Cloudy water

[Joostrom]

I have a 75 bow front with peacocks. I just moved my tank from my old house to new house. Everything was good for about a week then things have gone bad. I walked in the house and it stunk like stinky fish and the water is super cloudy I have been doing 50% WC every 2 days and I bought some prime to put in. It's been a 10 days and still cloudy. What should I do?

 

[Masha]

Are you able to test your water?
Do you know ammonia / nitrite / nitrate levels?

 

[molliwopp]

Keep doing what youre doing and it will balance itself out. When you moved house, how long was the filter media without water and how long did it take you to get your tank set up with the fish in it? Im guessing that you lost your cycle and the smell is ammonia. I would probably make those water changes daily.

Do you have ways of testing the water?

 

[Joostrom]

The tank was empty for a few hours, should I be putting some active carbon in my filter, I'm really worried about my cichlids. What can I do to speed up the process?

 

[Joostrom]

I also have a old master test kit. Do they go bad?

 

[Masha]

Yes they have an expiration date

Here is some information on how to find out if your kit is too old:

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=76252

 

[Joostrom]

My ph is 7.8 ammonia is between 1.2ppm and 2.4ppm and nitrite was at 0.3

 

[Rivercats]

Your having a bacteria bloom due to your tank mini cycling. It will clear up on it's own but you need to be testing your water daily for ammonia and nitrites and doing a 50% WC whenever your levels rise above .25ppm.

 

[Joostrom]

Should I put carbon pads in my filter and filter floss??

 

[Rivercats]

Filter floss never hurts and I always keep it in my filters but a true bacterial bloom has to clear up on its own or have a UV added to kill off the excess bacteria. One way to know for certain if it's a bacterial bloom is to do a 50% wc and see if right after the change your water looks clearer but then begins to cloud right back up. This is what happens with a bacterial bloom.

 

[Joostrom]

So on average how long would it take to clear?

 

[Rivercats]

Honestly a bacterial bloom can last from several hours to several days and in rarer cases several weeks. In the later instance something is usually triggering it to last that long.