Please help......water issues

[Jen]

Hello,
I have a 54g bowfront , i have a hanging filter (70).....every time i do a water change the water turns a little cloudy....i have treated it periodically for gill flukes, but they seem to be gone now....I do not have an airstone, do i need one?
Also , i seem to have an algea problem as well, not too terrible, but im having a hard time keeping up with it.
I do a 30-50% water change every other day
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate

[rickztahone]

you should have a nitrate reading. how old is your test kit and which kind are you using?

[Jen]

Oh yea, there's more......when i have my carbon in the filter to help with the cloudy water my nitrites jump up, and when i remove the carbon they go back to zero, its so strange

[Jen]

I use API 5 in one test strips

[rickztahone]

Oh yea, there's more......when i have my carbon in the filter to help with the cloudy water my nitrites jump up, and when i remove the carbon they go back to zero, its so strange

then my assumption would be that your tank is not fully cycled. how did you start the cycle in this tank?

[Jen]

I have had the tank up and running since the beginning of December.......They gave me a bottle of live bacteria to set up the tank (i cannot remember the brand at the moment sorry)
I use cycle with every water change........i waited 3 weeks to move my fish
Now they seem to be doing alright......they will turn dark occasionally, but my baby moves it's head from side to side, and it looks like it has red inside its nose

[yim11]

...every time i do a water change the water turns a little cloudy....


For how long does it stay cloudy after the water change?

[Jen]

I also just noticed, there seems to be small fine white threads on some of my plants (plastic)....is this a fungus?

[Jen]

Seems to stay cloudy for a few hours......and i cant seem to keeps the plants clean....i take them out and rinse them with every water change

[yim11]

Sounds to me like some of that cloudiness may be from water that isn't aged and/or the same temp as the tank. The 'threads' could be fish/tank slime...when you say fine white any change it could be very small bubbles?

[Jen]

I usually just fill my bucket from the tap at the appropriate temp, and add a dechlorinator, and 1/8tsp of Seachem Discus Buffer to every bucket (4g bucket)

[Jen]

As for the strings, they do not look like air bubbles to me, i think you are right, some of it may be slime, and now that i'm looking closer, it looks like cat hair....i have two cats and sometimes they nap on top of the tank.....i chase them off when i see them, but like kids, i can't watch them all the time lol

[Eddie]

Hey Jen, it does sound like your tank is having mini-cycles. Not to worry, just keep doing the water changes and the filter will cycle eventually. Don't run any carbon, just use a simply media such as a sponge or pourous rings.

What's your tap water PH and what is the PH of the tank water?

Eddie

[Jen]

Alright, so dont worry about the cloudiness, i keep putting in the carbon and taking it out.....
My tap water is PH 7.8, and my tank is 7.2 KH 40 GH 120

[Eddie]

Alright, so dont worry about the cloudiness, i keep putting in the carbon and taking it out.....
My tap water is PH 7.8, and my tank is 7.2 KH 40 GH 120

Yup, dont worry about it, it will sort itself out. Keeping the carbon out and replacing it with a good media will help establish a good bacteria colony and all your cloudiness will eventually go away.


Your PH seems a bit unstable, as it drops a bit in a short time.

Eddie

[Jen]

i would like to just keep it at the PH it is when it comes out of the tap......how do i slowly bring it back up.....i have a powder that i add....it was recommended to me at my LFS....i have read enough now to know that a stable PH is much better than a low PH
So , what would be a safe way to decrease it?

[Aquaben19]

The most natural way there is.. driftwood, oak leaves, or peat moss. The only thing about these methods is the fact it will make your water yellow.

[dbfzurowski]

As far as the slime and algea i had the same problem and i got two little albino bristlenos plecos and its all gone, no more scrubing/whiping down the tank. If your tank is going through a mini cycle as sad by some, then you should wait till its fully cycled.

[Eddie]

i would like to just keep it at the PH it is when it comes out of the tap......how do i slowly bring it back up.....i have a powder that i add....it was recommended to me at my LFS....i have read enough now to know that a stable PH is much better than a low PH
So , what would be a safe way to decrease it?

Well, it sounds to me like your KH may be a little low. If you do water changes straight from tap, its a little difficult. Ideally, you would do MUCH better by aging your water 24-48 hours and seeing what it does. It may drop to 7.2 and stay there, so you would just need to age your water. It could fall further, and the use of Calcium Carbonate (crushed coral) would help buffer your water. Testing your waters parameters after aging, really gives you some insight on the best course of action.


Take care,

Eddie

[Jen]

Thank you Eddie and dbfzurowski........i will try aging my water and see what that does...i will also slowly decrease the amount of discus buffer i use......i do have a royal pleco in my tank, and a nice sized piece of driftwood
As for my KH i read it wrong, my mistake, it is 80, not 40
Thanks again for all your wonderful suggestions :)
Jen

[Eddie]

Thank you Eddie and dbfzurowski........i will try aging my water and see what that does...i will also slowly decrease the amount of discus buffer i use......i do have a royal pleco in my tank, and a nice sized piece of driftwood
As for my KH i read it wrong, my mistake, it is 80, not 40
Thanks again for all your wonderful suggestions :)
Jen

Sounds good Jen. I find that using less to manipulate the water and just keeping it simple, really makes a difference. Discus just like steady water parameters. ;)

Eddie

[Jen]

Thanks Eddie:D

[exv152]

I agree that your tank is not fully cycled. The cloudiness is common for a new tank and is a good sign that you may be in the latter stages of the cycle. The number of fish will also affect the cloudiness early on, and the only thing to do is water changes, and be patient. Try not to over feed your fish.

Also, have you recently added anything to the tank like driftwood, or other decor?

[Jen]

No, none of the decor in my tank is new.....i had it all in the tank before i even added the fish...i did a water change last night, and there was no cloudiness YAY!! I had the tank fully cycled before, but i used Tank Buddies Parasite Clear, it completely killed my biological filter....Also i had a huge fake log in my tank, but my fish are twice as big as they were when i put them in so i removed the log....after i did so the water did not cloud at WC and they stopped fighting.....I added a baby discus last week to bring my number up to 6 so this might have helped with the fighting..
54g
1 Cobalt
1 Red Leopard
1 Turquoise
2 Leopard Snakeskins
1 Pearl Dragon
1 Royal Pleco
3 hatchet fish
5 (sm) golden tetras

[Jen]

My tank is a 54g bowfront corner tank.....i neglected to mention that part....i purchased the corner tank for multiple reasons....not only for space reasons, but the tank has more front to back swimming room that the other tanks i looked at, and its nice and tall :)