new plants and cloudy water?

[AustinP]

I just added plants and driftwood to my 25gal tank, also did an 8gal water change at the same time. Now (3 hours later) the water is cloudy. Can anyone explain why my water got cloudy, so i know what not to do next time? I added a pic to show what i have done. FYI, There was only one tiny plant and a big plastic ornament before this remodel.

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

Well any changes in the arrangement of your tank are a likely cause of cloudyness. Planting new plants stirs up some substrate as well. This will probably settle down soon enough. Anther thing would be drift wood. Did you soak it? It will release tannins that discolor water and lower ph. Depending on your fish this could be very bennifical as it mimicks black water conditions for Amazonian or tropical Asian fish. Tannin can be removed through water changes and soaking dw in a bucket before hand but if your fish don't mid lower ph and you don't mind the color I would keep the tannin because it is anti bacterial.

 

[AustinP]

I soaked the drift wood for 3 days. There is actually a 2nd piece of drift wood that is still soaking because it is still floating. If its still cloudy tomorrow should i do another small water change?

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

Yup another water change wouldn't hurt but I wouldn't be surprised if it took atleast 48 hours to settle 100%. You did plant pretty much the whole tank at once after all.

 

[Rivercats]

One other thing is you are probably having a mini bacterial bloom. You did indeed distrub the substrate and you added organic substances (DW and plants). WC's might help but it should clear in a day or two. It's irritating but will be fine soon.

If your other piece of DW keeps floating you can silicone it to a piece of slate or other flat rock that is heavy enough to hold it down. The rock/slate will be hidden under the substrate. As for tannins... Carbon or Purgen will remove tannin color from water. Some driftwood won't release any visable tannins and the color in the water is a personal taste preference. Released tannins do have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.

 

[tiger terror]

I soaked the drift wood for 3 days. There is actually a 2nd piece of drift wood that is still soaking because it is still floating. If its still cloudy tomorrow should i do another small water change?

If you have a dish washer run it through twice..make sure to run the dish washer through at least 1 cycle empty thus removing any leftover detergents before doing so..did this for 3 large pieces of dw & it worked nicely...

 

[AustinP]

No dish washer. i've been using a 5gal bucket that i dump and refill 2x a day with hot water. I'm also using a rock to keep it on the bottom.

 

[tiger terror]

I like the effort...stay the course.

 

[MickeyA]

I just added plants and driftwood to my 25gal tank, also did an 8gal water change at the same time. Now (3 hours later) the water is cloudy. Can anyone explain why my water got cloudy, so i know what not to do next time? I added a pic to show what i have done. FYI, There was only one tiny plant and a big plastic ornament before this remodel.

Well cloudy water how ever unpleasant it is normally clears itself up as long as the water parameters are good alot of times it clears up by itself. And at the same piont water changes dont hurt may speed up the process if its a bacterial bloom.

 

[aqua_chem]

How old is this tank?

 

[AustinP]

The tank has been set up for about 4-5 months. It's actually 95% cleared up since last night.