I'm new to the hobby but seem to be having some success mostly attributing to reading books and to this site.
Recently, I ran into my first real issue. I had very cloudy water in my tank. I have a 55 Gallon FW tank with a moderate bio load (with a single Rena XP2 canister filter).
Recently, I noticed that my large driftwood had a lot of green algae on it and during a weekly water change, I decided to clean off the driftwood (without taking it out of the water) so I used a new toothbrush and brushed off most of the surface trying to suck up as much kicked up algae as I could.
Up until then, I had perfectly clear water. Within hours, my water was extremely cloudy. I let it run for a few days thinking that I just kicked up too much algae but it got worse and worse. I began a schedule of 50% water changes every other day which helped for a few hours but shortly after, the cloudy water was worse than before.
The water in the tank seemed a very milky white but when I emptied it in a white bucket, it seemed to have a very slight green tint. During this cloudy water phase, I consulted this site often and was never really sure if it was an algae bloom (suspected) or possibly a bacterial bloom.
During this entire time, the water parameters remained steady (pH=6.8; Ammonia=0, Nitrites=0, Nitrates=10-20). All the fish seemed to be fine as well.
Here's what fixed it and I'm curious to know if others have experienced the same: I use the Bio-Chem Zorb activated carbon bag in my Rena XP2 filter, I placed my last Bio-Chem bag in the filter nearly 2 months back and hadn't re-ordered. Normally, I do 30% water changes weekly and once a month, I disasemble the canister filter and clean out or replace the foam media and about every other month I replace the Bio-Chem Zorb activated carbon bag. I rememberd that I hadn't changed the Bio-Chem in awhile so I ordered a new one, replaced the old one and within hours I noticed an immediate improvement! Within 24 hours, the water was crystal clear again and has been perfectly clear for the last week.
Does it make since that the activated carbon in the Bio-Chem Zorb bag worked that well? Even though there was only a hint of a green in the cloudy water, do you suspect this to truly have been an algae bloom?
It seems obvious that I caused this issue by cleaning off the driftwood while still in the tank. Has anyone else done that? I'm just curious if anyone else experienced a similar problem with which a filter media change immediately solved it. Thanks.
Recently, I ran into my first real issue. I had very cloudy water in my tank. I have a 55 Gallon FW tank with a moderate bio load (with a single Rena XP2 canister filter).
Recently, I noticed that my large driftwood had a lot of green algae on it and during a weekly water change, I decided to clean off the driftwood (without taking it out of the water) so I used a new toothbrush and brushed off most of the surface trying to suck up as much kicked up algae as I could.
Up until then, I had perfectly clear water. Within hours, my water was extremely cloudy. I let it run for a few days thinking that I just kicked up too much algae but it got worse and worse. I began a schedule of 50% water changes every other day which helped for a few hours but shortly after, the cloudy water was worse than before.
The water in the tank seemed a very milky white but when I emptied it in a white bucket, it seemed to have a very slight green tint. During this cloudy water phase, I consulted this site often and was never really sure if it was an algae bloom (suspected) or possibly a bacterial bloom.
During this entire time, the water parameters remained steady (pH=6.8; Ammonia=0, Nitrites=0, Nitrates=10-20). All the fish seemed to be fine as well.
Here's what fixed it and I'm curious to know if others have experienced the same: I use the Bio-Chem Zorb activated carbon bag in my Rena XP2 filter, I placed my last Bio-Chem bag in the filter nearly 2 months back and hadn't re-ordered. Normally, I do 30% water changes weekly and once a month, I disasemble the canister filter and clean out or replace the foam media and about every other month I replace the Bio-Chem Zorb activated carbon bag. I rememberd that I hadn't changed the Bio-Chem in awhile so I ordered a new one, replaced the old one and within hours I noticed an immediate improvement! Within 24 hours, the water was crystal clear again and has been perfectly clear for the last week.
Does it make since that the activated carbon in the Bio-Chem Zorb bag worked that well? Even though there was only a hint of a green in the cloudy water, do you suspect this to truly have been an algae bloom?
It seems obvious that I caused this issue by cleaning off the driftwood while still in the tank. Has anyone else done that? I'm just curious if anyone else experienced a similar problem with which a filter media change immediately solved it. Thanks.
