HELP we’ve changed the water, replaced filters put clear water, etc in the aquarium and the water still cloudy
Monday, December 7th, 2009 at
6:24 am
we have a 40 gallon tank with 4 goldfish 3 fancy 1 regular. Cant seem to get the tank clear again.
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Filed under: Water Filter System
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I am guessing you haven’t been told about the tank cycling
that is what is taking place it takes about a month it is the process where the tank builds up the needed bacteria to break down excess food and fish waste into something that will not harm the fish the cloudness is caused by this and wont go completly away untill the tank finishes cycling
you need to get an ammonia test kit to keep an eye on the ammonia level you will need to do partial water chenges 25 to 50 percent any time the ammonia level is over 1.0
you do not want to change the filters or touch the gravel untill the cycle process is done
to help keep the ammonia level from getting to high feed every other day no more than they can eat in 3 mins
to help speed up the cycle ask your local pet store for some water that has been siphoned from the gravel this will seed the tank with the needed bacteria and help speed up the cycle
feel free to contact me
Maybe you just tossed the old filter and replaced it with a new filter…and you also changed 50% of the water..all the useful bacteria is gone…your tank has to go through the cycle process again…all this is useful bacteria bloom..when you want to change the filter (which is really not necessary frequently)..plan in advance…say 3-4 weeks prior to changing the filter..put the new filter in the tank..tht way it will start collecting useful bacteria…also don’t do a water change and filter change at the same time…if you do a water change today…change the filter after a few days..this helps your water to retain at least some of the useful bacteria…also when you put the new filter…do not toss the old filter…let it stay in the tank for at least a couple of weeks.this helps you avoid the cycle…and less stress on your fish…currently I would suggest you test you water for ammonia and nitrites..and if the readings are more than 2ppm (which definitely would be)..do a 10-15% water change again…Read the following link..this shud help..
http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/cycle.html
one has to be careful with the useful bacteria or else excessive ammonia and nitrite builds up and could kill the fish…
How long has the tank been setup? what were you doing to the tank prior to the cloudy water? what are your water parameters reading, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates? This info will greatly help. There could be many different reasons a tank is cloudy. If you just set it up, or changed the substrate, this can make it cloudy for days, and will clear within a week. If it is a new tank that did not properly cycle, or you added too many fish too soon, this is caused from not having enough bio load to handle that many fish.
The beneficial bacteria builds up in your filter and gravel. You should do a gravel vaccum and water change at least once a week, and you can rinse the filter media in tank water, but I suggest doing that with every other water change. You don’t need to replace the filters biological and mechanical media except every 6 months or it’s falling apart. And only clean your filter on a different day than doing a water change.
I bet right now you either have really high nitrates, or your ammoia level is above 0ppm. You will want to focus on getting rid of these. Try a product by fluval for removing nitrates, if that’s what’s high, or there are products that remove ammonia. If it is high ammonia do daily water changes of about 25-40% for a week, without vacuuming the gravel.
petsmart sells some stuff to put in the tank to make the water not cloudy…we us it all the time and i have 4 gold fish!
just leave it to settle
all those fish need 80 gallons when they get bigger and you should not keep normal goldfish with fancys