Cloudy water

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rshif3030

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 3, 2021
Messages
2
Location
Ruckersville Va.
I have a 75 gallon freshwater tank that has cloudy / milky water. I have 1 Pleco, several Neon Tetra, 3 Catfish, 3 Dwarf Frogs, some Barbs and a few others. I have done several water changes, had an Aqueon filter, added another hang on filter and a poop filter. I have live plants, lava rock, rock structure, and a few other pieces. The bottom of the tank is white rock that I purchased and rinsed several times. The tank is about 3 years old and has been maintained, fish look / appear to be healthy and doing well. I took water sample to PetSmart and they said that it was within all parameters and suggested to get a bottle of clarifier and put in water. Did that and water is still cloudy, what next???
 
What kind of cloudy? Milky white? Tea coloured? Suspended particles?

Anything new in the tank?

Do you know what the water parameters are? I wouldnt trust a pet store to know what good parameters are or even their ability to do a test.

Have you tried activated carbon?

Last resort would be UV.
 
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What kind of cloudy? Milky white? Tea coloured? Suspended particles?

Anything new in the tank?

Do you know what the water parameters are? I wouldnt trust a pet store to know what good parameters are or even their ability to do a test.

Have you tried activated carbon?

Last resort would be UV.

Hey AD, long time. If you're so inclined, please speak on the circumstances behind involuntarily cloudy water and your recommendations for correcting the issue? Beyond muscular scheduled water changes I've been using loads of mechanical media of differing densities.
 
Hey AD, long time. If you're so inclined, please speak on the circumstances behind involuntarily cloudy water and your recommendations for correcting the issue? Beyond muscular scheduled water changes I've been using loads of mechanical media of differing densities.

The water is a milky like with tiny bubbles. I have since first post removed the rocks, plants and structures. I used an aquarium vacuum and cleaned up the old food and poop. Water is still cloudy but is better. Fish are doing good and swimming normally.
 
The water is a milky like with tiny bubbles. I have since first post removed the rocks, plants and structures. I used an aquarium vacuum and cleaned up the old food and poop. Water is still cloudy but is better. Fish are doing good and swimming normally.

I'm glad your situation is corrected, though I would like to see these bubble's hires. :fish1:
 
Hey AD, long time. If you're so inclined, please speak on the circumstances behind involuntarily cloudy water and your recommendations for correcting the issue? Beyond muscular scheduled water changes I've been using loads of mechanical media of differing densities.

Hi Mr Overfilter. Been a while.

Lets go through my own personal battle with cloudy water.

March 2020, lockdown in UK. Get sent to work from home with no real way of doing so and not much to do if i could do it. Time on my hands to fiddle with things in the tank, start dosing ferts to try and improve the quality of my plants. At the same time my panda cory population starts to get out of hand. A few months later water starts to get a little cloudy. I really have no way of knowing which of the many things going on is causing it. Not wanting to look at the elephant in the room which is acute overstocking i start to fiddle further.

Clarifiers and carbon have little effect. Wasnt expecting it to because the cloudiness is clearly bacterial, not chemical or particulate.

Increased flow to the filter. Marginal improvement. Change some filter media to something that has better flow through. Also marginal improvement.

I then went with the nuclear option. Got a UV steriliser. A nice cheap internal steriliser. 24 hours later, crystal clear water.

https://www.aquariumkeeping.co.uk/p...PRjNGmu8JG_9VCoKH_WD5AcJtq-isxxxoCjEoQAvD_BwE

Knowing im treating the symptoms, once it was clear turned off the UV. Took a couple of months but was then at square one. UV works but is only a short/medium time fix and your issue will come back each time if the cause isnt resolved.

I take some of fishwonders advice (remember him?). Swap my water conditioner from Stesscoat to Prime. Again a marginal improvement.

Its only when i addressed the overstocking issue and started rehoming pandas to friends and family that the cloudiness started to clear up more longer term. I think im about there now, but will need to get rid of some more pandas shortly. We have had a few threads on here over the last 12 months with people looking for panda corys, and if i lived on the same continent they could have happily had a dozen or so.

Cant say whether this helps or addresses your own issue, but UV will work. You can then look at addressing the cause while at least being able to see your fish.
 
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Cant say whether this helps or addresses your own issue, but UV will work. You can then look at addressing the cause while at least being able to see your fish.

Happy New Year all! ?

I've had a bit of success (slightly clearer water) since converting my FX4 to having 20-60PPI (polishing) foam. Then a tray of Seachem Renew for those of us who've become afraid of carbon. Now, it's time to punk some algae! :banghead: I've started to experiment with the idea of feeding in a more focused manner.
 
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