Cloudy, milky water! No idea what's wrong

Richbinduga

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 8, 2014
7
0
0
philadelphia
So lately my native tank is turning cloudy, like someone poured a gallon of milk in the tank. I tested all water parameters, everything is good, and my nitrate is actually surprisingly low for natives. It's a 55 gallon tank with one rock bass about 8 inches and a largemouth bass who is 4 inches. Substrate is pool filter sand, and I have some river rocks in there. I have an eheim filter, not entirely sure what model it is but it's been doing very well up until now. Recently my friend took down his tank and I took his cascade 700 and put a second cannister filter on my tank. So now I really don't understand it haha. Even after water changes, and I do large water changes, the water is still cloudy! I suspected it was algae so I've been keeping the tank dark except for feeding time and that's not helping. Also, I have an air stone in there that's pushing A LOT of bubbles because the air pump is just huge. I don't know if that's the cause though, I don't know what is! Haha. Any ideas? Advice?


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ragin_cajun

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2013
2,757
996
1,600
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South Louisiana
how long? look up bacterial bloom. Just ignore it for a week or two, it'll probably go away on its own. could be the new cascade canister, but I wouldn't go assuming that until you've ruled out the possibility of it being a run of the mill bacterial bloom. algae bloom makes green water, bacterial bloom makes cloudy white/grey water like you're describing.
 

Drstrangelove

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Oct 21, 2012
2,693
1,227
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San Francisco
Bacterial bloom is often caused by excessive nutrients in the tank. Uneaten food for example is a big culprit. If that is the cause, it's resolved by reducing feeding and letting nature take it's course. I'd even skip feeding for a couple days.

Naturally, if the food is visible in the tank (e.g., in the substrate), you can expedite that by siphoning some of the substrate. Simply doing a water change will often have little or no effect because the bloom is caused by bacteria that have explosive population growth. Conceptually: removing 90% of them will only provide the room for a "replacement" 90% to appear within hours.

Examine how much food is going into the tank versus how much is actually eaten and you may find that it got out of whack recently. It's not uncommon even for very experienced owners who have outstanding skills.
 
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