Cloudy water 12 days after cartridge change

[connor31556]

Chemicals should not make that smell. If you have a basic HOB filter you should be able to pretty easily get into the motor. If you can, make sure theres no substrate, skeletons, or hair in it. if your motor is being blocked it will make a louder noise and the flow would be slightly slower but it would still run. You dont want that. If not this, is there a chance you left your filter on during a water change? This could burn out the motor as it would overheat. Always unplug your heater and motor during a WC. If it's none of these problems just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesnt break on you at a bad time.

Dont worry about how the water looks its gonna look bad with all the algae and bacteria blooms but that's just temporary.

 

[HopeGR]

The water looks much better today and that smell is practically gone. I will clean the filter out one last time and do a 20 percent water change.

I think it was the combo of so many dead fry and conditioner that caused the smell. So I will have to clean that filter out every few months. Yes, I unplug everything when I clean the tank.

 

[HopeGR]

Well, call me crazy but just realized that Prime is what caused a huge imbalance in the tank's water chemistry. It now has caused a rotten egg smell. I go do a second water change and I'm about to add Prime and as soon as I open the bottle, this rotten egg smell comes out of the bottle. I then add it to the tank and the tank smells like that now. I never had this problem with API. I'm going to my local pet store for more help. This was upsetting. Luckily, no fish were lost - except one fry that was almost 3 weeks old.

 

[connor31556]

Well, call me crazy but just realized that Prime is what caused a huge imbalance in the tank's water chemistry. It now has caused a rotten egg smell. I go do a second water change and I'm about to add Prime and as soon as I open the bottle, this rotten egg smell comes out of the bottle. I then add it to the tank and the tank smells like that now. I never had this problem with API. I'm going to my local pet store for more help. This was upsetting. Luckily, no fish were lost - except one fry that was almost 3 weeks old.

Prime is soposte to smell like sulfur you shouldnt be using enough that you smell it after its added to the tank though

 

[Caliban07]

Well, call me crazy but just realized that Prime is what caused a huge imbalance in the tank's water chemistry. It now has caused a rotten egg smell. I go do a second water change and I'm about to add Prime and as soon as I open the bottle, this rotten egg smell comes out of the bottle. I then add it to the tank and the tank smells like that now. I never had this problem with API. I'm going to my local pet store for more help. This was upsetting. Luckily, no fish were lost - except one fry that was almost 3 weeks old.

It is the sulphur compound that complexes the ammonia and sulphur smells like rotten eggs.

Funnily enough, I’ve just had a discussion questioning my conditioner.

 

[HopeGR]

Guys, I'm still at it. The water still looks cloudy/murky. Ironically the levels are ok with ph/alkalinity. The nitrite is zero and the nitrate is very low. Ammonia is zero to very low as per the strip.

The top half of the tank is the problem. I even took the filter apart, cleaned it out. Again, this initially happened roughly on Feb 16 when I changed the cartridge. Also, when I added the last dose of Tetra conditioner that I had, I don't know if it was because it was expiring when I poured the designated 5ml, that made the water even cloudier. I did a water change and went out and bought Prime and then is when I got that rotten egg smell.

I did not do a water change today. So what do I do? Let it filter as usual? Should I change the cartridge? I think my tank cycling was ruined now, and this is what is probably the cause of the persistent cloudiness.

 

[connor31556]

Your tanks gonna be cloudy for a while it's not a bad thing it's just the bacteria growing, just gotta deal with it until it works itself out. The only parameters that matter are amonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Dont worry about ph and phosphates unless your trying to do something advanced like breed discus. You just gotta keep up water changes, test water parameters, and most importantly be patient. All in good time, all in good time.

 

[HopeGR]

Your tanks gonna be cloudy for a while it's not a bad thing it's just the bacteria growing, just gotta deal with it until it works itself out. The only parameters that matter are amonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Dont worry about ph and phosphates unless your trying to do something advanced like breed discus. You just gotta keep up water changes, test water parameters, and most importantly be patient. All in good time, all in good time.

Thanks for the info. Did another water change today. So basically, when the water clears, then I do not change the cartridge? Until when? Because as I said, the water was pristine prior to the cartridge change. So I keep the same cartridge in until it clouds again?

 

[connor31556]

Cartridge change = bad, period stop. Water clarity will come after cycle is over and has nothing to do with clean filters if your extremely worried about water clarity you can put some filter floss (100% polyester filling) right in front of the intake on your filter. This will clean your water but does not help anything else.i know I keep repeating it but you need to have patience with it.

 

[HopeGR]

Cartridge change = bad, period stop. Water clarity will come after cycle is over and has nothing to do with clean filters if your extremely worried about water clarity you can put some filter floss (100% polyester filling) right in front of the intake on your filter. This will clean your water but does not help anything else.i know I keep repeating it but you need to have patience with it.

I think I finally see the light of day after two weeks! Seemed things were much better yesterday, but today things are close to crystal clear! I wanted to do a water change yesterday but got lazy, will do it today.

So I'll try to remember this if it happens again. Thanks for the help

 

[Claireh703]

You've been quiet for a few weeks so hopefully you've got to the bottom of it but I wanted to chime in. I'm also relatively new to this and was struggling with water quality and fish dying... I think nearly all down to not understanding cycling. I just did a fish-in cycling and things seem a lot calmer.

But one of the main things that helped me get on top of it and understand cycling was to get rid of the inaccurate and hard to read test strips and get an API Master Kit. I can't recommend this enough... it's a game changer. And I tested every day until it was cycled. I think it will also help you to see the consequences of changing the filter cartridge too (if you choose to do so).

I also bulk bought filter cartridges before learning from the people here that changing cartridges monthly is nothing more than a way for the makers to make money. So I'm not moving to pot scrubbies yet but I'm also not changing the cartridge until its falling apart or something - so, only when needed, will rinse it in tank water when doing a water change and when I do need to replace it, I plan on cutting out some of the material to put in the HOB with the new filter for a month so that the good bacteria can transfer.