Cloudy water

[DiverDown]

My 60 gallon community tank has developed a hazy, cloudy appearance to it. I have no idea what is happening. I did a 20 gallon PWC on Thursday, and a 15 gallon PWC this morning, and the cloudyness is already back.

The particulars:
Ammonia: about 1 ppm (which is another thing that's driving me nuts)
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Ph: 6.2

I have 4 angels, 4 zebra danios, 4 neons, 3 diamond tetras, 6 skirt tetras, my female betta and a pleco in the tank. Sand substrate.

This tank just seems to have some kind of bad luck attached to it. I originally had 2 large Oscars in it, but I sold them so they could go to a house with a bigger tank. Since moving my community in, I've had a Ph crash (which I'm still struggling with), ammonia is all over the place (I cycled it first, and added fish slowly), and now it's cloudy.

I had a 20 gallon community that had just as many fish that didn't cause me this much heartache (actually, I moved them all to the 60, and most died when Ph crashed).

HELP!!!

 

[Jchillin]

Cloudy water can be caused by three things:

Bacterial or algae bloom or, accumulated particle matter. From your params, I would rule out a bacterial bloom (although your NH3 would drive me nuts...more on that later). If the haze is whitish in color, probably not an algae bloom.

What type of filter are you using? If a canister, run your finger along the intake and output tubes. If a HOB, have you changed filter media recently?

The positive test for NH3 could be from your tap water if it contains chloramines.

 

[DiverDown]

I have a HOB filter, and I cleaned one of the filter pads when I did my PWC today.

I'm using NovAqua plus as a water treatment, it's supposed to remove chloramines.

 

[Jchillin]

In that case I'd go with a small bacterial bloom. If it is, it will dissipate on it's own.

In regard to the NH3, since your using a dechloramintor (is that a word) I'm stumped too.

 

[BlazerFRS]

As I understand it, most decholoronators don't realy get rid of chloramines, they just break the chlorine off the Ammonia. Then the rest of the dechlorinator gets rid of the chlorine, but the ammonia is left behind. Then your bio-filter has to deal with the ammonia on it's own.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Guest]

As I understand it, most decholoronators don't realy get rid of chloramines, they just break the chlorine off the Ammonia. Then the rest of the dechlorinator gets rid of the chlorine, but the ammonia is left behind. Then your bio-filter has to deal with the ammonia on it's own.

Can anyone confirm this?

That is exactly correct. Dechlorinators do not eliminate, they simply break down chemical bonds. In this case, they separate chloramine into ammonia and chlorine. The chlorine is then neutralized. The ammonia, however, remains free and is up to your ecosystem to disperse and eliminate. If your tank is not well-cycled, you would be wise to do smaller water changes.