand, the water will stay cloudy for quite some time.

 

[deannaerin]

After doing 35-45% water change, siphoning the sand, AND changing the filter cartridge, my water is STILL cloudy. I don't know if I'm either seeing things because I don't think it was ever this cloudy unless I just did a water change or messed with the sand in some way, in which the filter usually will have it clear again in about 20-30 minutes.
I have a 10 gallon containing: 2 live plants, 2 mystery snails, 3 long-finned danios, and 3 phantom tetra. If it helps, I have a heater which keeps the temperature at a constant 78 degrees, air stone, and I feed them TetraMin Tropical Flakes & Bloodworms, Algae Wafers for the snails if there is no food floating on top of the sand. When I change my water I use Prime and TetraAqua AquaSafe. I also tend to put in 1 TSP of Melafix after a water change in case the fish get stressed out.

Where am I going wrong?

I really appreciate any replies and advice I receive. Thank you.

When you changed the filter pads did u only change half at a time?

andrew

No, it's a whole cartridge thing. I also took out the other half of another piece of pad that my friend gave me when I first got started because my filter was making a weird noise, and it wasn't supposed to be in there anyway and I'd figured that the bacteria had time to grow on the part of the pad that I don't change.

Have you cleaned the glass?

It's not the glass, it's the water. The water itself is cloudy. It doesn't look the same when I lift the hood.

What type of sand are you using? I find that, generally, my water will be a bit cloudy after a cleaning. However, in my aquarium which contains artificially colored white sand, the water will stay cloudy for quite some time.

I'm actually not sure. I think it was child's play sand sold in a bag at Wal-Mart that was heavily rinsed before I added it to my aquarium. I got it from a friend, so that's why I'm not too sure. As I mentioned, my water is usually cloudy only directly after a water change and usually clears up within 30 minutes. It was cloudy for days before I thought to change the filter cartridge and do a water change. It seemed to help, but it's definitely not as clear as it was my first month in keeping it. Basically, I think it should be clearer then it is, and I'm not sure what to do or what I might have done wrong.

 

[Amunet]

Taking out the whole filter cartridge is the problem. You pretty much took out a very large chunk of beneficial bacteria, so now you're experiencing a bacterial bloom.
Keep an eye on the water stats, reduce feeding, do water changes if ammonia or nitrites starts to register.
Next time don't change the entire filter media at once. If there is room in your filter, put in a new one along with the old, let it get seeded with the beneficial stuff for about a week or 2, then take out the old.
Or cut about half of the old media and then place that in with the new one, don't feed a lot for a few days, just to give the bacteria some time to multiply and everything should be ok.

 

[The Village Idiot]

It was cloudy for days before I thought to change the filter cartridge and do a water change.

How long do you go between water changes? Are you making sure that all food is eaten? What type of filter do you have?

 

[deannaerin]

Taking out the whole filter cartridge is the problem. You pretty much took out a very large chunk of beneficial bacteria, so now you're experiencing a bacterial bloom.
Keep an eye on the water stats, reduce feeding, do water changes if ammonia or nitrites starts to register.
Next time don't change the entire filter media at once. If there is room in your filter, put in a new one along with the old, let it get seeded with the beneficial stuff for about a week or 2, then take out the old.
Or cut about half of the old media and then place that in with the new one, don't feed a lot for a few days, just to give the bacteria some time to multiply and everything should be ok.

This was really helpful. I have one of those crappy filters that came in one of the 10 gallon sets that you get at Wal-Mart all together. As you might have read above, my filter was making funny noises and eventually (it didn't look like) it was working right and once I took out that half of the thick part of filter media that I got to help when I first started, it stopped making that funny noise, and I was reading the manufacturer's instructions and it said to replace the whole cartridge and I did. I couldn't find anything on here about my type of filter and how you change a cartridge.

It was cloudy for days before I thought to change the filter cartridge and do a water change.

How long do you go between water changes? Are you making sure that all food is eaten? What type of filter do you have?

I change about 25% every week. Sometimes more, like this past week where I've noticed the cloudiness, I changed 35-45%. I try not to overfeed, but whatever lands on the bottom, my snails eat. The filter is one that came in one of those 10 gallon sets that you buy at Wal-Mart, so I'm sure it's definitely not the best. If it helps, you have to change the cartridges, using the EZ-change cartridges.

 

[hollanda88]

is there any way of changing only half of the filter at a time or at least leaving some of the old stuff in there?

If not i would seriously consider getting a new filter

A good internal filter (Fluval ) will have room to change half at a time aswell as room for filter floss and carbon and other things

andrew

 

[deannaerin]

is there any way of changing only half of the filter at a time or at least leaving some of the old stuff in there?

If not i would seriously consider getting a new filter

A good internal filter (Fluval ) will have room to change half at a time aswell as room for filter floss and carbon and other things

andrew

What is the difference between that type of filter and the filter I have now, the one I have know hangs off the back of the tank, if that helps.

Also, what is the cost/where would I get it?

 

[The Village Idiot]

Personally, I like the Marineland power filters, but many swear by AquaClear, which you can get atBig Al's, which is one of my favorite online stores. The main difference is that the filter you purchased doesn't really have a consistent biological filter. When you remove the filter pad, you remove the beneficial bacteria that have populated it. With better filters, they will have some sort of bio-media that is never removed.

I would suspect that much of your cloudy water problem is coming from overfeeding. While your snails may be eating some of what hits the ground, I imagine they are not getting it all and it is dissolving in your water, which would cause the cloudiness. That, in combination with the inconsistent population of bacteria, would definitely cause some cloudy water problems.

If you don't want to replace the filter at this point, what has been posted above may be an option for you. I would say cutting back the feedings would also be of great help to you.

 

[deannaerin]

Personally, I like the Marineland power filters, but many swear by AquaClear, which you can get atBig Al's, which is one of my favorite online stores. The main difference is that the filter you purchased doesn't really have a consistent biological filter. When you remove the filter pad, you remove the beneficial bacteria that have populated it. With better filters, they will have some sort of bio-media that is never removed.

I would suspect that much of your cloudy water problem is coming from overfeeding. While your snails may be eating some of what hits the ground, I imagine they are not getting it all and it is dissolving in your water, which would cause the cloudiness. That, in combination with the inconsistent population of bacteria, would definitely cause some cloudy water problems.

If you don't want to replace the filter at this point, what has been posted above may be an option for you. I would say cutting back the feedings would also be of great help to you.

My filter has a component that is never removed, it's called bio-something. I feel kind of stupid for not knowing exactly what it is called, but hey I guess we all started somewhere. It definitely has one of those components though, I've done enough research to at least know that you would never remove or replace the only cartridge in a filter.

How do you know if you're overfeeding? The food sinks so fast if they don't get it fast enough. My danios devour what is floating, and my phantom tetras like to get it once it sinks. Makes me kind of nervous that not everyone is getting enough food? I alternate between bloodworms though, would that help? and weekly 25% water changes?