Brownish cloudy water??

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soulFish

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MFK Member
Jan 14, 2007
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Tampa, FL
Ok I've been making water changes every weekend, this weekend about 40%. But I recently set up this tank with establish sand, wood, etc. I did add some more driftwood to the tank. But within the past two weeks the water is getting more and more cloudy.. despite water changes. I bought Malaysian drift wood, but I've never had wood cloudy the water. The tank almost looks like I've added peat. I am power feeding the fish, and they seem to be eating and acting normal. But is there anything else that could cloud the water a yellowish/brownish color?

FYI this is a 90 Gallon and my filtration is a XP4 & Emp 400.
The fish poop alot, due to the power feeding, but I'd think that normal cleaning would get rid of that.. it all get vacumed up off the sand.

Any ideas?
 
What are your water peramitors? Having a baseline reading you can check against can help figure out the problem.

Some hardwoods release tannins a lot faster than others. Normally what your describing only happens after a tanks been established for a long time but the wood selection along with the buffering capacity of the water might have a lot to do with your problem.

Personally I'm not a big fan of 'power feeding' but if your filter systems handling it then I see no reason for that to be the cause of your problem especially with the brownish cast you describe.
 
sounds like your tank is cycling again.....I had a tank that I did a 50% change on and had the g/f clean the filter on, and used hot watter to clean it. needless to say she killed all the benifical bacteria, the tank was cloudy for like a week or two. Then like over night it all cleared up to crystal clear quality.
 
The tank isn't recycling. All you have is tannins. Nothing to worry about, SA fish thrive in this water. If you want to get rid of it, remove the water, and boil it, or soak it in EXTREMELY hot water, then drop it into cold water and leave it there over night.
 
thanks guys. The fish seem to really like the tank, but I REALLY hate the brownish color water, especially since my other 90Gal in the same room is crystal clear. The pieces of wood are too large to boil, but I guess I could put them in the bath tub in HOT water. Do you think that since this will kill the bacteria on the wood that it will make the Ammonia spike afterwards?

The biggest piece is about 24" and the other is prolly 20" long

Great read: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/driftwood.php
 
WyldFya;1000446; said:
The tank isn't recycling. All you have is tannins. Nothing to worry about, SA fish thrive in this water. If you want to get rid of it, remove the water, and boil it, or soak it in EXTREMELY hot water, then drop it into cold water and leave it there over night.
Click to expand...

You mean the wood right?:D

The tank shouldn't spike if your filters are doing their job. If your worried do one piece at a time.

This could also be a algae bloom (its not always green). Hard to tell without being there tho. You could cover the tank so NO light can get in for a week and reduce feed during that time and see if you get a change. If no change then clean the wood.

Dr Joe

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Also, to help get rid of the tannins, you could also add extra carbon to the filter. The carbon will remove the tannins if you don't want it. I personally like the slight tint myself.
 
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