Water Help!!!!

[MBfan465]

The night before I just did the weekly partial water change, and the water was perfectly clear for about 5 hours after the change. I woke up the next morning and it was completely cloudy, like really cloudy!! What the heck happened. The filter was working, the nitrite levels are 0, and the ammonia is low as well. I am so confused.

 

[StarOrbs]

If it's a new tank it's probally just a bacteria bloom, which is a good thing. Unless the water has a green tint then it's an algae bloom.

 

[MBfan465]

No it's a total white cloud, and there is no hint of green at all. So is this good, should I leave the water alone? Does the filter eventually fix this or am I going to have to let it be??

Another thing is that all the fish are staying at the top of the water, do they have difficulty breathing in bacteria bloom?

 

[StarOrbs]

Hmm, perhaps you don't have enought aeration I'm not sure if a bacteria bloom should cause that but I don't know because I did a fishless cycle. If it's totally white then my guess would be a bacteria bloom.. It should go away on it's own once the approraite beneficial bacteria is in your tank for the amount of fish or ammonia you have.

 

[MBfan465]

I mean it is not totally white, but it has a white haze. So it will go away, but why are the fish swimming at the top?? Thanks for your help, much appreciated!!!

 

[StarOrbs]

Hopefully someone can give a better answer. I have had bacteria blooms but I've never done it with fish.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

You mentioned the ammonia reading was low...how low?

Also:

What size is your tank?
How long has it been running?
And how much water did you change?

 

[smithrc]

It'll be a bacteria bloom. We get it happen if I'm over zellious with the water change and filter clean. It'll die down over the course of a few days...

It's best not to clean the filter and syphone the gravel at the same time.

 

[macssafc]

i had the same problem a few weeks ago this is what i found out afterwards
when i did a massive clean of the tank. i made a big mistake
i had a bacteria bloom (thats ok it cleared after a few days) but the fish were at the top of the tank because id turned up the thermo by mistake when i was cleaning it.
hence my worry about your fish could you have done the same thing and the water hasnt got enough oxygen left in it?

 

[Jen]

The same thing happened to me. Did a water change, went to bed. When I got home from work the next day, the tank lights were on and it looked like I had pured a bag of milk in the tank, and had little white stringy things all over the tank (glass, plants, wood - everything). Frantically I took a water sample to my LFS, who told me the nitrAte was high. I had also added liquid fertalizer and upped the lights. I left it over night again, and the cloud went away. The stringy stuff took some scraping and water changes though.

 

[MBfan465]

Thanks for your help everyone, I think its under control now. I was probably alittle over zealous while cleaning the tank filter. My tank was probably shocked with too much bacteria it just could not break down all at once. Thanks again!!

 

[happyadd]

My tank has done exactly the same thing! its really cloudy and from advise on this forum have established it is a bacterial bloom, and its my bad!

I bought new plants on the weekend, put them in, put a load of fertiliser in and left light on all night, which I thought was the best thing to do to help the plants.

As usual it was wrong!

has yours cleared yet? if so how long does it take...I hate this cloudy water!

 

[Ferris]

Just keep an eye on your water parameters, cloudy water can be good or bad depending on the type of bacteria bloom. If your parameters are OK, don't worry. If any of the parameters start increasing, do regular water changes until they settle down.