Long Term Cloudy Water

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Aysvin

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
122
Location
USA
So, my family has set up a 45 gallon freshwater tank. It has a canister filter that's good for up to 100 gallons. The fish it is stocked with are:

  • 5 gold barbs
  • 5 serpae tetras
  • 2 blue dwarf gorami
  • 3 oto cats
  • 4 nerti snails
  • (sorry if I didn't spell those right, I don't want to look them up right now)
There's little to no algae on the tanks walls and the snails have to cruise all over to find some, but thankfully they eat leftover food and what not.


Unfortunately, though our tank was gloriously clean for the first 3-4 months it was up it is now a bit cloudy. It's been worse than it is now over the past 3 months or so, turning green, being so cloudy that you couldn't see the back of the tank...my dad has done several half water changed to help fix it, but it's obviously not enough (he's too uninterested in the tank to do more, as is the rest of my family). However, even when the new water has been added it fogs up again by the next day.


So, is there any reason why this has been so prolonged? Any tips (besides changing the water once a week)? I'm the only one out of 5 people who even feeds the fish now despite this beginning as a family project. So...anything that could help would be good...
 
Does the aquarium get any direct sunlight? Green water is usually algae. What kind of substrate do you have and do you vacuum the substrate regularly? If not I would start there, do some large water changes and suck up the gunk from the bottom, particularly if it's gravel, waste and old food can get into the crevices and decay. Also for the filter, have you ever rinsed out the media? No need to change it all together but when you do a water change, rinse the media out thoroughly in old tank water, then replace. I would try those things first and see if it helps.
 
I have no idea, but they are LED. Also, since no one cares the lights are on at random times or not at all. I have class at 8 in the morning and often don't have time to take care of it.
 
That could be the problem my little brother has a 10g and he always forgets to turn them on and it'll start to get cloudy also try siphoning the bottom of the tank. Fish waste and food that has never been eaten can cause alot of problems with the water quality. I have a 55g and I only have a single fish in it (its a predator) and I always have to siphon out the tank or it starts to get cloudy and will stink really bad.
 
Yeah, I'm going to try to set up a weekly time to change the water and clean the gravel. I also need to turn the lights on as soon as I get downstairs since no one else does.
 
Also check under the light for algae on my 55 I get algae under my light and it'll tint the color of my water green this is what it'll look like eventually (I need to clean my light)ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1391278990.579364.jpg
 
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