I would absolutely LOVE to know how to get my water clear

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Copachick

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 9, 2011
Messages
392
Location
MD
How on EARTH do I get my water back to clear? It has been cloudy for a couple months. We do regular water changes(as we vacum the gravel so nothing extra sits around) and test the water weekly. We do not overfeed and we are not overstocked.

Can someone give me SOME sort of insite?
And I dont know what its called, but i had bought some kind of stuff that you put into your tank to clear the water... and it did not help either.


grr.. :banghead:

Some help pleeaasseee ?!?

:thanks:
 
Its like a white haze ish. And I know that is normal for new tanks, but seriously my tank is not brand new. Im gonna guess 6 months or so?
And what really doesnt make sense, is I have another tank that is a little less old then that, and it has never seen a cloudy day in its life.
It just amazes me..
 
how'd you cycle fish-less with fish a white milky haze signifies a bacterial bloom. it's good and will clear on its own how long has it been cloudy?
 
A couple months. we did a fishless cycle. Ive had it for about 6 months of not a smidge more. It already went through its clear, then to cloudy for a bit, then back to clear stage.. Then one day it was cloudy and it has stayed ever since. It hasnt gone away on its own and its really annoying.
 
Have you made any changes recently? Replaced filters, heavy cleaning or adding new fish? Do you know your ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte levels?
 
Nadda. We havent changed a THING. No new fish for a long time. Only thing we did just the other day was put a live plant in it, but it was cloudy before that.
I dont know the exact numbers in my levels. Im not home to look but as of the other night, if I remember correctly, ammonia was 0, nitrite 0, nitrate... 5.0?
We do regular weekly pwc, and vacumm like I said So it has been a total mystery to me
 
And its not like it hurts the fish. They are alive and kicking. Goofy as heck, eat well and are funny little buggers. Its more annoying then anything to not be able to see that well in my tank
 
Doesn't sound like a mini-cycle then, and a bacterial bloom (while usually responsible for milky water) doesn't seem likely either.

Try putting some tank water in a white cup and see if it possibly has a greenish tint. Early stages of an algae bloom can sometimes start as cloudy looking.
 
I will do that soon as I get home. If it does have a green tint, what should I do? I have a snail and Otos to keep the algae in check..
 
Copachick said:
I will do that soon as I get home. If it does have a green tint, what should I do? I have a snail and Otos to keep the algae in check..

Pretty much what wolf said. I'd start with keeping the lights off for about 4 days, stop any ferts you're using, and don't overfeed. If that fails, you can always do a blackout.
 
Our lights are on from 5:00pm to around whenever we go to bed.. like 10 or 11? So not that long. No natural light hits the tank directly. Sometimes we leave the balcony curtain cracked, but that light doesnt directly hit the tank
 
Well we will be away this weekend so the lights will be off. And what are ferts?
 
I'm not sure if this is true (seemed to happen to me though), but if a new plant brings in a form of algae...it could potentially cause a type of bloom. Kind of similar to when your bacteria is first colonizing during a cycle. I've never researched it, but that's the only variable that I could narrow down when I had green water for a while.

Ferts = fertilizers
 
We dont use ferts. And we just got that plant 2 days ago. Tank has been cloudy for almost 2 months. Im not sure the name of it offhand.
 
im taking a stab at this because in SW old bulbs cause algae outbreaks how old are your bulbs and do you know the color temp
 
As long as all your numbers check out and the water isn't green...try running poly-fil in your filter. You get it at Walmart or any craft store, it's used for stuffing pillows. Just make sure it isn't fire "retardant", fire resistant is fine. It polishes your water like you wouldn't believe.

I run it in the bottom tray of my canister filter and replace it every week during pwc's. You'd be shocked how dirty it gets in a week. It's only like $4 and will last me a year even with weekly replacement. It's best to use in canister filters...but I'm sure there's a creative way to run it in an HOB.
 
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