Tank cycle with discus

[Tindale83]

Hi my tank is really cloudy and does not seem to be clearing up.

It's a new tank with a new eheim pro 3 2080xl. A friend gave The royal blue sapphires,do you have many left?me a filter that's been in a cycled tank, I ran this along with the eheim while adding fish at the same time. I used waterlife ammonia a nitrite for 8 weeks with prime and removed my friends filter so just the eheim was running.

A week or so later the tank was really cloudy water changes made it worse. So I changed the prefilter pad for a new one and tried clarity. Clear tank in a few hours but only lasted around a day. At this point ammonia was 0 as niterites 5ppm nitrates. Since then I have added a bag of purigen. Still very cloudy water.

I have 9 juvenile discus that get food 4/5 times a day. Every night I use a eheim pro vac to hoover out left over food and lots of poo. Fish look really healthy. I change the water and treat with prime about 100ltrs 3 times a week.

I am now on week 12 and still cloudy water. PH 6.4-6.5 not to sure, ammonia 0.02ppm nitrites 0, nitrates 10 or 20 it's hard to judge the colour.

Canny any one help

[Phillydubs]

You should get to doing large water changes daily...

"water changes made it worse" - this quote is pretty much impossible unless you are changing the water with bad water.... do you age water? do you add a dechlorinator ?

what are your fish like? How are they acting? Sucking up visible poop and debris is only half the battle, what you see isn't always what you get, a lot of that has been dissolved and dissipated into the water already.

[Akili]

It is most likely that the beneficial bacteria had not caught up with the Bio-load when you removed your friends filter.Only thing you can do now is to do very large water changes daily till the beneficial bacteria catches up with the bio-load and your nitrate level is below 5 ppm.

[Tindale83]

Hi thanks for the reply, the fish all look great. There growing, colours look good, eat well. As my water I age it over night in a brut barrol with heater and air stone. I treat the tap water with seachem prime.

A was always under the impression very large water changes are bad. What percentage are you talking. A can do around 30% water changes a day with the equipment and storage space.

[Phillydubs]

I would do large water changes or possibly upgrade your brute. I have a 55 gallon brute on a big dolly I can move that thing around w ease. The more the better w discus and water changes.

[Tindale83]

Understand what your saying but the house is just not Big enough for anything larger to store water. I have 4 25 ltr buckets I could use but I would not be able to age the water. Just tap water a kettle and treat with prime? This would be all together just over a 50% water change. Would this work and how often should I do this. I can't do it every day due to work and family life

[Filip]

How big is your tank Tindale?

Its more than likely that you are experiencing bacterial blooms due to new new tank and filters and BB not well established yet. The problem with cloudy water will stabilize once the bacteria is well established , but you really have to work out your WCs regime if you want to keep your discus healthy .
If you can't change water every day , at least raise the % of your WCs to a 70-80 % , 3-4 times a week .
If you run out of aged water during WCs fill the rest up with tap water , just use some prefilter to prevent winter microbubbles in tap.
Changing with half tap half aged water is much better than only changing 30% on juvie discus .
And consider cutting down your feedings to only 2-3 times a day since you are not able to keep up with the required water quality .

[Tindale83]

Hi it's 350 ltr tank. A plan on moving some discus on as they get bigger

[Tindale83]

If a do a large water change won't this remove good bacteria that is fighting to get rid of the cloudy water?

[Fish Tank Travis]

The water changes won't harm the bacteria as long as you dose your tank with a proper dechlorinator. The beneficial bacteria grow on the surface areas of your tank, substrate, decor, and filter media. They are not free floating in the water. Removing the water will not remove the beneficial bacteria and adding new dechlorinated water will be fine for them as well.

[Tindale83]

Thanks, any idea how long the bacterial bloom will last for. (Cloudy water)

[Filip]

Thanks, any idea how long the bacterial bloom will last for. (Cloudy water)

Very generally speaking it could get solved in 2-3 days with couple of big WCs and less feedings , or it can stretch to 2-3 weeks , depending on bioload present in your tank .
P.s. I agree with Travis post.

[Fish Tank Travis]

If you want to clear the cloudy water up quickly, add a UV sterilizer. It will clear it up but I won't necessarily mean that the tank and biofilter are healthy. You will have to continue testing your water parameters for that.

I used to get cloudy water for a day or two after I would do a large water change on my 29. Then, I got a SunSun 303B with a built in UV sterilizer and after that any time I got cloudy water after a large water change it would clear within about two hours.

[Kyla]

is it possible to age and aerate water in a large container in another room? i have my 150gal container and pump tucked away in the laundry room, and run a hose from it to the tank. i use a little outlet remote which turn on the pump and fills my tank back up.

[Tindale83]

The only spare room already has the barrel in and I run a hose from there. If I had two heated and 2 air stones running could I age the water twice in one day. So 220ltrs. And change the water 3 times in the week

[Ash92]

Understand what your saying but the house is just not Big enough for anything larger to store water. I have 4 25 ltr buckets I could use but I would not be able to age the water. Just tap water a kettle and treat with prime? This would be all together just over a 50% water change. Would this work and how often should I do this. I can't do it every day due to work and family life

Buddy If you don't have the room to age water or the time to do large water changes daily to take good care of these beautiful fish I would suggest keep something you can maintain and i don't say this in a bad or disrespectful way mate