Cloudy water??

[Cichlidlovers]

First sorry for this post as I am sure cloudy water has been a topic many times, but this darn search engine is to broad. Anywho I have setup a 90 gal fw Cichlid tank. I have made many mistakes first of all being letting my husband wash the rocks that he bought without supervision (he used soap wich he didn't tell me about for 3 weeks ) second which i didn't let the tank cycle properly, of course it would with the soap in the water! Anwho I went and put my africans in this tank as the ph was fine (at that point was the only test kit i had) and went and bought a hand caught Ngara Flametail male and two females. All was well other than cloudy water the fish seemed fine, until I notice fungus on the male flametail, and my poor cobalts eyes were popping out. I promptly quarantined these two and and medicated all tank with melifix and pimafix. Then I bought a full range test kit and was shocked at my levels, Ph and ammonia were fine but the nitrites 5.0 and nitrates fluctuated from 40 to 160!! Well it's been a long road but thank god no deaths the offending rocks have been removed and many water changes later and a new hob filter as well as the fluval 404. The nitrites have stabilized at 0 but the nitrates after 2 days drops again and the water goes cloudy. I have some incredible fish on order and will be here in a week or so and I have no desire to lose any.

Any ideas as to why the water keeps getting cloudy and does it have anything to do with the nitrates?

 

[vega]

Check the feeding routine. Try to feed less.

Norm fish dont just get fungus. Fungus is develop only if there is untreated open wound. Maybe the fish is injured in LFS or handling.

The med you add may also hurt your bacteria. Adding active-carbon into tank would help as the carbon will absorb the med and soap that still in that tank.

HTH

 

[Cichlidlovers]

Thank you vega yes I did know this about the fungas, there was damage to the fin but i didn't notice it till there was fungas. But as i said that problem has been resolved. now I am just trying to get rid of the cloudy water, the meds and the soap should be out of the water as I have done many water changes. It is simply that I do a pwc and the water looks great but within a day it is cloudy again. I am going to try keeping the light off for longer. As for feeding if I fed them any less they would die. i only feed twice a day and small amounts. Has anyone ever tried Algone? I have read that it will clear up the water.

 

[vega]

Test you PO4 level too as PO4 norm associate with cloudy water. If PO4 is high then you may be overfeed. PO4 can be reduce by partial water change, Hagen also make PO4 absorbing bag.

FYI, in my planted tank also having this problem and i found out its due to my NO3 too low.

Wat light do u use?

 

[Cichlidlovers]

I use 2 regular 40 watt flouresent bulbs and 2 40 watt aquarium and plant bulbs from home depot. We didn't want to spend $200 on compact lighting so we got 2 $12 flouresent light fixtures from walmart. I have no plants in the tank. I don't have a PO4 tester, so I guess i will take my water to the lfs. The NO3 fluctuates, after a pwc it is perfect but within a day the levels drop. I am getting so frustrated as i wanted this tank so bad, and have never had an issue with my smaller tanks.

 

[Cichlidlovers]

so the water is getting worse..and has taken on a greenish hew. I blacked out the tank all day and i am going to keep it that way for a few days. Could i need different lights?

 

[Guest]

ummm

well im guessing since the soap screwed your tank

this is IMO i would just start the whole tank over


the soap ruined the water cause i am guessing there will always be a little soap in the tank no matter how many PWCs you do

 

[sonoma2nv]

i would just do 25-30% water changes a day for a week straight.i had same prob.and cut back on feeding.then just change to pwc 1 time aweek.

 

[Guest]

if you do 25-30% water changes each day for 1 week, you might as well just empty your whole tank and restart your cycle