Cloudy water appears a couple hours after water change
- Thread starter brent245
- Start date
If you normally do once per week water changes, test the tank water just before the water change, and test the tap water (unless your water company already provides that info) and compare.
If tap pH and tank pH are drastically different, it means a once per week water change is not frequent and/or large enough.
Then try twice per week changes, maybe larger amounts. If pH is similar when testing as above, that may be what you need to change your schedule to, if not maybe you need to be doing 3 or 4 changes per week to maintain stability.
This may sound drastic, but it ws my normal routine to maintain equilibrium.
If tap pH and tank pH are drastically different, it means a once per week water change is not frequent and/or large enough.
Then try twice per week changes, maybe larger amounts. If pH is similar when testing as above, that may be what you need to change your schedule to, if not maybe you need to be doing 3 or 4 changes per week to maintain stability.
This may sound drastic, but it ws my normal routine to maintain equilibrium.
I’m just reviving this thread a little as I’m having the same issue. I re started my 600 gallon African tank. It’s been running for over 15 years but due to a pipe fitting failure it’s started over.
No fish at the moment with fishless cycle that’s complete.
I use a continuous water change setup with filtered tap water. I never noticed cloudy water before but with no real bio load yet I decided to flush the tank of nitrates from the cycle with a 25% continuous change per day. I noticed cloudy water and a very fine white precipitation. If I turn off the water change it will clear up after a couple days.
I’m quite sure it’s precipitation and due to the supersaturated tap water with minerals.
Aereated tank has a pH of 8.9 and a general hardness of 13-14. Matches the tap water after it’s been degassed of Co2.
My tap water has an initial pH of 7.4 due to a lot of dissolved Co2. If I aerate the water the pH goes up to 8.8. Out city rural water is very hard.
My best guess is, my auto water change set to drip change at that rate adds a super saturated dose of water and as the Co2 gets offgassed it causes some of the dissolved mineral to fall out of solution forming a fine particle. It clogs up my particulate filters.
Now my question or advice requested is best game plan.
Just hope once my bioload is back to where I had it the bacteria will quickly coat those particles and settle them out, or I maybe won’t need as fast a water change to keep Nitrates down so it won’t be noticed like before or should I employ a different water change strategy?
I feel otherwise my water is perfect for my lake Tanganyika fish.
Anybody deal with this? Should I just continue on and settle in once my fish get re stocked? I’ve always struggled a little with slightly cloudy water. I don’t believe it’s bactetial in nature.
No fish at the moment with fishless cycle that’s complete.
I use a continuous water change setup with filtered tap water. I never noticed cloudy water before but with no real bio load yet I decided to flush the tank of nitrates from the cycle with a 25% continuous change per day. I noticed cloudy water and a very fine white precipitation. If I turn off the water change it will clear up after a couple days.
I’m quite sure it’s precipitation and due to the supersaturated tap water with minerals.
Aereated tank has a pH of 8.9 and a general hardness of 13-14. Matches the tap water after it’s been degassed of Co2.
My tap water has an initial pH of 7.4 due to a lot of dissolved Co2. If I aerate the water the pH goes up to 8.8. Out city rural water is very hard.
My best guess is, my auto water change set to drip change at that rate adds a super saturated dose of water and as the Co2 gets offgassed it causes some of the dissolved mineral to fall out of solution forming a fine particle. It clogs up my particulate filters.
Now my question or advice requested is best game plan.
Just hope once my bioload is back to where I had it the bacteria will quickly coat those particles and settle them out, or I maybe won’t need as fast a water change to keep Nitrates down so it won’t be noticed like before or should I employ a different water change strategy?
I feel otherwise my water is perfect for my lake Tanganyika fish.
Anybody deal with this? Should I just continue on and settle in once my fish get re stocked? I’ve always struggled a little with slightly cloudy water. I don’t believe it’s bactetial in nature.
