General Aquaria Discussion • Tank is cloudy

[ratbones86]

Help me please. I cant figure out why my tank is cloudy. I've done water changes, added stuff to uncloud the water and its still cloudy. I put a bigger filter on my tank and also have a bubbler in it and it has like this white haze to the tank. its a 10 gallon tank. Could it just be from my filter and bubbler making alot of mini bubbles that are floating through the water? Or is there some underlying issue here?

[13razorbackfan]

First off....stop adding stuff/chemicals to clear the water. You need to find the root problem.

How many fish are in your tank and what size and how much are you feeding? What are your ammonia,nitrite and nitrate readings?

[ratbones86]

my levels are fine except maybe my nitrate its a little high but everything else is good i have 3 africans and a pleco atm untill i get a bigger tank, which wont be too long. the africans are maybe 1.5" long and the pleco is 2"

[13razorbackfan]

What is your substrate?

[BillD]

If the nitrate is high, change more water. Either a larger quantity, or more often, or both.

[ratbones86]

i have gravel right now for the substrate. i turned off my bubbler because that was causing alot of micro bubbles in the water i also added a smaller spounge filter to the tank to help. still a bit cloudy but not as bad. i do about 50% water change twice a week. still cant get the nitrates down they arnt really high but they arnt 0 i think they floating around 1.5-2

[Storiwyr]

Getting your nitrates to zero is going to be nearly impossible and isn't necessary. You just want to keep it low. Usually nitrates are only zero if the tank is not cycled, and even then it would be a weird reading. You want ammonia and nitrIte to be zero, though.

[ratbones86]

Ok but why is my tank cloudy? Could it be from the rocks I added as decor? Or from over feeding? I feed them twice a day and some don't get eaten but I vaccine the tank twice a week and do water changes twice to three times a week and water is still cloudy.......this has me puzzled

[13razorbackfan]

Ok but why is my tank cloudy? Could it be from the rocks I added as decor? Or from over feeding? I feed them twice a day and some don't get eaten but I vaccine the tank twice a week and do water changes twice to three times a week and water is still cloudy.......this has me puzzled

Do a large water change....maybe 70% then don't feed for a few days and see if it clouds back up.

[vann59]

Sounds like you are overfeeding. You should really get rid of the gravel and get pool filter sand, it so much better and cleaner. Then when you feed them, the food sits on top of the sand so they can scoop it up, If the food isn't eaten within 10 minutes, feed them less. And you use a small diameter hose to vacuum the sand. See the library for instruction on cleaning the sand first, and how to vacuum it.

[DJRansome]

A white haze is either dust from the substrate or a bacteria bloom. Bacteria blooms last longer. And it means there are extra nutrients in the tank for the extra bacteria to feed on.

So good idea to super clean the gravel and/or remove it.

When you say your nitrates are high...about 1.5 or 2ppm...that sounds like a nitrite measurement...not nitrates. Nitrates measure more like 10ppm or 20ppm.

Nitrites are more toxic than nitrates.

[ratbones86]

OK I moved ask my dudes to a 20 gallon tank and added a few more. so I have 8 cichlids in a 20 gallon tank and I added sand as the substrate. All levels are good and tank is little cloudy because of the sand I'll do another water change to clear it out other than that everything looks good. I know 8 is to many but I plan
on moving them when they get bigger.

[Ohio Cichlid Lover]

Don't get too worried about Nitrates. Having some level of Nitrates means your good bacteria is doing what it is supposed to do. Some articles say anything up to 60ppm is safe but I believe you should try to keep them under 30ppm....under 20 would be great. The only way I know of lowering Nitrates is through water changes. I had a cloudy water problem for about 3 weeks. I vacuumed the gravel real good and added a better filter to go along with my canister filter. My water cleared up in a few days. Good Luck