Massive cloudiness "explosion" (diagnosis?)

[JohnPaul]

Okay in a period of less than 24 hours my tank went from pretty close to perfectly clear (typically there is a very low, low level of cloudiness) to just incredibly cloudy. It is a 29 gal standard, and I can barely see through the tank front-to-back, and definitely cannot see through the tank side-to-side.

I know the first question will be, "Did you do anything different in the last 24 hours?" The answer is yes...lots of things different. That is why I am unsure of the cause.

Within the last 24 hours, I have:
-- finished up day 5 of a 5-day treatment cycle of Maracyn and Maracyn-II
-- fed my fishes with live brine shrimp (for the first time ever)
-- putting activated carbon back into my filter overnight (to rid the water of leftover Maracyn and Maracyn-II)
-- did about a 40-50% pwc
-- removed the activated carbon from my filter
-- began treatment with Kanamycin (direct into tank and Kanacyn-laced food)

Yes, the tank gets a little bit of direct sunlight (maybe an hour or less) each morning--I'm working on preventing that. However, the main "bloom" happened over about a 6 hour time period this afternoon/evening *after* I had done my big pwc.

The cloudiness looks white under the aquarium light but I did notice a greenish tinge to it during the day when looking at it in natural light, so I am assuming it is an algae bloom? Or bacterial bloom?

Any ideas would be appreciated. My fish don't look disturbed at the moment but water this cloudy can't be good for them, right?

EDIT: 6 zebra danios, 5 dwarf neon rainbowfish, 3 cory cats. The antibiotics are due to an outbreak of mouth "fungus" (columnaris) on all 5 of the rainbows and possibly 1 or 2 of the zebras. Tank parameters: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0-5 ppm. Last night I was getting ammonia and nitrite at 0.25 ppm, that is why I did a big water change today.

 

[youronlysin]

Doesnt sound like your completely new to all of this. I'll assume you did rinse the carbon before you put the filter back in the tank? I've forgotten that a couple of times with a new filter and man...the water clouded bad for a while.

I've never used meds, so Im not sure what kind of impact they might have on the clarity of the water. My tank gets cloudy overnight sometimes, although not that bad, but I cant find any explanation for it either. I must have some fish that like to go nuts in the night and really stir things up. It might just be some junk that got stirred up from the tank floor when you added new water to the tank. when I do water changes, my tank is a mess of floating particles...plant junk and who knows what else. I have never seen it get so coudy that I couldnt see the back of the tank though. Id like to hear what might be the cause of this.

 

[JohnPaul]

Actually, no, I didn't rinse the carbon before putting it back in. However, it is not "brand new" carbon, but carbon that had been in the tank before I had started my antibiotics a week ago. So it had been rinsed properly once before to get all the carbon dust off of it.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Maracyn2 can cause cloudiness.

Excessive light can also cause cloudiness.

It would have to be 1 of these 2, and last time I treated with Maracyn2 it looked like smoke in the water (if looked up from the bottom of the tank towards the light it could be seen as if it was smoke in the water)

your answer lies in "Does the water cloud back up with the light off after doing another 25% PWC", if it doesn't then turn the light back on (if it's normally on at that time) if it gets worse, then leave the light off for a couple of days and add an airstone. if it gets worse again with the light off, then you'll need to put fresh carbon in to clear up the maracyn2. then re-start the kanacyn regiment..

 

[TankGirl]

I think you are seeing a big bacterial die-off from the antibiotics - not unusual, but unfortunate and also a pain, so just test every day and do partial water changes frequently to keep ammonia and nitrite down, like it looks like you have been doing.

 

[JohnPaul]

UPDATE:

Woke up this morning, water so cloudy I can't even see through the tank front-to-back. Gack. Rainbows seem to be getting a tad stressed by it but the corys and zebras are just playing around as usual.

If this is a bacterial die-off, what bacteria are we talking? All the nitrogen-cycle ones? Gack. If so, that is gonna tick me off, especially since the package of this stuff claims it is "safe for the community tank" and it "will not affect biological filter beds" at the described dose.

Oh well...I'll keep testing water parameters and monitor things.

 

[TankGirl]

Antibiotics kill bacteria - so any time you put antibiotics in the tank you run the risk of killing off your beneficial bacteria. It does not always happen, but it can, and that's my first suspicion just because the timing is right. You may be on the frequent water change program for a while, but only if you are seeing ammonia and/or nitrite. If you are not seeing either of these then you'll have to just wait it out - it will clear eventually.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Yes, since it was overnight, then I would agree, it's bacterial die off.