Cloudy Black Water For Weeks

[Angelica1998]

Hi guys! I’m desperate for help! I have had my ten gallon for over a month and a half and it has been cloudy for the whole duration. I added driftwood which I boiled for around 3 hours changing the water every time it got dark (around 4 times) and I don’t mind a light tea color. But I need help! It’s worrying me and I test my water daily now. It has 7 pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and around 20 ppm nitrates. I just bought a UV sterilizer hoping it would help and maybe it will but I’m not too sure. I have a around 3 types of live plants including 2 moss balls. In the tank I had a Betta who died abruptly (overnight) due to an ammonia spike in the 4th week and I have two African dwarf frogs and a snail. I’m so lost and worried. Please help!

 

[mbkemp]

What kind of wood? Is this cycled?

 

[Toad]

What kind of substrate do you have, and did you rinse it? What kind of filter and media are you running? Are you using test strips or a liquid test? Can you run us step by step through how you've been doing any water changes/tank maintenance? Have you tested the water from the tap? What dechlorinator do you use?

 

[Angellove78]

Looks like your stirring up a dirt bottom tank. Filter might be too strong and/or intake set too low if you have hang on the back filters. The driftwood would cause the water to turn brown. If you vac the bottom on a dirt tank could cause black water too. Somehow the substrate is getting pushed around too much. Imo

 

[Angelica1998]

What kind of wood? Is this cycled?

Hi it’s Mopani wood and I believe it is cycled because I’ve been testing the water and the parameters are fine and have been fine for the past few weeks now.

 

[Angelica1998]

What kind of substrate do you have, and did you rinse it? What kind of filter and media are you running? Are you using test strips or a liquid test? Can you run us step by step through how you've been doing any water changes/tank maintenance? Have you tested the water from the tap? What dechlorinator do you use?

I use black substrate from Petsmart and I rinsed it very very well. I am using the filter I got with the tank set. I am using strips as of right now but I get my water tested at Petsmart too and hope to get the liquid test kit soon. I haven’t been doing any water changes for the past two and half weeks as the people at Petco said not to for a few weeks as my Betta died of an ammonia spike 4 weeks ago. I use the water conditioner from top fin. Thank you so much for responding!

 

[Angelica1998]

Looks like your stirring up a dirt bottom tank. Filter might be too strong and/or intake set too low if you have hang on the back filters. The driftwood would cause the water to turn brown. If you vac the bottom on a dirt tank could cause black water too. Somehow the substrate is getting pushed around too much. Imo

It shouldn’t be, I’m not using dirt or sand. I use black substrate from Petsmart! Thank you so much for responding!

 

[Toad]

If it was an ammonia spike than you should be doing water changes frequently to get the ammonia levels down before it kills anything else.

What kind of filter is it, the kind that hangs on back, sponge, box filter? Does it use charcoal?

 

[mbkemp]

Hi it’s Mopani wood and I believe it is cycled because I’ve been testing the water and the parameters are fine and have been fine for the past few weeks now.

Mopani will release some tannin for a while. This seems to be a little darker than I have seen.

In my opinion water changes are the best thing you can ever do, cycled or not if fish are in the tank.

I use prime. I would do a big water change daily and use whatever conditioner you have until you consistently have no ammonia or nitrite. If this is tannin, this will help. Since you are using gravel I would wonder about a bacterial bloom of some kind