Cloudy water is driving me crazy!

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sledge760

sledge760

Candiru
MFK Member
Oct 8, 2005
401
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67
Philadelphia, PA
Help needed. I have a 180 gallon CA/SA Cichlid tank that has been set up for four months now. I cannot seem to get rid of the cloudy water that will just not go away no matter what I do. I believe there is enough filtration.

Fish are:
Texas Cichlid 5"x1
Jack Dempsey 10"x1
Jaguar Cichlid 4"x1
Siver Dollars 4"x5
Silver Arowana 10"x1

Parameters:
Ammonia=0ppm
Nitrite=0ppm
PH=7.6
Nitrate=60ppm

Filtration:
1 Fluval FX5
3x AC110.
3 Maxijet powerheads


The cloudy water appears as white smoke and sometimes lessens somewhat but never goes away. I change 60 gallons of water once a week. I feed the fish once a day pellets and frozen bloodworms/beefheart every couple of days. This past Tuesday I changed 110 gallons of water and by the end of the day the water was cloudy again.

Anyone have any ideas?
Should I cut down on the water changes to let the biological load develop or increase water changes. Every thing I have tried has not worked. Chemicals, water changes, cut down on feeding, etc...
 
how long has the tank been setup? sounds like an uncycled tank to me. or an overstocked tank b4 it was even cycled...
 
What kind of water are you using for changing? Chlorinated? Aged water?
Using chorinated water will make your water unstable and maybe harmful to your fish.
With that big size tank, a 20% water change is enough once weekly. You may also try to test the water parameters before you do a water change. If you're water parameters changes dramatically, then your filtration is not working.


What kind of pellets? Brand? floating? sinking?
Some pellets are suck by your filters and contribute to cloudiness.
Some cheap pellets are not highly digestible or breaks down fast while feeding that will also contribute to cloudiness

I think your filtration is enough and your tank is not crowded.
 
I feed Hikari Gold pellets and Hikari sticks for the Aro. I use half RO/DI and half tap water. I fill two 32 gallon trash cans at least four days before a water change. I use Prime and use a powerhead to aerate the water. Parameters are consistent before and after the water change, though nitrates drop slightly.

Parameters:
Ammonia=0ppm
Nitrite=0ppm
PH=7.6
Nitrate=60ppm
 
sledge760;661875; said:
Help needed. I have a 180 gallon CA/SA Cichlid tank that has been set up for four months now. I cannot seem to get rid of the cloudy water that will just not go away no matter what I do. I believe there is enough filtration.

Fish are:
Texas Cichlid 5"x1
Jack Dempsey 10"x1
Jaguar Cichlid 4"x1
Siver Dollars 4"x5
Silver Arowana 10"x1

Parameters:
Ammonia=0ppm
Nitrite=0ppm
PH=7.6
Nitrate=60ppm

Filtration:
1 Fluval FX5
3x AC110.
3 Maxijet powerheads


The cloudy water appears as white smoke and sometimes lessens somewhat but never goes away. I change 60 gallons of water once a week. I feed the fish once a day pellets and frozen bloodworms/beefheart every couple of days. This past Tuesday I changed 110 gallons of water and by the end of the day the water was cloudy again.

Anyone have any ideas?
Should I cut down on the water changes to let the biological load develop or increase water changes. Every thing I have tried has not worked. Chemicals, water changes, cut down on feeding, etc...
Click to expand...
hears what i would do with that.make your acs all bio.make the fluval more mechanical.and cut back on feeding.keep your nitrates below 40 the cloudiness is i think the need for more bio.and adding chemicals never good.the higher nitrates means your feeding to much.keep up with those water changes and cut back on feeding.
 
sledge760;661988; said:
Thanks for the suggestion. I will give this a shot. The fish will be okay feeding every other day, I suppose?
Click to expand...
Ive got a 125 thats stoked heavy i got 3 110s with bio only and 2 power heads with mechanical filtration. it stays clear.your tank is still young.so i think you just need to let the bio build up.hey cut back on feeding. i feed every day just small portions.
 
Sounds good. Thanks!

I never saw any of my tanks this bad. I've had tanks for 35 years. Let's put it this way, when a fish is at the very back of the tank you can barely see him, if at all.

I finally got some good suggestions from this forum. Everyone else only gave me , "It's a bacteria bloom".
 
adding more biologial filtration isn't gonna help your problem. Bio takes care of ammonia and nitrites, yours are at zero, can't do better then that. Your nitrates are to high, a good goal would be 20ppm but below 40ppm at worst. If you test nitrates before and after water changes you will see the rate of rise, this should help you with how much water to change.

As for the cloudiness it does sound like an algae bloom. But does the cloudiness ever turn green? Also what type substrate do you have and how about the decorations?

Have you tried Purigen (spelling?) Do a search for this, I've seen alot of members post raving reviews on this stuff, although I have not used it myself.
 
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