Cloudy water?

[bkiggy]

So here's the thing I have a 30 gallon cube a fluval 206 canister filter, albino bristle nose Pleco, three dwarf neon rainbows, 8 pygmy Coreys, 2 skunk Cory's, 2red Venezuelan Cory's, 1male crow tail Betta, 1 albino cory, 2 shrimp,
PH 6.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 8 +/-
Ammonia .25 +/- (always gives a false positive because of Prime)
--- my water is always cloudy why??
Tanks been up and running for about a year and a half

 

[mjs500doo]

Mine all the sudden did this, tests all normal. I waited a month, (still did regular 20% changes) in case it was a bacterial bloom, didn't do any good. I ended up doing a 100% water change and kept the same filter in for media. Worked great. Tank has been running excellent ever since!

 

[calfishguy]

What type of filter media are you using? Do you clean it in old tank water every once in a while? You could try adding some filter floss and see if that helps.

 

[bkiggy]

Fluval 206. Bottom tray is "sponges", middle tray is Seachem Matrix, top tray is *Chempure Elite and Ammonia remover packet. + Seachem purigan
- once a month sponges get rinsed and ammonia packet replaced

 

[calfishguy]

Is your tap water cloudy?

 

[bkiggy]

Nope. My 40g is not cloudy either

 

[Fishfur]

Do you recharge the Purigen ? it doesn't last forever, it has to be recharged when it gets discoloured.

I wonder if you have an ongoing bacterial bloom ? Let me find an article for you on this, you can read and see if anything seems to match up.

Here is is. http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/water/72-heterotrophic-bacteria.html

 

[bkiggy]

It probably is an ongoing bacterial bloom. Probably because my PH is so low bacteria can't keep up.... ;(

 

[bkiggy]

So I read the article, but...... In simple terms , what does it mean ?
Oh, so one of my Rainbows is doing this "shaking" thing. Like a very quick vibrate. What's that ???

 

[bkiggy]

Maybe there is not enough O2 in the tank? How do I increase oxygen? I removed dead/dying plants and planted new ones - that should help

 

[bkiggy]

So I took my floating plant ,hornwort, out of the tank, rinsed it off, it was very "muddy" looking for the water, so I'm guessing that was algae and dead leaves, Took a lot of decor out of the tank gravel vac'd very well. Tank is crystal clear now. I'm guessing the plant that's floating was making the water dirty, because the plant was very dirty. A lots of algae and dead leaves that I didn't see - that's my bettas favorite hang out
All my fish are swimming around their more lively I got a new air pump , which produces 10 X more bubbles out of the air stone
I haven't seen my guys this active in a very long time

 

[Fishfur]

I know that article is a bit of a brain buster.. I had to read it a few times to wrap my head around it at all.

But I think you have succeeded in fixing your bloom, simply by doing really good cleanup and maintenance, and removing as much of the organics as possible, which includes the crud that can build up on the leaves of plants like hornwort.

Normally it is not really dirty plant, but if the water column had a lot of excess buildup of dead anything, be it leaves, fish poop or excess food, all that becomes a sludge that will get caught on finer plant leaves. So by cleaning that up, vacuuming well, cleaning the filter media really well, you removed most of the organic crap that the bloom was using as food to maintain itself.

The air pump increased circulation, which in turn does help increase gas exchange at the surface, thereby increasing oxygen levels too. The fact your fish are more active is a very nice sign, and tells you their water was less than great before and is now much, much better.

Just keep it like this and the problem should not reoccur. I'm not sure about the shaking with the Rainbow.. I'd have to go see what I can find out about that symptom. Might be parasites, off the top of my head, but I am not sure.

Edit. Not sure about the shaking.. is it still happening, or has it stopped and were there any other symptoms. The only mention I can find appears to be related to parasitic infestation.

 

[bkiggy]

Only does it once in a while. Haven't noticed him since cleaning. No ICH.

 

[bkiggy]

I think it is the floating plant making the water dirty. Gonna take it out and find something else that floats....

 

[Fishfur]

Plants can't make water dirty unless they are dying and dropping a lot of leaves, which might cause problems if there are a lot of decaying leaves at one time.

Hornwort does have a tendency to catch particles that are floating around the tank, however. But it isn't making them, it's only catching them. They're coming from some other source. Overfeeding might result in a lot of detritus in the water, and so might a filter that needs cleaning, as it might not be taking out the particles it should.

If you want floaters that don't catch particles, try frogbit, Indian water fern grown floating rather than planted, [ aka water sprite ], baby water lettuce, hygroriza aristata, or one of the two duckweeds, or Azolla. Azolla does much the same thing as duckweed, but I think it's prettier. It's actually a tiny floating fern.

Lemna major, giant duckweed, is a bit easier to control than Lemna minor, the tiny duckweed. Duckweeds are excellent at reducing nitrates,better than most other floaters, simply because they grow and reproduce so fast. That takes a lot of nutrients out of the water, and when you remove excess duckweed, you permanently remove those excess nutrients from the tank.

 

[bkiggy]

I've taken the hornwort out of the tank and swished in around in a bucket and TONS of leaves/needles and gunk come off... I don't think I over feed. They get food every 3 days. My pleco is very demanding when it comes to food so he gets target fed, while the Cory's will community feed over on the other side of the tank.
- cleaning the filter today. I have Fluval 206, only gets taken apart 1x month
Same with all my filters
Should I add Seachem Stability ??? Maybe there isn't enough "good" bacteria ??

 

[bkiggy]

Cleaned filter - yuck- full of hornwort leaves !!!!!!! Clean now

 

[Fishfur]

While I like most of the stuff Seachem makes, I don't know much about Stability. I've used some of the 'instant' cycle bacteria products, and had sort of mixed results, and even at the very best they didn't do very much at all, and I don't bother with them now.

I think the hornwort has just been accumulating everything that comes its way for awhile. It's helpful to do what you did, swish it out in a bucket, only more often. When I had hornwort, I found having a fairly strong current going in the tank kept it pretty clean.

Have you tested the water for nitrites, nitrates and ammonia ? If not, you should. If, when you test, the ammonia and nitrite is zero and nitrate is around 20 ppm, then you have plenty of the good bacteria, or BB, [beneficial bacteria]. I'm not familiar with the filter you're using, but I'm a believer in more filtration rather than less.

I have an Aqua Clear 70 on my 29G, plus a very large sponge prefilter on the AC filter intake. I also have an internal circulation pump as well. Most of my fish prefer or are ok with a lot of water current, and the filter feeding Fan shrimp must have a good current to feed from. With the extra pump, I can turn off the filter when I feed my Fan shrimp, and their food stays in the water column without being filtered out too quickly.

 

[bkiggy]

What about the driftwood. I read it can eventually rot and crap up the water ?! My big driftwood takes up 1/4 of the tank. Has some black hair algae on it

 

[Fishfur]

If it's softwood, it might eventually rot. If you picked it up somewhere and don't know the species of the wood, that's remotely possible, I guess.

The driftwood sold in aquarium stores, Mopani and Malaysian both, are very dense hardwoods that won't rot, at least, not for many, many, MANY years. I'd guess several decades at least before they showed much sign of decay.

Grapevine, despite being dense and hard, doesn't fare as well. I have a big piece and some of it simply softened and came off the chunk. What remains appears to be ok, and it didn't ruin the tank in any way. The wood they sell for terrariums may not last quite so well under water, but I really don't think it would rot quickly either. It does take quite a long time to become waterlogged and sink on its own.

I'd take the wood out and scrub the algae off it, as the black brush algae can be quite hard to get rid off on it's own. But unless you are finding big spongy, soft spots on the wood, rot is not likely a problem.