Puzzling Water Problem

[jmeunier]

I have a cichlid tank with 2 Jack Dempseys, 2 Convicts, 1 Green Terror, 1 Green Severum, and 1 Pleco.

Up until about 1 week ago, the water has been crystal clear since initial tank cycling.

What's happened is that the water has taken on a very, VERY faint blue-cloudy tint. Not really enough to be a bother, but noticable just the same. This isn't the main problem though....as soon as I add any food to the tank, the cloudiness increases exponentially, and then takes many hours to taper off.

I've been feeding the fish Tetra mini cichlid granules, and I've had suggestions to change the food. Well, that was my original thought, so I've done that, and no matter what I feed them, the cloudiness problem rears its head.

I've taken all the normal mechanical cleaning steps I would normally take, from gravel-vac'ing, water change, and verifying that the HOB filter is ok (Marineland Emperor 400). Nothing is helping.

I'm getting ready to take drastic action---chemical water clarfiers!! I really don't want to do this, but the cloudiness is driving me crazy.

Thoughts?

Thanks;
Jay

 

[William]

First. How big is the tank?

and what are your parammeters?

How often do you water change?

Have you recently changed the filter cartirage in the filter?

 

[jmeunier]

Lessee....

Tank's a 50G

Water change 15-20% weekly, and I did change 1 of the cartridges after I noticed the problem. Left the other in--it's not scheduled for a change until next w/e. PH/Ni(s)/Amm all are fine.

Jay

 

[William]

You know you don't have to change the filters every month like they say to.

Just rinse them out real good a bucket of tank water ever now and again.

I have one filter pad in my 10gal that I've run with almost 6 months, As long as its not turned to mush and falling apart theres no harm


as for your water problem, Sounds like some kind of algae bloom.. Blueish you say? Maybe a bacterial bloom.

I'm gonna have to wait for someone else to post, since I don't have experiance with this. I just got the basic questions out of the way because tahts what everyone else wouild ask to

 

[medge00]

it happened with the addition of a new filter? what happens when you just run one filter (the old one)? how long has the tank been set up? how long have you had that many fish in it?

 

[jmeunier]

The tank has been in place for several months, and the existing fish have been in it for about as long.

As far as the filter is concerned--no, it happened before the addition of a new filter cartridge. I changed one out after it happened.

Thanks;
Jay

 

[medge00]

while i've never had those fish, i personally think your bioload is huge. those are big fish and i don't know that you have enough room for them. maybe i'm wrong

have you tried increasing your water changes? if its bacterial, you'll want to clean out those extra nutrients and whatnot. water changes help everything i've found. do you have charcoal in your filter? it works well at polishing water, though is really only good for a few days. didn't you post about your fish having white spots too? running meds w/ charcoal filter media is pointless, the charcoal will clean out the meds. did the ich and cloudiness show up at the same time? if your water is clean (no ammonia, nitrites), i'd address the ich thing first. i went to cichlid-forun.com and found this article right away:

http://cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

its probably a good place to start. whenever my fish have ich, or there's water funkiness, i do more water changes. i think you'll find this will help.

 

[jmeunier]

thanks for your help....much appreciated. I'll check out cichlid-forum right away (ddn't know this site existed!!).

Also, yes, the bio-load appears large, but, these fish are fairly small, actually, very small. No bigger than 1.5 inches each. So, I'm feeling like I'm ok for another few months, and then it's time for the 200G tank I've always wanted!

Jay

 

[Overstocker]

I have a similar problem...

Prelude: My dwarf Gourami had a prob, I think it had a cut and it was infected (white patch in a small vertical line and scales turned up). I tried adding a little salt per advice from the LFS and it appeared to be getting better but 3 days ago it suddenly got worse. The white patch got larger (had dwindled down some) and looked like his tail was was bulging/swelling on the opposite side of the cut.

(3 days ago) I got some medicine, NEOMYCIN, pulled the cartridges, replaced with floss, and put the medicine in the tank. Next day (yesterday) my hornwort was dieing! It was shedding leaves like no tomorrow and the water had a bluish tint. I trashed the plant (allot of it and the only live plant I had in) and did a good gravel resulting in a 40-50% water change.

Today the water is still blue/whitish and I now have a trace of ammonia but zero nitrite and very low nitrate. Dunno what is going on! I have not shown any ammonia in my tank for over a month. But my gourami is looking better...lol

 

[Overstocker]

Could the medicne have killed my good bacteria and now I will cycle my tank again 8O ?!?!?!!? It is an anitbiotic.....

 

[LAGlocker]

If I remember correctly I believe I read somewhere that some of the meds you can use for fish can kill off plants. I could be wrong, it certainly wouldnt be the first time. I am not familar with that particular med, but it might contain something that was toxic to your plants is the reason they died. Cant say for sure about killing off the bacteria, as I said I am not familar with that.

 

[smilla4]

What's happened is that the water has taken on a very, VERY faint blue-cloudy tint. Not really enough to be a bother, but noticable just the same. This isn't the main problem though....as soon as I add any food to the tank, the cloudiness increases exponentially, and then takes many hours to taper off.

How much are you feeding them? (Have you treated w/any meds?)

 

[medge00]

some meds can kill plants, particularly anything with copper, I believe. if ever i'm forced to use meds in my planted tanks i do half the dose. and if i remember correctly, dosing lots of meds can possibly kill off good bacteria. another reason to try salt and heat when trying to get rid of ich. i think ali had some posts on this somewhere....

 

[An t-iasg]

Overstocker,
Yes, an antibiotic used in the tank can kill off some good bacteria. Antibiotics kill bacteria, and it doesn't matter whether they are bad bacteria (ones that cause disease) or good bacteria (ones that cycle your tank). So some good bacteria will get killed off when you use an antibiotic in your main tank. That's why you're seeing a small amount of ammonia in your tank now. This happened to me too when I used an antibiotic in my tank. But you won't have to go through the cycling process all over again. The remaining bacteria should multiply quickly, and take care of your ammonia levels again. Just watch for a few days, do some testing, and do a water change if the ammonia gets too high (over .25). But it shouldn't. My ammonia didn't get any higher than .25, although I did do a small water change. The ammonia went back down to 0 in about 4 days in my tank.

 

[Overstocker]

Thanks, the bluish color has cleared up some today but I do have a trace Nitrite along with Ammonia this morning.

The gourami's tail appears to have abscessed through to the other side but the swelling has dropped and the whiteness is smaller area. definitely not Ich but some sort of infection.

The med ingredients is Neomycin Sulfate Activity, no mention of copper...

Changing water out would also dilute the meds, I guess a QT would have been in order!

 

[jmeunier]

To answer a previous question--nope, I haven't added any meds at all to the tank. No chemicals, either. Argh.

I thought it was just me, but the Emperor was seeming a bit louder than usual over the past few days. This morning I took it apart to see if there was anything mechanically wrong with it. The only things I found were 3 12" long hairs wrapped around the impeller. My wife has long hair, and she recently took care of the tank while I was out of town. I put the filter back together, and it's back to being its usual quiet self.

This got me thinking---could any shampoo residue that was left on the strands of hair be causing my problem? I'm probably just grasping at straws, but it does make me wonder.

I also started thinking about any other changes in the environment over the past week or so that may be contributing to the problem. The only major thing is that we've been opening the windows now that it's been a bit warmer outside. Maybe dust from the outside? Again, probably just grasping at straws.

I'm completely eliminating the mini-granules from their diet for a while to see if it helps. Going with tubifex worms, shrimp, and tetra cichlid sticks for a while to see if that helps. I'm also thinking of adding some purigen to the filter as well.

Jay

 

[Menagerie]

while i've never had those fish, i personally think your bioload is huge. those are big fish and i don't know that you have enough room for them. maybe i'm wrong

IMHO, if you have a good filter, your bioload should be fine. I would be more worried about territorial aggression!

 

[medge00]

yeah that's what i meant to comment on, the aggression, not so much the bioload. when those fish get big it could be a feisty tank. good catch.

yes, water changes dilute meds, but many meds suggest changing the water before each dose. fresh water is good for the fish, helps rid the tank of germies and keeps the ammonia down. the last thing they need is ammonia burning their gills if they are fighting some other infection.

 

[jmeunier]

Ok, so here's the latest news on my water problem.

I broke down last week and ordered 1 liter of Purigen.

I added 1 cup of it, in fine mesh bags (2) to my Emperor 400 HOB filter, along with 1 cup of activated carbon (also in bags). I removed the media containers from the filter. The change was made on Wednesday evening.

Within 6 hours the water was sparkling clear! I fed the monsters, and NO CLOUDINESS! WOOHOO!

In any case, I'm loving this product right about now. 2 days later, and the water seems to be even clearer (if that's possible!). The fishes seem to be more active (probably just my imagination ). Dunno what was ultimately causing the water problem, but, it's gone for now. I know I've probably only treated the symptom.....

Jay