Cloudy water about to throw in the towel

[Salty2freshy]

180 gallon doing weekly water changes was doing 90 half water changes now only doing fifty tanks been running two months fish in cycle ...Seeded tank with my marineland canister..
cant seem to get my hardness down its off the charts and ph is running higher then I want 7.8.nitrate and nitrite is 0.0 added more driftwood boiled it first then soaked it in five gallon bucket till it took on enough water to sink...this is driving me nuts...about ready to go back to saltwater it was so much easier.. EEEEERRRRRRRR...So any ideals are welcome ......

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[aqua_chem]

How long has the tank been cloudy?

Is your tap hard? Are you using rocks or sand in your aquarium that could be leaching carbonates?

 

[flitabout]

Have you tried purigen?

 

[Salty2freshy]

How long has the tank been cloudy?

Is your tap hard? Are you using rocks or sand in your aquarium that could be leaching carbonates?

Yes I have hard water out of my tap....I have big rocks and sand ....water has been cloudy for past two weeks .,even after water change...added marinland 400 just in hopes of it helping clear up from running more carbon... I've had tanks for past 20 years this is driving me nuts...about ready to go buy RO unit...

 

[Salty2freshy]

Have you tried purigen?

No I haven't tryed this ,trying to hunt down some microblift to see if that helps ...I use it on my ponds I need to get some more good Bactria going ...

 

[flitabout]

It sounds like a bacterial bloom and it may also just be something you have to wait out. I have unstable hard water too and I ended up going with RO water remineralized with equilibrium.

 

[aqua_chem]

I've had liquid rock from my tap before too. It does limit your options somewhat with regards to plants and fish, but not nearly as much as people tend to think it does.

 

[Mebbid]

If this was a bacterial bloom I would expect to see levels of ammonia or nitrite in the tank. I would suggest your first course of action to be adding either carbon or purigen to the water and see how it reacts before adding any chemicals.

 

[misterc007]

I would be suspect of the drift wood. It usually leaches for a period of time even if you soak it for weeks. Could be a bacterial bloom in that case I would think it would go away soon. I do use Purigen and it has solved a lot of problems for me so I would highly recommend that stuff. 2 months is not enough time in my experience to have everything balanced out everything in a fish tank seems like it takes 6 months at least at my house anyway! Don't get frustrated that stuff happens to everyone.

 

[edward198]

Ive heard that drift wood can leach into the water. And I also had the cloudy problem for 2 weeks.. was annoying! I waited it out and bang over night it was crystal clear.. bacterial bloom was the cause and the bacteria just settled overnight clearing it

 

[misterc007]

awesome, I'm glad it worked itself out!

 

[Salty2freshy]

Thank you all.Yesterday I tracked down some microbe lift and added ..left my MH lights off today .It does look worse today but still no signs of ammonia unless I got some bad testing strips,and now stinks like butt from the microbe-lift...hopefully it clears soon .plus changed my filter pads..

 

[Mebbid]

Skip the test strips and use liquid test kits instead. Also, is there a reason you changed your filter pad?

 

[Salty2freshy]

Skip the test strips and use liquid test kits instead. Also, is there a reason you changed your filter pad?

Well my water looks like it has tiny particles everywhere .almost like its sand floating around but it's not,anyways I got brown algae everywhere I think it might be that in the water.I was hoping by changing the one filter pad it would pull it out of my water..I have a ton of bio balls for the bacteria so I wasn't that worried about changing the pad..

 

[Nimo]

Sounds like you are going thru bacterial bloom as stated before. And also the nrown algae is probly datoms they too will go away in time. I have extremly hard water from my tap. My first fresh water set up looked awful for about 2 months before it cycled our and cleared up. I did 50% daily water changes it would clear up for a few hours then be cloudy again until the next water change.
Dont get frustrated its just gonna take a little time.

 

[Mebbid]

Well my water looks like it has tiny particles everywhere .almost like its sand floating around but it's not,anyways I got brown algae everywhere I think it might be that in the water.I was hoping by changing the one filter pad it would pull it out of my water..I have a ton of bio balls for the bacteria so I wasn't that worried about changing the pad..

The brown algae is diatoms which aren't a free floating algae generally. Also, if there's a lot of particulate matter in the tank then filter floss is without a doubt the best policy. It's finer and will trap particles that regular filter pads wont

 

[misterc007]

I agree with above, your just going to have to be patient with the brown algae after a while it will just magically disappear. Your next issue after that will likely be some sort of green algae and then the fun begins! Patience is key for the first 6 months. As far as the stuff floating in your water I still think that drift wood is suspect. Ive been through this before and it takes a long time for that wood to fully settle in. it releases tannins, particles and then just when you get past that it starts to mold. After about a year and some nerite snails lol it will finally be done screwing up your water. as you mentioned before just to confirm for you tannins, remove with carbon. floating particles = polishing pads. Keep us posted!

 

[Rivercats]

Try using 100% Polyfill for the fine detris. I cram it in my canisters while it wet and the dirtier it gets the finer the particles it will remove.

Since your an ex-SW guy do you have a UV sterilizer? If so you can put it on and it will clear up the bacterial bloom.

What lighting are you using? You mentioned Metal halides which can only be used for maybe a max of 5-6 hours daily. Are you using CO2 and dosing dry ferts?

As for the brown algae, it's most likely diatoms which are self limiting. Once the excess silicates are used up in the water the diatoms usually die out. One way I've found to keep them lower in new tanks is to limit you lighting hours to 6 hours a day period. You'll still get some diatoms but not nearly as many. Then you can just add some nerite snails to keep the rest cleaned up.

 

[Salty2freshy]

Sounds like you are going thru bacterial bloom as stated before. And also the nrown algae is probly datoms they too will go away in time. I have extremly hard water from my tap. My first fresh water set up looked awful for about 2 months before it cycled our and cleared up. I did 50% daily water changes it would clear up for a few hours then be cloudy again until the next water change.
Dont get frustrated its just gonna take a little time.

Thank you ...you just made me feel so much better = ) ...everyone keeps telling me i shouldn't be doing a weekly water change and fifty percent is to much...but I'm basically doing fish in cycle so unless I want my fish to dye I'm doing my weekly water changes = )

 

[Salty2freshy]

Try using 100% Polyfill for the fine detris. I cram it in my canisters while it wet and the dirtier it gets the finer the particles it will remove.

Since your an ex-SW guy do you have a UV sterilizer? If so you can put it on and it will clear up the bacterial bloom.

What lighting are you using? You mentioned Metal halides which can only be used for maybe a max of 5-6 hours daily. Are you using CO2 and dosing dry ferts?

As for the brown algae, it's most likely diatoms which are self limiting. Once the excess silicates are used up in the water the diatoms usually die out. One way I've found to keep them lower in new tanks is to limit you lighting hours to 6 hours a day period. You'll still get some diatoms but not nearly as many. Then you can just add some nerite snails to keep the rest cleaned up.

Yes I have a uv light was wondering if I shouldn't just hook that up...plus I cut my lighting way back I've only ran it for two hours for the past couple of days..no co2 I was using DIY one but don't have it running anymore ,I've put in Flourish and mircobe-lift ..hair algae has started = ( didn't even really notice till I did my water change again today(did one Sunday) that it was bad because I couldnt see that far into my tank...plus I removed a piece of driftwood I added a few days before all this crazy ness started...