Friday was clear - today is cloudy! ** UPDATE

[GouramiFanatic]

When I left work on Friday, the water in my aquarium was crystal clear. When I went in this morning, the water was a little cloudy. You can still see everything fine, but the cloudiness is just annoying as I really loved the crystal clear water.

I tested the water for Nitrite, Nitrate, Ammonia, and Ph - all tests came back fine. The fish (still only a pair of Flame Dwarf Gouramis since 4/11) are acting normally and they both ate as they normally do.

My question is, what's causing the cloudiness and what can I do to fix it?

- Mandy

 

[Fishyfanatic]

When you say your tests came back fine, what were the actual water results?

Did the tank cycle before adding fish?

When was the last pwc?

 

[TankGirl]

You could have one of those pesky bacterial blooms that can occur in a relatively new tank - which is not dangerous to the fish and will eventually resolve (this is assuming your replies to FF's questions are to our satisfaction ).

Sometimes a green water bloom starts out looking like a pale haze, so be on the lookout for that.

 

[Andos99]

Give it a few days....you'll be fine

 

[GouramiFanatic]

When you say your tests came back fine, what were the actual water results?

Did the tank cycle before adding fish?

When was the last pwc?

Sorry, I posted the original post on my lunch hour so I was in a hurry! Here is more info...

The test results were:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = .5ppm
Ph = 7.2

I did not cycle before adding fish, but I've had the same pair of Flame Dwarf Gouramis since I first added fish. They were purchased on 4/11 and have been doing great. Since adding these two fish, I tested the water at least every other day. I've made a handful of water changes accordingly. None of the levels have really gotten elevated drastically.

The last partial water change was done almost 2 weeks ago and was about 30%.

The cloudiness that I have right now is almost like a hazy looking cloudy. It almost looks like someone dumped a little bit of milk to give it a little bit of cloudiness. As I said, it's nothing really 'bad', but I miss the clear water!

Hope this info helps...

 

[TankGirl]

In the face of good test results I'd say this is a bacterial bloom, which will resolve on its own, like Andos99 says, though it could be more than a few days. I would not do anything different than what you have been doing.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I find the Nitrate reading of .5 odd. Is it just me or is that reading really low?

I agree with TG, looks like a bacterial bloom. Just don't add the chemicals that claim to clear up your water. It will make it worse if it's a bacterial bloom.

 

[TankGirl]

The bioload is really very small for this size tank, so that nitrate level is not too surprising.

Interesting factoid (and hopefully OT): If you ever have green water, test the tank for nitrate and you may be surprised to find it dead, flat zero. This waterborne algae can suck up the NO3 completely.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Thanks for the info!

One of my coworkers suggested that I take the sponge out of the filter and give it a good rinsing. Is this a good idea, will it do more harm than good, will it even do anything to help it out?

- Mandy

 

[Fishyfanatic]

It's not a bad thing to rinse the sponge, just as long as you do it in used tank water. If you do it in tap water, the chlorine will kill the bacteria. I rinse our sponges about once a month.

 

[TankGirl]

You can do that, and in fact it ought to be done as often as weekly, but I doubt it has anything to do with the cloudy water, which is not caused by the filter not trapping enough particles. Unless you are running a diatom filter you can't trap the particles that make up cloudiness with your filter.

Tincture of time will cure this (unless it goes green, then all bets are off... )

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Well, I was hoping that the water would clear up over the long weekend, but instead it's gotten much worst! Now the water is green and I can barely see my fish unless I get right up to the glass or if they come over towards the front. I'm so depressed that my beautiful tank is now a mess and looks like it's filled with swamp water.

What should I do?

- Mandy

 

[TankGirl]

Green water - ugh! As I mentioned in my first post, it can sometimes start off as just a slight cloudiness.

Now on to the cure. Speaking from personal experience, UV sterilization will zap it and you'll be able to read the newspaper through the tank in a few days, but this is not exactly the cheapest piece of equipment to buy. My friend rid his tank of green water by doing 15% PWC's every day for about a week. This method did not work for me but maybe if I had given it more time it would have, and I'd definitely suggest this as the easiest, cheapest route.

You can try a blackout, meaning absolute, complete and total covering of the tank, with no feeding and no peeking (not even a smidgen of light should get in the tank) for 5 days. I did this and got impatient at 4 days, when the bloom was gone. I did a 50% PWC but it came back in another day or two. I think if I had left it on for the full 5 it might have killed all of it. The fish can easily handle this blackout period and plants can, too, though they will look a bit sad afterwards - they soon bounce back.

 

[Guest]

Now on to the cure. Speaking from personal experience, UV sterilization will zap it and you'll be able to read the newspaper through the tank in a few days, but this is not exactly the cheapest piece of equipment to buy. My friend rid his tank of green water by doing 15% PWC's every day for about a week. This method did not work for me but maybe if I had given it more time it would have, and I'd definitely suggest this as the easiest, cheapest route.

I agree 100%, for all a UV does for your tank I think they are a steal, not expensive.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Well, I did a partial water change today and it seems to have helped some already. It's still nowhere near as clear as what it used to be, but it's not as green and dark as it was. One thing that I noticed when I did the pwc is that when I put the suction on the gravel to clean up the gravel, the 'green' actually filled the tube. Will doing a couple more cleanings like this to get the 'green' off of the gravel help me out long term or will it just help temporarily?

Also, would getting a Pleco (or two) now (I currently still have only two gouramis) help out at all or should I wait until I get the green water under control?

Final questions (please excuse me if they're dumb!)... the tank that I have is a 46 gallon bow tank. If I got a UV sterilizer which one would be recommended for my tank? Also, how long and how often would I have to use it? Is it safe to run it while the fish are still in the tank or would I have to remove them first?

That's it for now! Thanks again for the info!
- Mandy

 

[Blucat]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=46017

Check out my post. I battled green water for a long time and I fond a cheap solution that worked. I tried blackouts but they did more harm than good. My greenwater was caused by phosphates in the water and the water was very unbalanced. So i used tetra easy balance for a month and it cleared up!

 

[TankGirl]

If you do regular partial water changes, concentrating on separate sections of the gravel each time, you will eventually get the green up, and that is a reasonable approach though it could take some time. A pleco is going to do nothing for this problem so I'd definitely wait until the greenwater is resolved prior to obtaining an algae eater (also if the tank is acrylic be aware that a pleco could scratch the inside surface with its rasping).

Phosphates are certainly a possibility, since they are at high levels in many municipal water systems, mine included. I have never found a media that adequately lowered my phosphate levels, but it might be worth it to put some in your filter.

A UV sterilizer for your tank could be one of the 8-9 watt models, and even a 4 watt could work for green water. You can buy them to hang on the tank, to be used with hoses and a separate water pump, for temporary fixes, which has the advantage of being portable for use on other tanks, or you can plumb them into your canister filter hose assembly and run it all the time, or whenever you wanted. The fish do not pass through the UV unit at all, only water, so the fish stay in the tank while it is running.

There are many people who have resolved green water in different ways, so now you can decide which approach is best for you. I think, tho, if you waited long enough the green water would eventually resolve. I could not stand it and went ahead with UV, but I am not the most patient of people, lol!

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Thanks guys!

I think for now, I'll just stick with doing pwc for a while and see if that does anything. Hopefully, it'll clear up on it's own without any chemicals or the UV. Let's say it does eventually clear up on it's own. What are the chances that it will come back and how long does it normally take for it to show up again?

I realize it's different from tank to tank and everyone's experience will be different, but I'm just looking for any input on what I can expect to happen.

- Mandy

 

[Blucat]

Well mine went away naturally but came back. That is when i had to use the water balancer

 

[TankGirl]

Assuming you resolve this with water changes, you may find that a generalized increase in regular water changes will be all that is necessary to prevent recurrence. Sometimes the type of food you are feeding is the culprit, so switching to a different food and taking care not to overfeed may be necessary as well. Making sure no sunlight hits the tank, and not leaving the lights on too long are also measures to take. Measuring phosphate levels in your tap water and tank might be a good idea as well.