Cloudy water

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Tsquad

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 22, 2018
Messages
28
Location
Iowa
Hello,

I have had my 20 gallon tall set up for 3-4 months now with guppies/tetras in it. I do weekly water changes, and my water is always cloudy. It is a white cloudy. I’m wondering if there is a way to clear this out.

Don’t know if you can tell from this picture but it’s cloudy. Don’t know why the pic is upside down, can’t seem to fix that.
 

Attachments

  • 96E5A04E-A143-4014-83A6-7BAF77C9EC9A.jpg
    96E5A04E-A143-4014-83A6-7BAF77C9EC9A.jpg
    256.2 KB · Views: 74
Hello,

I have had my 20 gallon tall set up for 3-4 months now with guppies/tetras in it. I do weekly water changes, and my water is always cloudy. It is a white cloudy. I’m wondering if there is a way to clear this out.

Don’t know if you can tell from this picture but it’s cloudy. Don’t know why the pic is upside down, can’t seem to fix that.
This is normal for a new tank. It's a bacterial bloom, its normally happens after a ammonia spike. Your tank and spike with you even knowing about it. Using a a fine filter floss can help and smaller more frequent water changes can help. Poly fill, filtering pads work wonders for this. They can be found on Amazon for cheaper than the store,well in my state any way. I wouldn't suggest using it this filter floss all the time, for it filters out everything. It's great for shipping, or removing meds out of the water after a round of treatment.
 
When you do water changes do you treat the new water with a dechlorinator? Do you clean your filter? If so tell us how you go about it. I'm thinking something in your maintance routine is killing off all your BB and you are always cycling the tank.
 
I Agree with goat. If you are doing deep gravel vacs on a newer tank and over cleaning filter media you could be throwing your tank into a mini cycle.
 
I have not cleaned my filter yet, however, I did add on a pre-filter sponge, about a month ago, and replaced the cartridge in my filter with a large sponge about 2 weeks ago. I do treat new water with a conditioner during water changes. I do a water change every 1-2 weeks, depending on time/look of tank. My water change consists of a deep gravel vac of the whole tank, which usually results in about 40%-50% water change. Should I not gravel vac as much?
 
Don't do a deep gravel vac. Just lightly hit the surface of the gravel. I think that's the problem. Try doing 50% water changes weekly regardless.
 
Hello,

I have had my 20 gallon tall set up for 3-4 months now with guppies/tetras in it. I do weekly water changes, and my water is always cloudy. It is a white cloudy. I’m wondering if there is a way to clear this out.

Don’t know if you can tell from this picture but it’s cloudy. Don’t know why the pic is upside down, can’t seem to fix that.
Large water changes can also strip away your bb. Smaller water changes through out tge day would be easier for your fish. I would suggest using ultimate water conditioner put out by hikari. It will make your toxic ammonia less toxic to your fish. It will act as a safety net while you are cycling your tank. There is a YouTuber Aquarium co-op is the name of his channel. His name is Cory. He has a video that breaks it down for ppl still new to the hobby. I have learned alot from him. It couldn't hurt to watch a few of his videos explaining the cycle process and how to correct it. I was able to snap my 20 long out of this as well. Although my 20 long was a bare bottom tank. I added a layer of gravel in it. Lava rock can be found at Walmart for cheap it's in the BBQ section. It is famous for hold a great bb field. The bacteria grows all over in your tank, not just your filter's I hope this helps you.
 
Large water changes can also strip away your bb. Smaller water changes through out tge day would be easier for your fish. I would suggest using ultimate water conditioner put out by hikari. It will make your toxic ammonia less toxic to your fish. It will act as a safety net while you are cycling your tank. There is a YouTuber Aquarium co-op is the name of his channel. His name is Cory. He has a video that breaks it down for ppl still new to the hobby. I have learned alot from him. It couldn't hurt to watch a few of his videos explaining the cycle process and how to correct it. I was able to snap my 20 long out of this as well. Although my 20 long was a bare bottom tank. I added a layer of gravel in it. Lava rock can be found at Walmart for cheap it's in the BBQ section. It is famous for hold a great bb field. The bacteria grows all over in your tank, not just your filter's I hope this helps you.
BB is not in the water column. Large water changes does not affect BB.
 
I have not cleaned my filter yet, however, I did add on a pre-filter sponge, about a month ago, and replaced the cartridge in my filter with a large sponge about 2 weeks ago. I do treat new water with a conditioner during water changes. I do a water change every 1-2 weeks, depending on time/look of tank. My water change consists of a deep gravel vac of the whole tank, which usually results in about 40%-50% water change. Should I not gravel vac as much?

Yes like Fisher said really try only to hit the top of the gravel. Also replacing your filter will remove alot of your bb and cause a cycle.
 
Yes like Fisher said really try only to hit the top of the gravel. Also replacing your filter will remove alot of your bb and cause a cycle.

Yea I figured replacing the filter cart would maybe cause a cycle. That’s why I put the pre filter sponge on first, to build up some BB first, but probably didn’t give it enough time.

I will stop doing the deep gravel vac’s and stick to a strict weekly water change and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
Let us know if your tank clears up

That I will.

The other thing I am dealing with now is the diatoms/brown algae. It is covering most of my decorations and a good amount of the gravel. I have just been cleaning it off the glass, but not quite sure what to do to prevent it.
 
You'll get that in a new tank or sometimes if you use fertilizer in a planted tank. Get some Nerite snails. They eat it up nicely. Get at least 3
 
You'll get that in a new tank or sometimes if you use fertilizer in a planted tank. Get some Nerite snails. They eat it up nicely. Get at least 3

So I went to my local PetCo which is my only local pet store option and they had 2 Tiger Nerite snails left, so I got them both, we will see how they do. I also got a few small Java Ferns. Have been wanting to get into plants for a few weeks now and figured that would be a good one to start with. We will see how it goes. From what I have read, they don’t require fertilizer, is that correct?
 
Diatoms are due to excess silicates in the water. This is very common in sand because it is silica based material. Not so much in gravel but will still be present in most gravel. It goes away over time but some substrates will take longer then others. I have 2 tanks dealing with it now and have dealt with it many times. Java fern is a great starter plant. Needs next to no attention and will live off of waste of fish and low light. Of course it will look better and will be healthier if your provide it proper nutrients like medium light and either a nutrient rich substrate or liquid/dry fert dosing but its not necessary .
 
You could try some Thrive liquid fertilizer. It works well with my low light plants.
 
You could try some Thrive liquid fertilizer. It works well with my low light plants.

If the plants don’t take off I may give that a try.

Was pretty excited to come down to the tank the morning after I put them in, and they had already cleaned up about half of one of my large rocks. I thought it was so cool to see that big of difference. Im really liking the snails, thanks for the recommendation.
 
My whole tank was covered with a small amount of algae. I dropped in 5 nerites and they had my entire tank cleaned up in a week. Awesome cleaners.
 
My whole tank was covered with a small amount of algae. I dropped in 5 nerites and they had my entire tank cleaned up in a week. Awesome cleaners.

Quick update.

I have done two weeks now of light/top gravel vac’s and 25% water changes and my water seems to be clearing up. The cloudiness seems to be going away which is amazing. Those snails continue to do their thing and clean up the tank more and more each day.

Now I just need my Java Fern to take hold in the gravel and start growing. I had one wedged down in the gravel and the other tied to the side of a rock. After my 2nd water change, the one in the gravel got dislodged. I replanted it, and decided the other one, being attached to the side of a rock, would probably never attach to the rock, so I planted that in the gravel as well. And before you say it, I know to keep the rhizome above the gravel, and only plant the roots.

Thanks for all of your guys help again!!
 
Hit em with the thrive liquid fertilizer. It did wonders with my low light plants.
 
Back
Top Bottom