The Unbeatable Fog

[ChrisK41]

I have a tank that has never seen clear water. I have been keeping fish since my dad built me my first 80 gallon tank when I was 8, 25 years ago, and I have never had a problem like this. This tank has been my baby, but I am ready to take a bat to it, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I know this is a long post and would like to apologize ahead of time.

History:
May 15 – I finished setting up the aquarium with plants and soil and first filled it up. It was cloudy, but every other tank I had used Amazonia on had been and would always clear up overnight.

June 27 – I had been doing a 50% water change every week. The plants are growing great and the tank has finished cycling, but the water is just as cloudy as day one. I decided to start moving fish into the aquarium anyway so I don’t have to keep my quarantine tank going forever.

July 3 – All the fish and in the tank and seem healthy. The plants are growing fast and pearling, but still as cloudy as day one.

July 6 – I decided to try some seachem purigen after doing some research. I add 100 ml to the fluval 206 and 250 ml to the eheim pro3e 2074

July 18 – The purigen did not help at all so I add a coralife turbotwist uv sterilizer in line to the fluval 206

July 28 – the uv sterilizer has been running 24/7 since being first installed and has not done a thing. I get desperate and add some seachem clarity, even though I usually done believe in using water clarifier. The tank gets even more cloudy at first, but I figure that is how it is supposed to work.

July 31 – Thanks to the clarifier the tank is now cloudier then even. The initial fog it created has not cleared up in the least and after all that work and money I am ready to just throw it away. There has not been one day in the entire time that this tank has been clear.


Water parameters:
Tank size: 40 gallon breeder (36x18x17)
pH: 6.9-7.1 (Milwaukee controller)
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
KH: 7 degrees
GH: 5 degrees
Temp: 78 degrees
Water source: Local fish store. The same place I bought the fish, plants, and soil from. It is RO/DI water with seachem equilibrium and alkaline buffer added.

Equipment:
Lighting: 2x 24” marineland plant LED’s
Filtration: Eheim pro3e 2074 and fluval 206
Pressurized CO2 with Milwaukee controller
Coralife turbotwist uv sterilizer

Plants:
Dwarf grass, Red Ozelot sword, Anubis Wrinkle leaf, Anubis Nano, Ludwigia Palustris (both red and green kinds)

Fish:
4 rummy nose, 3 Harlequin Rasbora, 3 Guppies, 3 Galaxy Rasbora, 4 Cherry Barbs, 2 Peacock Gudgeon, 8 Amano Shrimp, 3 red fire shrimp, 2 Nerita Snail, 3 Marble Hatchets

Soil:
ADA Amazonia aqua soil

Other Notes:
There was a bit of an algae bloom in June that lasted a few weeks, but cleared up about the same time I was adding the fish.

 

[Fishperson]

Wow! First off I would like to say welcome to the forum!

That sounds crazy! I can assume that it is not biological, as in some sort of bacteria, if the inline UV sterilizer didn't work. My best guess would be either the Aqua soil or one of the chemicals you add to the tank. Does it get better after a water change?

 

[ChrisK41]

Thanks for the welcome!

The water might get a little better for a day after a water change, but nothing noticeable. The only chemicals I have ever added to the tank have been seachem equilibrium and alkaline buffer. I don't add much of them anymore, but when the tank was starting out my KH kept plummeting so I used a lot then. I am assuming I had that problem because of the soil, but now it has seemed to settle down.

The only other chemical was clarity that I tried a few days ago, which turned out to be a mistake. I am doing another water change today to try and fix that.

I have used the same soil (same type, I didn't transfer it) in another tank and never had this problem, but I have heard that ADA soil isn't always consistent. I have started wondering if that might be the problem, but if it is I have no idea how to fix it.

 

[smithpants94]

How long do your lights run per day? It could be a photosynthetic bacteria.. You could try a total tank blackout.


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[ChrisK41]

I have my lights on 8 hours a day. If I do a blackout would that risk killing the plants? Also, if its a bacteria wouldn't the UV make a difference?

 

[Fishperson]

Thanks for the welcome!

The water might get a little better for a day after a water change, but nothing noticeable. The only chemicals I have ever added to the tank have been seachem equilibrium and alkaline buffer. I don't add much of them anymore, but when the tank was starting out my KH kept plummeting so I used a lot then. I am assuming I had that problem because of the soil, but now it has seemed to settle down.

The only other chemical was clarity that I tried a few days ago, which turned out to be a mistake. I am doing another water change today to try and fix that.

I have used the same soil (same type, I didn't transfer it) in another tank and never had this problem, but I have heard that ADA soil isn't always consistent. I have started wondering if that might be the problem, but if it is I have no idea how to fix it.

Well since I don't have experience with any of these items I can't say much about whether equilibrium, clarity, or the Aqua soil will fog up your water. I did see a thread on TPT about Amazonia fogging up a tank just like this.

Have you had a filter running since you put it in? The thread I saw was with a guy who put it in before he put his filter in, and after a day or two the fog settled as "dust" on the bottom of the tank.

 

[mattcham]

Try doing an 80% water change daily for 3 days. While adding water make sure it is a slow trickle and drip it onto a large bowl at the aquarium floor so you don't disrupt and agitate the substrate. See if that helps.

You can also try filter floss (works great and inexpensive if you buy it as batting wool from walmart's knitting supplies section) and finally a diatom filter if money is no object.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[ChrisK41]

I have had my filter running since day one, so I just shut it off for ~8 hours and didn't see any changes. (I didn't feel comfortable leaving the filtration off for much longer than that).

I have never heard of a diatom filter until yesterday. I ran into the owner of a pretty well know fish store here and he told me to do as big of water changes as I could for the next three days in a row, and if that didn't work to try a diatom filter. Sound familiar?

Yesterday I did the first big water change. It didn't make much of a difference, but we will see!

Thanks again for all your help, you guys are awesome!

P.S. I always add the water over a bowel while siphoning it in through airline tubing, so I don't think adding it was the problem.

 

[Krogman]

I have no experience with this issue either. I have only been into aquaria for about 7 months. But I am curious. Is the fog microscopic? Or can you see the particles causing the fog kind of like mineral heavy hot water?

 

[Fishperson]

I have had my filter running since day one, so I just shut it off for ~8 hours and didn't see any changes. (I didn't feel comfortable leaving the filtration off for much longer than that).

I have never heard of a diatom filter until yesterday. I ran into the owner of a pretty well know fish store here and he told me to do as big of water changes as I could for the next three days in a row, and if that didn't work to try a diatom filter. Sound familiar?

Yesterday I did the first big water change. It didn't make much of a difference, but we will see!

Thanks again for all your help, you guys are awesome!

P.S. I always add the water over a bowel while siphoning it in through airline tubing, so I don't think adding it was the problem.

My best guess at this point is that its just from the Aqua soil. I don't know what to do about it though. It should have gotten better after those water changes! This is so weird.

 

[professordank]

Is it possible the soil was somehow contaminated and is still releasing the contaminate into the water?


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[Fishperson]

Is it possible the soil was somehow contaminated and is still releasing the contaminate into the water?


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Yeah thats what I'm thinking.

 

[ChrisK41]

I have no experience with this issue either. I have only been into aquaria for about 7 months. But I am curious. Is the fog microscopic? Or can you see the particles causing the fog kind of like mineral heavy hot water?

I can't make out any particles in the water. It is just like they are swimming through a fog, or cloud. Maybe I should just say I was going for that whole living in a cloud look

I am also wondering if it is the soil releasing something. If so then shouldn't the constant water changes eventually get rid of it? How much contaminate can soil hold! If not it looks like a diatom filter might be my next try. Due to all the fish and plant growth, I am trying to leave replacing the soil as my last resort.

 

[Z33r350z]

Make a water polisher with pillow stuffing a power head and a wAter bottle


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[schoeplein]

Fog like that in my tank is usually due to adding two different chemicals at the same time. They react with each other and create the "fog". You're also using RO/DI water? Any particular reason for that over your tap water? That would keep you from having to use the Equilibrium or Buffer additives. Use tap water and mix it with Seachem Prime to nutrilize any chlorine, chloramine or fluorine. I bet with a few water changes using regular tap, without using any additives other than Prime, the fog disappears. You can add the Equilibrium later, at a much reduced dosage.

Also, if you don't want to stop using RO/DI water, verify you're dosing Equilibrium and buffer properly. You could be overdosing. I would also dose the two separately, at different times of the day, or even on different days.

 

[ScaryFatKidGT]

How long do your lights run per day? It could be a photosynthetic bacteria.. You could try a total tank blackout.


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I have my lights on 8 hours a day. If I do a blackout would that risk killing the plants? Also, if its a bacteria wouldn't the UV make a difference?

Yeah that is a lot of light on a tank like that, probably like 100 par?

Try doing an 80% water change daily for 3 days. While adding water make sure it is a slow trickle and drip it onto a large bowl at the aquarium floor so you don't disrupt and agitate the substrate. See if that helps.

You can also try filter floss (works great and inexpensive if you buy it as batting wool from walmart's knitting supplies section) and finally a diatom filter if money is no object.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Shove some filter floss in that 206

 

[Darkseid76]

Switch the substrate. It may be possible you had a crappy batch of Amazonia.

In my opinion instead if spending more cash on equipment and chems I would remove my sub and go bare bottom and see what the water looks like afterwards. If it's still cloudy then that would eliminate the sub. Then it could either be a filter issue or your water source.

Try your tap with some Prime is another option too.


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[Hulka9]

Its gotta be the substrate. I use RO/DI and nothing I add to condition it makes it cloudy. Its crystal clear. With your uv and purigen. The only solution is the substrate. Make sure you are rinsing the pads in your filter too, otherwise it will just dump the cloud right back in your tank.

 

[Mebbid]

It's possible that its micro bubbles. I would try shutting off all flow in the tank including the uv sterilizer and pressurized co2 for a full day. there can be small leaks in things making flow allowing micro bubbles to get introduced. Cutting the co2 will prevent you from gassing your fish and a full day without filters won't be a big deal.

Following that I'd look at trying carbon in the tank. If the water changes and carbon don't work after that then the diatom filter would have to be your last resort.

Assuming the uv sterilizer is functioning it really shouldn't be any algae or bacteria.

 

[smithpants94]

Can we get a picture of the tank?


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