Cloudy water

[dragonzlair]

Help!

I just started a new tank 72gal bow front, have 2 404 fluval canister filters, lots of air, 250 watt heater raised to 84 degrees and about 20 juvenile cichlids in it, Plastic aquarium plants and lots of resin caves . Tank has cycled and todays tests results are: ph 8.0, amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate between 0 and .5, Fish look healthy but scratch themselves occasionally like they are itchy on the the cave walls. Problem is that water is cloudy, there are minute particles that I can see thru the light rays and I can't find a reason for it. I was wondering if I have the filters set up right, bottom baskets have biomax, middle have carbon and zeo something in them, and the top the foam pads. Does anyone have any ideas as to how to clear up the water so that I can see my fish?

Thanks, lady

 

[kay-bee19]

When was the tank set up and when were the 20 juvenile cichlids added? Your nitrates are very low for a cycled tank (could be due to the tank size and light bio load if these are tiny fish).

I own canister filters but no the fluval. Ideally with canister media, in regards to return water flow and media placement water should flow through mechanical filtration media first, chemical media second, and bio-media last (some times followed by micro mechanical filtration media).

 

[dragonzlair]

Thanks for the reply, Tank is about a month old, got the gravel from a friends tank and borrowed a bunch of her guppies to cycle it, just exchanged them for the cichlids about a week ago, they're all about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. I'm gonna try switching the baskets in the canisters so that the foam is on the bottom and the bio is on top and see if that helps. I'm not sure what the micro mechanical media is, is that something that doesn't come with the filter?

 

[Hyrules]

Normally cloudy water can mean a couple of things : ( but there a different type of cloudy water )

White cloud / clear grey:
1: You have a bacteria bloom ( which i had a couple of week ago )
2: there my be dust floating in the water

though i'm rather new compared to many here i might be wrong. But from what i read on ther internet i was a bactera bloom

 

[lyquidphyre]

I thought that if a fish is scratching themselves on caves/gravel they have a parasite of sorts. I would keep a close eye on them

Also, adding 20 fish, even to a tank that large, is going to cause an ammonia spike- so test your water and do partial water changes as needed


My tank is always foggy, its normally just particles in the water. In my case, I think its the eco complete that is being slightly stirred up. If its GREEN foggy, then its an algaa bloom

 

[dragonzlair]

Hey, Thanks for the great ideas and help!

I have come to the conclusion that it is a bacterial die-off bloom (from everything I can find on the net) Thinking back, a few days ago I was given the advice from the store to add some salt to my tank, 1tbsp for every 10 gallons, to help my fish stay healthy, and I treated them with Aquari-sol, supposed to be an ick preventative weekly treatment. Could this have caused the bacteria die off? Didn't find any info to support this idea on the net. Or could the high temp affect the bacteria?

I took the filter advice, and rearranged my canisters, now I have foam on the bottom to catch the big stuff, zeo-carb next, biomax next and poly wool with a thin foam top to protect the motor on the top. Hope I got it right this time, so I figure I'll leave them alone for a while.

Then I tested again and sure enough, the ammonia is up to .06, nitrite is up too and nitrates have dropped a tad. So I guess the new fish and messing with the filters must've kicked the tank into recycle mode. They reacted before the testing even showed anything. Smart fish!

So I did a partial water change and dumped in some Cycle and will continue to test daily as well as watch for the scratching. Any other feedback will be deeply appreciated! Thanks for the help!