Super foggy water

[Jebus]

yesterday i did a 15 % water change, cleaned the gravel, changed the flter media, and put in some jungle tablets in the water. After a few hours, the water began clouding up so bad that you couldn't see the back of the tank. Today it's still cloudy. Should i do a 10 % water change, or just let it be?

 

[sinistral]

yesterday i did a 15 % water change, cleaned the gravel, changed the flter media, and put in some jungle tablets in the water.

If you took out your whole filter sponge and charcoal, discarded them and replaced them with a fresh sponge and charcoal, unfortunately you've just removed most of the beneficial bacteria in your tank. I'd recommend you check your ammonia and nitrites and do a water change. If this is what you've done, you're faced with the prospect of cycling your tank over again

 

[Jebus]

the only reason i took it out was because it was getting really dirty and full of fish poop. i will try doing a water change and see if it gets better

 

[clutterydrawer]

if it's dirty you clean it, not replace it. and if you need to replace it, don't do it all at once.

do you have tests for ammonia and nitrite? if so, could you post the results?

 

[sinistral]

the only reason i took it out was because it was getting really dirty and full of fish poop. i will try doing a water change and see if it gets better

I reread my reply; hope I didn't sound too harsh What's your filter setup like? Does it have one sponge and one charcoal bag? Next time I'd advise you to gently squeeze out the sponge in some siphoned tank water in a bucket and check ammonia/nitrites the next day. You don't want to cause a bacterial die-off in your filter, as that's where most of the beneficial bacteria resides.

I do want to emphasize what clutterydrawer wrote, which is that it'll be very important to check your ammonia and nitrites, as you will have to introduce new bacterial colonies into the new filter sponge. HTH~

 

[njtransit21]

Umm, actually, you can maybe give me some answers then.

If my filter media (the white thing that collects fish poop) gets dirty, I am supposed to just wash it and not replace it? I didn't know that.

 

[Jebus]

i am gonna take a water sample to petco, they have a water testing booth thingy
as for the filter, it's a tetra whisper 10i, and the filter media is a white bag with charcoal in it. I let the bag sit in tank water for about an hour before i put it in, but it probably didn't help...

 

[clutterydrawer]

Umm, actually, you can maybe give me some answers then.

If my filter media (the white thing that collects fish poop) gets dirty, I am supposed to just wash it and not replace it? I didn't know that.

yep

do you understand cycling? If so you'll know that much of the bacteria which gets rid of ammonia and nitrite is in the filter media. If you change all the filter media at once, you get rid fo all theg ood bacteria, and there will be nothing left to get rid of the ammonia and nitrite.

instead, wash it in some water that you have taken from the tank - not tapwater cos this has chlorine in and will kill the bacteria.

 

[melleth]

Interesting...
I am not one to change filter cartridges often. But the package when you buy a filter ( I recently bought a whisper submersable filter) does tell the customer to replace the cartridge with a new one every month! So they are actually giving bad advice then. I generaly just rinse the old filter and vacume the gravel with my water changes. I have never had any problems with my tank while doing this.

 

[clutterydrawer]

they want to trick you into spending lots of money buying new filter media.