Why is tank cloudy

Another cause for green water may be lighting although this will affect algae on the surfaces of the aquarium as well as the water itself. If the lights on the aquarium are on for too long over about hours per day , this may be overfeeding the algae naturally in the water. Also, if the bulbs are older than about months, the spectrum "color" of the light itself will degrade to a more yellowish color that isn't as useful to healthy plants but will still feed the nuisance algae.

Try decreasing the duration of the lights or getting new bulbs if either of those apply. If the bloom still hasn't gotten better, test the phosphate! This is the other very common colored-water question. Usually, the water is white and milky. Whenever we hear this, the next question will always be "How long has this tank been set up with fish"? A milky white cloudy water color to the water is a sign of a bacteria bloom which usually happens during the Nitrogen Cycle Cycling Process of a new tank or if a tank is becoming reestablished after a large water change, medication cycle or other event.

This cloudiness will usually clear up on its own; try to resist the urge to do water changes since this will only make the Cycle last longer and take longer for the bacteria population that needs to grow to take care of this on its own.

You can test the water during this time to make sure everything else is normal, keeping in mind that while a tank is Cycling, you may see spikes in Ammonia and Nitrite. Yellowish water is usually simply dirty. Test the water to see if this is the case and take a good look at the stocking levels of your tank compared to its size and filtration. If you have four goldfish in a 10 gallon aquarium, it is overcrowded and the waste they produce is polluting the water.

You should have 1 gallon of water per one inch of mature tropical fish. Have three gallons of water per one inch of goldfish. It is best to buy the largest aquarium you can afford. The larger the aquarium, the more waste your aquarium can handle before it becomes a problem to your fish.

The water in my 20 hex tank has turned slightly milky white. It is a new tank. I set it up 10 days ago. I was very car full to wash the gravel. I believe gravel is thoroughly washed. It has plastic plants in it. No real plants. I let the filter and heater run for a few days with no fish. Then I put some of that Starter Bacteria kit stuff in there? Made by API. Bacteria, salt, and something else I forgot sorry. Then on day 14 same. Then on day 28 same. On day 3 I put 7 medium tiger barbs in there.

Water was crystal clear. Just after I started feeding them high quality fish flakes, water started turning white. I assumed it was excess food. Tried less food. Still there. Put extra filter pad in filter and put clarifier in there. That cleared water until next feeding. More milkiness. Is it the flake food? Does all flake food do that? Should I start using fresh live or frozen food? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the lovely feedback. Myself and many other fishkeepers have either had false positives, or a falsely returned reading of zero.

It is possible your tank has not cycled yet. Yes maybe it is a bacterial bloom. Mine is 20 gallons so I added the 7 tiger barbs. They are all still alive and seemingly healthy today. Ok I will get the better test kit that you mentioned. As you know, each parameter has bands of color.

Based on those bands, here are the results which have been consistent with all past test strips:. Nitrate, between 0 and 20 ppm Nitrite, between 0 and 0.

If those values are accurate, are they reflective of a bacterial bloom? Thanks so much for your help,. From a new setup, for a beginner, there is no way to cycle a tank in one day without access to an established tank.

Because of this, fish can look perfectly healthy, even when they are in stressful conditions. Unfortunately, it appears your test strips are missing one of the most important tests of all: Ammonia.

As a result, it is difficult to say what stage of the cycle your tank is in and how to best react. Once you have your new test kit, I would suggest following my fish-in cycle guide. Thank you so much for your help. I bought the master test kit as you said. Ammonia is at 2. Ok I will do the emergency fish-in cycling as you suggested but I have a question about the instructions you wrote:.

At what stage? Before I start putting the Seachem Prime in? Or after 7 days of putting in the 2 doses of Seachem Prime everyday i. Can I be changing the water too often to point where fish are harmed even more than already? Yep, your tank definitely needs to be cycled. I would treat the first day you start testing as day zero of the cycle and go from there. Prime can only deal with up to 5 ppm of ammonia. As it gets to 4 ppm, you should do a water change, to keep it within treatable limits.

Water changes are considered harmless to the fish. In a fish-in cycle, there is no set schedule for a water change. You perform a water change as your test kit dictates. To make a long story short, my 7-year-old is the proud new owner of a betta which she has been responsible for feeding.

Everything was fine until a few days ago when she accidentally spilled a full container of food into the tank and was afraid to tell me. I thought for sure the poor little guy would be dead, but he was ok and I transferred him outta there. I took all the peppermint water out and removed and rinsed some of the substrate. The filter got a thorough rinse. The smell seemed to be gone. I filled the tank half with water from a healthy aquarium and half with dechlorinated tap.

The fish was acting super agitated in the jar he was in poor little guy so after an hour or so I put him back in the tank. This was at night. I really want to avoid removing the substrate if possible, because I just installed it a few weeks ago. Do I have any other options? Generally within 2 weeks. For more info, check out my fish-in cycle guide. I am trying to clear up a bad algae bloom in a 9 gallon Fluval tank.

Do I just need to be patient? Should I do a water change in the tank? I have a 2. Thanks for your guidance! Depending on just how bad the bloom is, a water change can certainly speed up just how quickly you see results!

HI, I have just bought two coldwater rosy barbs , 2 days ago and now the water has turned cloudy you can partially see through it from a distance.

I do not know what to do and I think it is because my brother added too much food? Hello, we have well water with a softener, my 50 gallon fish tank water is cloudy even after a water change, new filters the whole nine yards.

I have tried clarifying it, but it still will not clear up. I use a suction hose so I know the gravel is clean. Can you give me some advise on what can help? I had fish tank when living in the city and have never had cloudy water. Is this a new setup? Swapping out filters is going to crash your tank and force it to recycle, which is often followed by cloudiness. If you test your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, what do they read as this can give you clues as to what is amiss in your tank?

Hi we have a water softener and a 55 gal tank with two filters on it. Maybe about 12 fish on it my tank is cloudy I check my nitrate levels they are 20 and under my ph levels are 6. Please and Thank you Melisa. When you say you change the filters, are you referring to those disposable ones? They are somewhat of a scam as your beneficial bacteria lives in your filter and each time you throw away your filter inserts, you are getting rid of this good bacteria.

This might be the cause of your constant cloudiness. Came to this because I have a new aquarium set up 2 weeks ago, and I waited a week to put the fish in. Today my aquarium is cloudy. Should we instead rince them with some water from the aquarium?

Welcome to the hobby! Did you cycle your tank? You are correct that rinsing is preferable but the ideal is not relying on disposable filter cartridges at all! When you say you cleaned the whole tank by emptying and cleaning gravel and filter etc was this all done at the same time. If so you will have killed all your beneficial bacteria and I turn will cause your aquarium to spike in ammonia,nitrates etc.

If you do partial water change then leave filters etc and clean them after few days. Do maintenance gradually to avoid shocking your aquarium. In each filter I have 4 of the Marineland refillabe media cartridges. Two of the cartridges have matrix and the other two have carbon. I have filter floss first towards the back of the filter then the cartridges with carbon then a micro poly floss then the cartridges with the matrix then the bio-wheels.

This is the setup of both HOB filters. I washed my gravel, decorations well. Most came out of my old 20 gallon tank. At the time that I set up this tank back on the first Saturday in Jan, I only had two goldfish. One is a large fantail and the other one was a red cap oranda.

The Red cap has since died. I waited 3 weeks before I did the first water change. I only did it because the water was turning brown. I did a 20 gallon change. I waited another 2 weeks before I did another change. I add prime to my water before I put it in the tank and add stability as well. My tank has never been crystal clear. I went through a month of changing the water every week from 20 gallons to as much as 50 gallons with the advise from a local fish store.

I check my water once a week. My numbers are always roughly the same. GH You would think after 6 months, the tank would be clear. I am lost. I now have a black moore, a blue oranda and another fantail to go along with the original fantail that is as big as my hand. Are you able to narrow down the cause? Also, ppm of nitrates seems a tad high.

Ideally you want to get it below 10 with it reaching a max of 40 before the weekly water change. Are you doing weekly cleaning and gravel vacuuming? I always vacuum the gravel. I did a 40 gallon change 2 weeks ago. Even after the 40 gallon change, the water still was not perfectly clear. I checked my filter media and every thing was still clear. There was a little debris around the outer edge of the filter pads. I did another water change this past weekend, 30 gallons. This helped somewhat, but there is still a white cloud.

Not as bad as the previous week. I would if it is the matrix that I have in my filters or my artificial coral insert. I have had it for a year now. It started in my 20 gallon tank. I thought by upgrading to a 75 gallon tank from a 20 gallon tank and having 2 hob filters rated for a 75 gallon tank each, would make it easier.

The 20 gallon tank was fine by only doing a water change once a month. Very frustrating. It sounds like you need to check your water parameters first, to ensure nothing is amiss here. What does your aquarium test kit say? Should I change filter media or get a new filter? The big thing in terms of the filter when dealing with "New Tank Syndrome" cloudy water is don't mess with it.

Cleaning a brand new filter or replacing the cartridge or media does nothing good, and potentially eliminates the good bacteria that are trying to get established. If the filter pad or media are in need of cleaning sooner than the first 30 days, you may be overfeeding, overstocking, or both. Should I change the water more often? As mentioned above, water changes may help clear the water temporarily 24 hours at best , but the cloudiness comes back with a vengeance because you have given it a boost of nutrients with the incoming water.

Do not overfeed your fish, follow Aqueon's 3 Tips to Succeed! Don't put too many fish in your fish tank. Add activated carbon media to the filter, whether loose or carbon pads. Seed the aquarium. Test your aquarium water. Are you looking for more helpful facts and information to keep your fish happy and healthy?

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