White Cloudy Tank

[lickwidspace]

Hello, I am new to the TFF, I have been reading several Tropical fish sites looking for an answer to my cloudy tank issue, I figured this site looked to be the best to post on....so here it goes...

The Tank is a 55gal 4ft tank containing:

2 angle fish (5" Fin to fin)
2 dwarf goramies (2")
1 pearl gorami (3")
2 shark catfish (2")
1 large Pleco (8")
1 Bichir (7")
1 Black Ghost Knife (4")
3 danos (3")
1 needle nose eel (6")

The tank has always been crystal clear for the last 14 months, never had any problems with it until about 2 weeks ago.

I recently moved... So the worst nightmare possible for an aquariust, the Tank had to come down and be moved too. During the move, I didnt loose any fish, but I did loose my tank. Well I ended up replacing the tank, and setting it up at my new house, I brought 20gals of water from the old tank with me along with the fish. I used the 20 gals to seed the other 35 that went into the tank. Everything seemed to be doing ok, the fish were all well and the tank looked nice and clean. And everything remained that way for another couple weeks.

Skip ahead a few weeks, the tank has been up and running again for 4 weeks, for the last 2 weeks, I have been fighting a white cloudy mess. The tank is foggy. You can see the back wall from the front side, but looking from the side, you cannot see the opposite wall 4' away. I have tried 50-60% water changes every other day for a week... After the water change the tank looks 100% better, but by the end of the 2nd day its back where i started. I cleaned the fliter, removed all plants and rockwork (fake), cleaned everything, vaccumed the substrate rocks, cut feedings in half. Nothing seems to work, or even improve the situation for longer than a day.

Water params are ok:
Nitrate: 20 (been holding solid at that)
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Ph: 6.6 (Low but solid, not fluctuating)


I have been thinking of breaking down the whole tank and cleaning EVERYTHING to the best I can then putting it all back together, but I am worried it may kick off anther nitrogen cycle...What do I do with the fish?


I'm sure there are many questions you may also need answered before giving me a good direction to go in, so please feel free to ask I will respond as soon as i can with whatever information you may need.
Please any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Kenn

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons is the new tank, that you have added the fish to, plus what do you feed the fish, and what filter is it, how many gallons does it turn over an hour.

 

[lickwidspace]

How many gallons is the new tank, that you have added the fish to, plus what do you feed the fish, and what filter is it, how many gallons does it turn over an hour.

Same 55gal tank.
Feed is Flake, Dried Bloodworm, Sometime I will feed frozen bloodworm... The bloodworm is only eaten by the Ghost and Bichir... So its minimal, mostly flake is fed.

Filter is a 350B Penguin Bio-Wheel Filter, not sure on the GPH as I did not buy this filter myself, it was given to me back when I fisrt started this tank over a year ago.

 

[WILDER]

http/freshaquarium.about.com/cs/watercon...cloudywater.htm

 

[WILDER]

You would get more replies in tropical chit chat, ask a mod to move it for you, there names are blue at the bottom of the forum.

 

[lickwidspace]

http/freshaquarium.about.com/cs/watercon...cloudywater.htm

I have read that before, Its where I got the idea of tearing the tank down and cleaning everything and washing the substrate... But wont this cause another Cycle to kick off when the tank is re-filled?

Is it safe to drain the tank, remove and wash everything, replace everything, refill, then add the fish back in as soon as the temps are correct?

 

[Pog]

Hi,

I experienced the same thing when I moved my fish to a larger aquarium. The cause in my case was bacteria bloom (too much bacteria). I understand that it is hamless. Mine went away after a few water changes, once I had found out what it was. Being the cautious person I am I was adding lots of bacteria to the tank as a safety precaution. Problem was, I changed the water then ... Yes, you've guessed

Hope this helps,
Pog.

 

[Monte20]

I had the same problem exactly. what you have is a bacteria bloom brought on probably by an increase of ammonia. the 50-60% water changes are helping the ammonia, but at the same time ridding you a lot of valuable bacteria. what i ended up doing was just siphoning the rocks good, about 25% of the water. and i just let it run. i did small water changes every couple days, like 10%. it cleared up in a week 1/2.

EDIT: do not drain the tank. just let it recycle. which is what its doing now.

 

[lickwidspace]

I had the same problem exactly. what you have is a bacteria bloom brought on probably by an increase of ammonia. the 50-60% water changes are helping the ammonia, but at the same time ridding you a lot of valuable bacteria. what i ended up doing was just siphoning the rocks good, about 25% of the water. and i just let it run. i did small water changes every couple days, like 10%. it cleared up in a week 1/2.

EDIT: do not drain the tank. just let it recycle. which is what its doing now.

I like this idea much better then breaking down the whole tank again.
Each Time I have done a water change (3 in the last 6 days) I have also been vacumming the rocks. The tank looks no better than it did the 1st day I noticed it was cloudy...

Basicly I should keep going with my every other day water change but only about 10% now? (today is a water change day)

Is it possible that because I was changing so much water, the "good" bacteria I was removing was the bacteria needed to consume the bloom? This is the reason I am not seeing any improvement? Is this bloom going to cause any harm to the fish? None appear to be acting "out of the ordinary"

Thanks, Im not only trying to get a handle on the situation, Im trying to understand whats going on in the tank at the same time.

 

[Monte20]

""Is it possible that because I was changing so much water, the "good" bacteria I was removing was the bacteria needed to consume the bloom? This is the reason I am not seeing any improvement? ""

the bacteria IS the bloom. you have a WAY LOT of bacteria. just let it do its thing with small water changes and the bacteria will drop down to clear levels when it takes care of whetever its feeding off of.