Cloudy aquarium water

[Magnus Jones]

Hello; Rocks are made of minerals. Soil is essentially made from rock that has been weathered for a long time with some organic material thrown in.
My WAG is the boiling could have "softened" ( not exactly made physically soft, more like allowed the minerals to be released into the water.) or physically affected minerals of the rock allowing them to release more minerals.

I can come up with other guesses. For instance if the substrate has not been vacuumed on a regular schedule then when adding the rock stuff buried deep in the substrate might get stirred up and cause a bacterial bloom.

There can be something else going on but as you have timed the cloudy water to the addition of the rocks, that is where my thoughts went.

Again I suggest to remove the rock, do a few large WC and see if the cloudy water clears up.

Ok, I'm going to try that. Thanks

 

[Manas]

My 55 gallon planted community tank suddenly got cloudy a few weeks ago. We've tried almost everything. Turning off lights for about a week, more water flow, lower temperature, cleaning debris from filter, and large water changes. Nothing has seemed to work and I'm about to lose hope in this. Around the time that it got cloudy, I had added some large rocks in the tank. That doesn't seem to make sense though. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

View attachment 1289267

I see the picture and clearly say that it's an algae bloom. We get algae bloom when we feed excess food (excess nutrients in tank) and if there is a direct sunlight falling on the tank. First of all get a pleco (algae eating fish) one or two. And some nerite snails. They will help clear your water. Don't do water change as the algae will grow again in few days. Don't use any chemicals. Use a good filtration to clear out algae from the tank.
Hope it helps.

 

[skjl47]

I see the picture and clearly say that it's an algae bloom. We get algae bloom when we feed excess food (excess nutrients in tank) and if there is a direct sunlight falling on the tank. First of all get a pleco (algae eating fish) one or two. And some nerite snails. They will help clear your water. Don't do water change as the algae will grow again in few days. Don't use any chemicals. Use a good filtration to clear out algae from the tank.
Hope it helps.

Hello; I do agree it looks like an algae bloom. I also can see overfeeding as a contributing factor.
I do not agree with getting a pleco for algae control. Nor Chinese algae eaters either. The small ottoclincus (sp) may be decent at algae control. A common pleco can get to well over 14 inches and are very messy fish. Only reason I see for getting a pleco is if you really like a plecos.
Nerite snails are good in a tank and will eat algae on glass. Not sure about the free floating algae in water.
I do not agree with avoiding WC's. First WC is a tool for keeping water quality good and second removal of some of the algae dose not hurt. If excessive nutrients are the root of the bloom then yes the algae will continue to reproduce, but my take is they will reproduce anyway.
I do agree with good filtration and lots of WC. Change out the filter media often as well.

 

[Manas]

A single pleco can scarp the whole glass of the aquarium in a single night. But also a single pleco can destroy a planted aquarium on its own.

 

[Manas]

Also

Hello; I do agree it looks like an algae bloom. I also can see overfeeding as a contributing factor.
I do not agree with getting a pleco for algae control. Nor Chinese algae eaters either. The small ottoclincus (sp) may be decent at algae control. A common pleco can get to well over 14 inches and are very messy fish. Only reason I see for getting a pleco is if you really like a plecos.
Nerite snails are good in a tank and will eat algae on glass. Not sure about the free floating algae in water.
I do not agree with avoiding WC's. First WC is a tool for keeping water quality good and second removal of some of the algae dose not hurt. If excessive nutrients are the root of the bloom then yes the algae will continue to reproduce, but my take is they will reproduce anyway.
I do agree with good filtration and lots of WC. Change out the filter media often as well.

I agree with the water changes to be a contributing factor. Bit changing water on daily basis can stress the fishes. 2 a week is recommended. Thx

 

[Kittiee Katt]

I see the picture and clearly say that it's an algae bloom. We get algae bloom when we feed excess food (excess nutrients in tank) and if there is a direct sunlight falling on the tank. First of all get a pleco (algae eating fish) one or two. And some nerite snails. They will help clear your water. Don't do water change as the algae will grow again in few days. Don't use any chemicals. Use a good filtration to clear out algae from the tank.
Hope it helps.

Adding plecos and snails isn't necessarily going to fix the problem.

Plecos and snails may eat the algae, but after they eat the algae they poop which creates more waste for the tank and can lead to all sorts of other problems down the road - more algae, disease and so on.

What seems like an easy fix at first can often be more hassle than its worth later on.

 

[skjl47]

Bit changing water on daily basis can stress the fishes. 2 a week is recommended. Thx

Hello; water changes can be done every day if needed. Some have setups that constantly change the water. Some do fin level WC more often than twice a week.

I will just say you are wrong about this.

 

[Magnus Jones]

I removed the rocks and did about a 65% water change yesterday. I have a 7.5 inch common pleco.
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[Fat Homer]

Good luck, i went through a similar hell recently... guessing it was the change in weather etc causing the water source to have extra nutrients in it which led to the bloom...