It's so cloudy,I have the BLUES

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junkfood john

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 30, 2008
Messages
22
Location
Duluth Mn.
Just got done at the Duluth blues fest and I can't get it out of my head. But any ways,I have a problem with my tank. I have a 90 gal. FW tank. I set it up for the first time on july 3rd. We had aprox. 25 small fish and 1 large allergy eater. we also had 7 large plants. within 3 weeks we had allergy spreading in the tank. I drained abought half the water and cleaned the rocks and glass. Within 2 weeks it got really cloudy. I drained 2/3rds of the tank and removed all of the plants,changed the filter,and added a polishing pad. After 2 days of no change,I used intant clear and it worked for abought 2 days and then clouded up again. I have a Fluval FX5 filter. The top basket is full of pre filter. The middle basket has 2 bags of carbon and 1 bag of zero carb. The bottom basket is full of biomax. For the first week I had a polishing pad in the bottom baket. I have a very old test kit. It shows a PH of abought 7.2. Can anyone give me some advice? Thank you , John
 

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Is it a brand new tank or used? If its brand new and you had brown algae stuff on the glass and decorations then it is diatoms.

You should read up on the nitrogen cycle if you haven't already.

How long do you leave the lights on per day? And what type of light is it?

Also I think you should pickup a new test kit, the API kit is readily available and works good.
 
I would pull out the sponges in the filter, that's what I do with all my filters.
 
Unless you clean them, they can produce a lot of nitrAtes.
 
sounds like you made alot of mistakes john.but your tank stand looks great
 
yes, i agree that is a very nice tank stand. and i think you may have algae and not allergy, if you had allergy you would not be able to get close to the tank w/out sneezing your shoes off.

you may want to try a phosphate remover if you dont have a fuge w/ macro algae and perhaps invest in a diatomacious earth filter ( DE filter ) do a water change, then stur up the water alot along w/ the substrate, run the filter for a couple of hours, pull up a chair and read a few magazines next to the filter as they clog fast depending on how bad your tank is, if the filter starts making noise or if it has a pressure gauge on it, dont let it over pressure, this is a great filter , costly but great, i used to clean pools and these are the type of filters i commonly used, you can get smaller ones for fish tanks, DE is a fine powder, it gets pressed up against a fine synthetic mesh which creates a filter wall down to a few microns. never get this powder in your tank as it will turn the water milky white and you will have a horrific time reversing this, keep media in the filter bag or as instructed by filter manufacture. DO NOT run this filter w/out supervision, dont leave it on all day, because they filter particles so small they clog faster and can become damaged.

and remove the sponges from your tank, go to pets mart and somewhere where they have all the filter media and such for fishtank filters, look for 1' x 1' bag of blue or white fluffy stuff, this is a roll of mechanical filter stuff, its a long sheet (about 4 foot long ) of it thats been folded into a roll, i think its the same material they use to fill cheap pillows, like poliester but stays together better, this is real cheap stuff, i got some for only 2 bucks, just cut to the size of your sponge that you where using, you might have to attach it to something like non metal screen w/ large holes so that the filter doesnt fall all over the place. here are some pics of what i use, i got it at petsmart and how i have it set up, i have a cheap filter for a 20 gallon tank, i dont recall the brand but its cheap w/ this plastic thing in it, my other filter i replaced all media and only have ceramic rings in it for biologics and its an avg. HOT filter, just w/ ceramic in it.

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This is my tank before & after. PLEASE HELP. What kind of mistakes am I making? Is there any web sites I can go to,too learn about the things you are telling me about , Thanks,John
 

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Hi John,

Read up on the nitrogen cycle as this is the most important thing you need to know when starting up a tank. Here is a link to an article on this site about that. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/24/1/Nitrogen-Cycle-/Page1.html

Sometimes the water will get cloudy when there is a bacterial bloom (which is a good thing as it means your beneficial bacteria are starting to grow and multiply) but it should clear up after a few days.

The second most important thing for you to do is to post your tank parameters (Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate) as this will tell us where you are at in your cycle which can often alter the specific advice you will get in order to correct the problem.

Also do answer the questions asked about your lighting...how many watts, what type, and how long you have them on per day...are they on a timer? etc.
Also are you using any kind of fertilizers for your plants? Do you have a fertilizer under your substrate? What kind of substrate are you using? Are you trying to chemically alter the pH? Let us know everything you are adding in...are you on city water or well? If you are on city water are you using a dechlorinator when you change the water etc., all of these things can play their part in what you are experiencing.

I second the advice to use filter floss in one of your media baskets even if you don't change the sponge out, it is great stuff, just make sure to change it regularly as it gets gnked up fast. It works really well to polish the water and it is cheap too.

So before you jump to do anything else, give us some more info...I know we can help you. :)

As for the algae, for now before doing anything else try to make sure your lights are on no more than 10 hours per day...I know that is always my problem when I first set up a tank because I want to look at it all the time. :)

I wish you much sucess, don't give up...we are here to help!
 
Fierro Nights,

What an awesome post. You described the product and posted great photos of exactly how to use it. For some one like me, still riding out "fish for dummies" syndrome:confused: this is SO helpful.

Junkfood John - I highly recommend you try as best you can to answer some of the questions these good folks have asked. They can help you. I've been through some real drama with my tank (set up since May 27), but not this blue cloudy stuff. In fact, I got so discouraged I quit even talking about here - but I kept reading every thread remotely related to cycling, starting up a tank, the links, the things that go wrong, other members who posted that made my same mistake etc. There is a wealth of information right here and people so willing to help.
 
www.everythingfishy.com/murphy.htm read keeping murphy out of your tank is a good site lots of good info.you have nice tank and stand and i think top of the line filter from fluval off to a good start.You have what is called new tank syndrome. you dont need zero carb in new tank. take out and leave that top of the line filter alone for 3 months.
 
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