cloudy water in established tank

[niferrell]

I have a 85 gal freshwater tank with African Cichlids. My tank was crystal clear until I bought a new fish and a new pleco. I rearranged my rocks and added a few more which I had in my cabinet to make new tunnels so my old fish wouldn't attack my new fish. At the same time I changed my filters and topped off the water in my tank. The next morning my tank was cloudy. I did a 25% water change - got a bit clearer initially then got cloudier. I did another 25% water change 2 days later and the same happened. I took out all the rocks (decoration type) and washed them - thinking the cloudy might have come from rock dust which didn't wash off - at that time I vacuumed the tank and did a 50% water change and changed the filters again. Still cloudy. I did nothing last week and tank was so cloudy I couldn't see the fish. I brought water to be tested - PETCO said the water was fine. I did another 50% water change Saturday and still cloudy.

Tank Contents/Equipment:
Water - RO
Undergravel filter with airpump and powerhead
2 - Whisper 40i filters
Stresscoat
8 - 6" African Cichids
2 - 4" Plecos
Omega One Cichid Flakes (fish don't like pellets) - pinch twice a day

Any advice on how to get the tank clear again - please...

 

[biondoa]

What exactly do you mean when you say you changed the filters? Did you use brand new filters or did you just clean the existing filters? If you just cleaned them, how did you clean them? How long has this tank been set up? Has it been fully cycled? Did you quarantine the new fish before adding to tank?

 

[ImACoolguy]

What exactly do you mean when you say you changed the filters? Did you use brand new filters or did you just clean the existing filters? If you just cleaned them, how did you clean them? How long has this tank been set up? Has it been fully cycled? Did you quarantine the new fish before adding to tank?

+1 if you physically changed the filters you lost your cycle.


Caleb

 

[niferrell]

Thank you for the quick responses -

• What I meant by I changed the filters is that I replaced the filters with new filters, carbon and ammonia chips.
• my tank has been set up and running continuously for 1.5 years.
• I don't know the terminology "fully cycled"
• I don't quarantine my fish, as a normal practice.

Everything I did with these two new fish, I have done in the past - hence my confusion of the cloudy water.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Thank you for the quick responses -

• What I meant by I changed the filters is that I replaced the filters with new filters, carbon and ammonia chips.
• my tank has been set up and running continuously for 1.5 years.
• I don't know the terminology "fully cycled"
• I don't quarantine my fish, as a normal practice.

Everything I did with these two new fish, I have done in the past - hence my confusion of the cloudy water.

Have you heard of the nitrogen cycle?


Caleb

 

[niferrell]

I do test my water and the tank had no ammonia, no nitrites and nitrates were a little off. Didn't realize that the three actually cycled and that it was called the Nitrogen Cycle until I went on google - thank you I learned something today.

 

[biondoa]

So unfortunately when you replaced your old filters with new ones, you tossed most of your beneficial bacteria too. They had built up over time and kept your tank stable.
Fish waste forms ammonia. The good bacteria convert that ammonia to nitrites which is also toxic. Another form of good bacteria transforms the toxic nitrites to less toxic nitrates. As long as they are under 40ppm you should be ok. Since you already have fish in the tank, and the majority of your beneficial bacteria is gone, you are basically starting all over, as if it were a new tank, so you will need to be vigilant about water changes and testing. I would think you will need to do fairly large daily water changes for a while until the bacteria has time to build back up again. Once your ammonia and nitrites are at 0ppm, and nitrates are below 40ppm, you can slowly cut back on the water change schedule. Let us know how it goes.

 

[niferrell]

I hate using chemicals to do the work of nature but will any of those like Stability or Septo-Bac help to get the balance back?

 

[ImACoolguy]

I've heard of using stability. If you don't want to waste your money though just do daily testing and water changes to keep the fish safe.

In the future when you need to replace a pad in the filter- put a new pad in with the old for a month then remove the old. This makes sure plenty of bacteria are on the new pad so this situation doesn't happen again.


Caleb