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help! cloudy water

2716 Views 25 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  cichlidaholic, 
S
if anyone could please help me. I have has my new/used 80 galloon tank up for about a little less then 3 months now and it will not clear. I don't think it is a bacteria bloom because that water is usually a whitish color and mines a yellowish to brownish color. I do not know what to do. When I test the water everything comes out fine except the pH and the hardness it is high, but I thought that was okay with cichlids? Then I started thinking well maybe it was my Texas Wholely Rock I have in the tank. It was one big piece and I had my father cut it into smaller pieces. Maybe the particles off of thoses pieces are doing this. I don't know? If anyone has any ideas how to fixes this please let me know. Thank You all.

Just to let you know I have an Eheim 2215, that came with the tank (new media in it, with two home made cardon bags at the top) and a top water skimer (has little basket at the time to hold media in, but no cardon in it).
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S
Yes I used new substrate, but iI spent hours cleaning that off. Yes I weted the wholely rock, but did not really scrub it.

The tank is not in direct sunlight, but the Odysee lights stay on all day. Sometime 8 am to 1 am. I am a student so I like to hev the tank on when I study at night. The light switchs from clear to blue, just FYI.

I do have like a brownish algea growing everywhere in the tank too. Could that be doing it? I have a great pleco that eats it like crazy, but a fast as he eats it, it grows again.
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No I did not put any wood into the tank, but I went to the LFS and asked one of them what they think. They told me to add carbon to the top skimmer and then if that does not work try using the bottle water and if that does not work then it might be my wholely rock and I may have to try some different types of rock. What do yall think?
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okay. I did not know what to do. It is my first time with a big tank like this and I got worried I thought by now it would clear up. But I will try turning the light off for a few day. FYI it is not green, but a yellow-brown color.

How do I clean the wholely rock?
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Sorry to answer your question: yes I used tap water, well it was water from the garden whose. I don't know what to do. I mean I got home and it looked like it got worse. I went to Petsmart today(7/13/08) and they said it was just new tank syndrom and it will run its corse. The lady I talked to said that in her 30 gallon it took hers 3 months to clear out right. So I am assuming that it will take about 6 months or more for my 80 gallon.

For the rock do I just scrub it with a scrub brush or do I add something or do something more?
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I use the test strips, they have be open for about a well, not for sure how long, but they have lids on them.

Not real fore sure what you mean by parameter?

I would be too, if it took my tank 3month to clear.

My tank has be up since the end of May and it cleared, but then I added my hongi and it got all cloudy again and has been cloudy ever since.

I decided to leave the tank light off and stop feeding, hopefully that will help.

What do you think about adding bottle water? Would that make a difference?
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S
Could the heater have anything to do with it? Because I do not think it is working right, I mean I do not see the light coming off and on.
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I just tested it with the test strips that my brother had it said that the
nitrate = safe (between 0-20 ppm mg/L)
nitrite = safe (none)
total hardness = hard (100 ppm mg/L)
total chorine = 0
total alklinity = high (300 ppm mg/L)
pH = between 7.8 to 8.4
ammonia = stressful

So no bottle water.

Do I do a 10% water change with tape water?

What about the rock? How do I clean it? Because like I said before I just rised it off I did not scrub it, would that have made a difference?
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S
Okay. Is tape water okay?

Could the ammonia be on stressful because I let my cichlids eat little tweleve cent fish I got from the store to get my tank going?

Would the ammonia be making the tank cloud like that? Because it was clear then after I added the hongi it clouded again. It really is upetting me becasue I have never had this problem before. :-?
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S
how long do I wait before doing the next water change? One hour two hours, what?
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Currentlly the tank temp. is at 80. It uselly starts out about 78 and during the procces of the day it moves to about anywhere from 80 to 82. I used to have a smaller tank and I liked to keep the tank between 75 and 78, but this big tank I can not seem to get to to stay at that temp.

I only feed the feeder fish to them once and never again! I did it on the opion of my father who has been doing tanks for quit sometime, but now I am thinking it was the worest thing I could have done. No there is no more dead fish because I just moved all the rocks around and cleaned the substrate.

I was told that I did not have to do water changes, but once every few months, is that wrong? If so how often and how much?

I feed my fish Hikari Cichlid Staple mini floating pellets once a day and skip Sundays and they eat it all. they never let anything float to the bottum or leave floating at the top and if they do I clear it out right away.
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S
okay i will try that. Doing a 30% water change weekly in my 80 gallon tank will not make my fish (11 fish) sick?

FYI i have a Eheim 2215 and a top water skimmer.
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S
would that get my fish sick? I mean 40 gallons of water out every week would case diseases to start forming would it?
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I unstand that, but what about ick?
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