Cloudy tank!?

[exactionfigure]

For some reason my tank has become pretty cloudy the last week or so I've been keeping up with my water changes and washing out my filter media and my plants are doing fine as are my fish.

The only thing I haven't been doing is adding Macro ferts but I ordered them and they should be in the next few days, my tanks been set up for quite a while with out any issues.

I just ran full tests on my tank and there is nothing wrong.
I'm really worried about it, what would cause my water to become cloudy?

 

[JDogg]

First what are you test readings?

Ammonia/Nitrite?
Nitrate?
PH?
KH?
GH?
Phosphates?

you said you are not dosing macros, are you dosing micros/trace? if so what kind and how much?

have you added anything new to tank lately?

any other "chemicals" you add to the tank?

finally what color cloudy? White, Brown, Green?

 

[exactionfigure]

My readings are:

Ph-6.4
Amm-0ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Nitrate-0ppm

Unfortunately I don't yet have test kits for the rest yet but I’m ordering some.

I dose with Seachem flourish for micros and I add the recommended dose for my size tank a couple times of week.

I also have a DIY c02 which pumps lots of c02 into my tank I don't have a way to measure it just yet but my plants are growing well and my fish aren't having any problems breathing.

I've added a couple of fish the past week 2 ottos and 2 black phantom tetras.

The cloudiness is white, I turned off the light and put a flashlight to the side of the tank to see it better and it's definitely white, it looks like smoke sort of

I have no idea what would cause this, I just did a water change yesterday but it's still cloudy today.

 

[JDogg]

My readings are:

Ph-6.4
Amm-0ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Nitrate-0ppm

Unfortunately I don't yet have test kits for the rest yet but I’m ordering some.

I dose with Seachem flourish for micros and I add the recommended dose for my size tank a couple times of week.

I also have a DIY c02 which pumps lots of c02 into my tank I don't have a way to measure it just yet but my plants are growing well and my fish aren't having any problems breathing.

I've added a couple of fish the past week 2 ottos and 2 black phantom tetras.

The cloudiness is white, I turned off the light and put a flashlight to the side of the tank to see it better and it's definitely white, it looks like smoke sort of

I have no idea what would cause this, I just did a water change yesterday but it's still cloudy today.

when you get kh test kit you can use that reading with ph to find CO2 level

ammonia and nitrite being 0 is fine and normal, no nitrate worries me for two reasons...
#1 did you cycle your tank before adding fish? how long has your tank been set up, what did you do before adding fish?

#2 your plants need some nitrate to survive. (it is one of the macro nutrients), and some should be created naturally from the breakdown of fish waste. IF your tank is properly cycled a reading of as much as 20 ppm Nitrate would be normal and should not hurt your fish

 

[mr funktastic]

i thought the cloud in my tank was white also and always did seem kinda white. but after a few days without water chages it starts to turn green. i would say it is the begginning of green water. it often occurs when u bottom out nitrates like that. u are gonna wanna pick up a phosphate kit aswell. i heard seachem is the best next to the lamott kit. u should always try to keep your phosphate and nitrate toa 10:1 ration. 10 being nitrate and 1 being phosphate. i hope that helps.

 

[afishyonados]

If your phosphates and carbonate hardness are both high, this too will cause cloudy water.

 

[exactionfigure]

I have had the tank running for just about a year now with fish but have just recently added live plants (2 months or so)

I also have that green spot algae that's hard to scrape off on my glass and a couple of my plants.
I have to wait until Tuesday for when my macro nutrients come in so hopefully things will be fine and hopefully the guy at my lfs didn't order the wrong stuff that happened before

I had this problem a while back but then it got a little better but my tank has Never been crystal clear which has been very frustrating

What test kits exactly should I get?

 

[afishyonados]

KH and PO4 (carbonate hardness and phosphates).

If you are on city water, they probably periodically dose the water lines with orthrophosphates. Old farm land wells have similar problems. Fish foods that contain fish meal are also a good source of phosphates.

If you deal with a great amount of evaporation, this causes the hardness of the water to concentrate and rise with the new addition of metals and minerals with every top-off.

When you have the two at the same time...

 

[mr funktastic]

oh no.... u didnt order ferts from your LFS did u? what brand did u end up buying? everyone on this site will reccomend u to www.gregwatson.com . he sells dry fertalizers for a fraction of what the liquid ones cost. u just add water to them and away u go. cheaper and will last wayyyyyy longer. also better stuff. there is a calculator u can download that tells u exactly how much to mix and how much to dose. i suggest that when u run out of your liquid ferts u try his stuff.

 

[exactionfigure]

I had credit at my lfs for something I had bought and returned so I figured I’d use it for that

I bought the seachem stuff but I understand that I’ll end up going through it quickly when I do I will order the dry stuff.


So what do you guys think the final verdict is on my cloudy water?
it's definitely not green when I turn the light off and put a flashlight on the side it's very much white, also if I take a cup of water out of the tank and view it in a different light it doesn't look green either.

So what do you think?

 

[7Enigma]

I think your cloudy water is most likely the beginning of GW. This happened to me a while ago as well and at first it just looked cloudy, then it became slightly green, then I got a diatom filter and fixed the underlying problem.

For the meantime you can increase your feedings or food amount to increase the nitrAte levels in the tank. I would do this as you are risking massive algae outbreaks having no nitrAte present. If you don't want to increase feedings I'd cut your lighting in 1/2.

GSA is normally caused by low phosphate levels. In your case I would ignore it for the meantime since your nitrAte issue is the most important and phosphate is normally in adequate supply during feedings.

 

[mr funktastic]

cut the light. i dont think increased feedings will help becasue u will be raising the phosphatesm aswell as the nitrate and they will still be out of wack. just cut the light untill u get your ferts. u may also want to do a big water change and black out for 2 days to completly get rid of it for when u get your ferts. my water was the same way for about 2 weeks then it started to slowly turn green. mine was becasue of really high phosphates.

 

[exactionfigure]

I see, thanks guys.

I didn't turn the light on today and I wont tommrow, i'm getting the ferts at some point tommrow and i'm going to do a water change too, how many gallons should I change? My tank is a 20gallon high.

 

[mr funktastic]

mine is a 20 high also. i change 50% weekly. sometimes more. i suggest a large water change of about 50% then balance your ferts. u may have to do this a couple of times before it is gone.