sick and tired of a cloudy tank!

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browning1359

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
56
Location
washington, new jersey
Please help me out my 4 month oldtank had been cloudy for like 3 months I do pwc every week and still cloudy even after vacuuming still cloudy and when I try and vacuum it seems o don't get it all is that ok or no?
 
no, probably not ok, the fish in the tank and the filter would be some good info. when i started my 55, i had the same problem, it went away, but, it took alot of pwc and some good filters. im running 3 on it.
 
what size is the tank? i have a 29 gallon and run a 40 gallon filter and a 20 gallon filter on it to be sure.
 
If you recently added more fish as your tank never completed its original cycle that could be an issue. If the tank never completely cycled it could still be cloudy. You need to make sure you have a spot for benificial bacteria to grow so that it can do its job. Some of the cheap cartridge filters dont allow for proper bacteria growth. If you continue to vacuum the gravel this could hinder the bacteria from growing as well. Tell us what filters your using and how many fish you have. I would go with a marineland bio wheel or an aquaclear 70 if you have a 29 gallon tank as per your second post...
 
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Do you have drift wood? If so the tannins will do that for a while. I have tan/brown water from a piece I just put in an going to for sometime. Luckily my GF kinda likes it :).
 
I just recently had my water turn brown too. Turns out I hadn't buried my root tabs far enough into the substrate. If you're using those, that could be a contributing factor.

Furthermore, I strongly suggest (if you haven't done so already) that you invest in an API Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate test kit. That will help tell you where your cycle is at currently and if that's part of your issue.

And for what it's worth, I'm running an Aquaclear 50 and a Tetra Whisper 10 on my 29G tank and that really does the trick.
 
I do have those root tabs but they are almost on the bottom of the tank I have like 40 pounds of the gravel but I want to do some kind of dirt or sand to make the plants really POP and I have the stock aqueon filter that came with the tank but I plan on giving all my fish to my lfs next week and do a home make over for my fish to come I think I got ahead with myself but I plan on buying a stand for it as I fear my table is going to break with the almost 300 pounds on it a new filter and a used lighting system from somewhere but like I said I need some help for these little guys and again thanks for your replies I'm really learning a lot here
 
i would like my tank to be as nice as some of your tanks on here and I know bigger is better but money is tight as for baby formula kills my pocket every week
 
browning1359 said:
what test kits give all numbers instead of strips wich have color tabs

I seem to remember that most test strips don't do ammo. That's has to be a seperate test because of the chems (T/F?).

API FW Master test kit does all the needed ones. I have a Topfin kit too for GH|KH and that's something I found to be useful because I have really strong buffers in my tap water.
 
Mr. Limpet said:
I seem to remember that most test strips don't do ammo. That's has to be a seperate test because of the chems (T/F?).

API FW Master test kit does all the needed ones. I have a Topfin kit too for GH|KH and that's something I found to be useful because I have really strong buffers in my tap water.

Jungle quick dip test strip has 7 test on them and they are easy to read the test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, alkalinity, hardness, and chlorine. I personally have no problem with them. Although the ammonia test is on it's own strip.
 
API master is the best I got one off pet mount for $18 and $7 for shipping in stores they are $32 before tax. If this is a serious hobby for you it's almost a must to have a full test kit.

You have a 29g? How much do you take out during a pwc? Also what kind of fish and how many?
 
Hobgob said:
Jungle quick dip test strip has 7 test on them and they are easy to read the test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, alkalinity, hardness, and chlorine. I personally have no problem with them. Although the ammonia test is on it's own strip.

The strips are questionable IMO, at my Petco 15 strips and an ammonia test strip kit total close to $30 together, the API kit has 800 tests and it was $32.

For all the testing I've done since getting the API kit, I figure the test stripes would have cost me well over $100. Plus I don't need to do every test, like no2 is always at zero so I seldom test it, but last night I had a fancy that was off and I did 4 ammo & 3 no3 tests.

I test pH all the time on my Cardinal Tetras because of a hard water issues and I don't waste all the other tests just to get that one done.

One thing I know is that my water checks are more accurate now, than when I used the strips.
 
+1 on the API kits. Liquid seems to be well-accepted as more accurate than the strip tests and I love my liquid tests. It's really easy, and have really helped me a lot with monitoring my levels.
 
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