cloudy water after re-decorating and water change

[Gordinho80]

i did a 40% water change in my 55 [acronym:a5ec0cbadf="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:a5ec0cbadf] couple of days ago and in the process, i moved around all my stones and such...in the process, i added 3-4 pieces of slate that had been washed, boiled, and re-washed...

for some reason now, my tank has been cloudy since then...any ideas??? should i clean out the filters? i am running a fluval 404 and a ac500

thanks...
Mario

[lukepghpa]

if it looks like someone poored milk into it, it's probably the natural bacteria that builds up

[Jchillin]

When you disturb the gravel on that level, a lot of detrius and bacteria is let loose and "clouds" the water. This will settle over time. No need to do anything with your filter.

[QTOFFER]

The same thing happens to me whenever I move things around in the tank...which is quite often. There's always a cloud of gunk lurking under a rock that I haven't disturbed in some time. I try to vac out most of it, and the water usually clears up in a few hours to a day for me.
If alot of debris was kicked up, then perhaps you just need to gravel vac more often.

[Gordinho80]

well, water is still cloudy...rather annoying now...i ran some tests...

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 80-160 (couldn't distinguish the color)
pH - 7.8 (still working on getting it higher)

any ideas???

thanks...
Mario

[ace1uno_00]

Use some Acuclear. that stuff works great. you can get it at petco.

[Steven_Askham]

My Tanks do this when i change the decor around etc ...

[TankGirl]

You have some serious nitrate, and when you kicked up the debris I'll bet your nitrate levels rose as the debris got into the water column.

You need to do very small water changes every day or every other day, like 10-20%, to slowly lower your nitrate down to 40ppm or under. This high level indicates more gravel vac's are in order for the future, because too much debris is building up. If you gravel vac weekly with a [acronym:782e4700c8="Partial water change"]PWC[/acronym:782e4700c8] you should not have this nitrate spike again, assuming you are not overfeeding.

You have a seriously stocked tank here so your regimen is going to be more intensive than for the average community tank. I'd wager your filters will need frequent attention, also, as they can be nitrate factories with a bioload like you have. Consider rinsing the media and replacing floss weekly in the Fluval, and rinsing the foam inserts weekly in your [acronym:782e4700c8="Activated Carbon"]AC[/acronym:782e4700c8]. (don't kill me! )