Very Cloudy Water

[Bean]

Can someone help.....I have the cloudiest water in my 10 gallon tank. I have six tropical fish with a bubble airator and filter (charcoal type) I have changed about 5 gallons of the water...cleaned the filter, washed all the stuff in the tank and still the water remains cloudy. Why is it not clearing up...do I have to empty the tank and start over. I;ve tried changing the water, cleaning the glass, cleaning the filter and it is still cloudy...Any suggestions are appreciated. Bean

 

[Nina7777]

Hey there,

There could be many reasons your water cloudy.

First there could be the problem that your tank may be overstocked. You said you have six fish in a 10 gallon right? How big are these fish?

Second How long as your tank been set up? During the cycling process the tank will almost definately be clear than get cloudy and then once levels are at 0 and the beneficial bacteria has developed the water will get clear again.

Also for future reference, if the tank is new, which i am not sure you mentioned or not, you don't want to clean everything really good. By doing this you kill the beneficial bacteria.

Also what do you feed your fish? Perhaps you are feeding them too much?!

My recommendation would be to start doing 5% water changes every other day, cut back on the amount of food. and if your impatient, like i tend to be add a little bit of "Clarity" by Seachem. It works absolutely GREAT!

Oh and another thing to think about, is your filter may not be big enough to support all the waste six fish are making. You didn't mention what kind of filter you had, but perhaps you should think about upgrading, expecially if you bought your tank as a set, because they never put the right size filter in them, they always skimp!

Hope this helps a bit........and your tank clears up fast!

 

[guppymonkey]

Nina7777 made some good suggestions. You should always post what kind of fish are in the tank so that people can have an idea of your setup. Also, what kind of filter do you have? A power filter that hangs on the back or an internal box filter that is driven by an air pump? If your tank has been set up for less than 3 months I would suspect that the cloudiness is a bacteria bloom. I get them in my tanks after they are set up. Usually it goes away after awhile. Just do water changes a few times a week.

 

[Tropjunky]

hi

 

[Tropjunky]

well said Nina7777 just do a 10% water change every day (not 5% that might not be enough) and don't feed them for about a week and get a almonia test kit and post the results ASAP.

 

[crazie.eddie]

Yes, the above suggestions are good. NEVER EVER remove more than 25% of your water when doing a water change. Also NEVER EVER clean your filters and change your media the same day you do a gravel cleaning/water change. This is becuase you remove too much of the benificial bacteria. The cloudy water is due to a bacterial bloom. It will eventually clear up. Just monitor your tanks for ammonia and nitrites as this will tend to spike since you removed the benificial bacteria.