cloudy water

[Kevin63]

hey all!

I'm a little frustrated about my water ... >:( it always seems to be a little cloudy ... this is my first discus tank (i'm used to fresh water community tanks which are crystal clear)

I have a 55 gal BB tank with a AQ300 and an AQ150 with 8 fish ranging from 2.5" to 3.5" not counting the tail (just the round body) I feed frozen bloodworms, tetra bits, and flake

The tests are always the same ... 29C degrees, nitrates at 0 or as close as I can tell ... PH 7.2 as always ... I age my water for 24 hrs ... same temp and use TetraAuqa Aquasafe to treat the tap water ...

I change at least 10-15 gallons daily and 20 gal twice a week ... I clean out my filters about once a week and the prefilters daily

whats up? any ideas on why I can't get rid of the cloud? should I just get used to it? :-[ My fish seem very happy, hungry, and most are growing fine

[Carol_Roberts]

How long has this tank and filters been running? A whitish/grayish haze is bacteria bloom.

[Kevin63]

lets see ... 2 months ... I also have lots of light in here ... I keep the shades down, but theres always algea growing and I wife down the tank weekly or twice a week ... I keep wondering if I'm just stirring it up into the water ... I have 2 little pleco's in QT now ... ya know, I don't think my tank was fully cycled when I started, but I've been on top of it daily from the get go

speaking of QT ... these 2 guys are hanging out in a 10 gal in another room .... should I do anything special with them? they just do what pleco's do and I'm kinda wondering what to look for ...

thanks for the help and quick response!

[tgirl6868]

What's the temp. in your tank my be its to high or you may be your feeding your fish to much. Some times what happens if the temp. is to high it gets cloudly. Or your feeding your fish to much. you have to reamember to clean your tank every week taking at least 20% to 30% out.

[Scrappi_tt]

Do you usually use chlorine remover in the water you use to do your water changes? Because, one day before I did my water change, I added some chlorine remover, did my water change and went by a LFS. Later that day when I got home, I saw my tank water white, very white I could not even see the fish in the tank. So i think it was some kind of faulty remover :-\

[Kevin63]

I use TetraAuqa Aquasafe to treat my water for 24 hrs ... temp 29C ... I do think that I have a bacteria bloom ... question is, what can I do about it? Will it go away with time?

[MonkeeFish]

Prime is gewd can u show a pic of your tank???

[Carol_Roberts]

Most times it goes aeway on it's own. Do you have another cycled filter you could add to the tank?

[Kevin63]

not one that I trust (unfortunately) this is my only discus tank ... I'll just keep on changing water and plugging along, my fish are hungry, active, and growing ... It seems the cycle process takes longer than I'm used to because of all the water changes ... thanks again for the info

[Willie]

My read is that your tank is not fully cycled. If you have another tank, you may want to switch filters to get this one cycled. Changing water does delay cycling, but you have no choice at this point.

Willie

[dannop]

I would recommend floating plants like duckweed, etc.-helps me clear up algae blooms and I imagine that it may help with bacterial ones also by taking the bacteria's nutrients out of the water for the plant's use.

[GoodMike]

well...i have the same cloudy problem in my tank...but my tank is over 6 months old....i dont think its a bacterial bloom in there...what else could it be?

[Rick00]

My guess it's a a bacterial bloom.....

keep up with your w/c.....dont clean your filters for a few weeks....let your bio catch up....but continue to clean your prefilter and wipe your tank down every other day.....it will clear...

Or if you have a hot magum run that in the tank 24/7 and change the filter in it every 3 days....

HTH

Rick