Help!!!...Cloudy Water

[PeacockKeeper]

My tank has been established since September of last year and two weeks ago, I added a new pbass with the other three. I also did a 25% water change and now my water is cloudy. It has been cloudy since and I have read that there may be a bacteria bloom happening but it is scaring the crap out of me, although the fishes are still feeding and swimming around. From the front view of tank, water looks kinda clear but from the side view, water is cloudy as hell. So I have been doing 25% WC every other day and still it exist. I even went out and bought Stress Zyme to add to the water but its still cloudy.
I checked the water parameters yesterday and ammonia and nitrates was at 0. Should I go to 50% WC? Help

 

[LisaH]

If that was happening to my tank the first thing I would try is water clarifier. Its cheap and a tiny 2 ounce bottle can treat 600 gallons. I would also rubber band a spounge over the filter intake while treating. When the water clears up, put a cup over the sponge and lift it out (so the junk dont go back into the water)

 

[SteveR]

If the water is cloudy I find it hard to believe there is 0ppm ammon, and nitrite. Cloudy water is usually a bacterial bloom - ie ammonia.

 

[cichlid2006]

If the water is cloudy I find it hard to believe there is 0ppm ammon, and nitrite. Cloudy water is usually a bacterial bloom - ie ammonia.

agreed. 95% of the time cloudy water means bacterial bloom. maybe adding a messy fish and doing a water change at the same time disrupted your filter and caused a bloom in an attempt to catch up with the waste.
test every day and keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels.

 

[albirdy]

How be tha filters?

 

[Angler]

What are your filters and media? I had gloomy water problems for a while. I finally decided to try to use polyfil quilt batting from Walmart for my mechanical filtration, and it made a huge difference. If your problem is not a bacteria bloom, I suggest you try some.

 

[PeacockKeeper]

I'm running just a single Fluval 404 at this moment. The thing is that it was doing okay when I originally had four peacocks in the tank. One of the pb died and was down to three pb's. I then recently added another pb into the tank and it went south from there. I didn't do anything with the filter.

 

[cichlid2006]

I'm running just a single Fluval 404 at this moment. The thing is that it was doing okay when I originally had four peacocks in the tank. One of the pb died and was down to three pb's. I then recently added another pb into the tank and it went south from there. I didn't do anything with the filter.

when the bio load decreases so does the bacteria. some start to starve to death because there is not enough food for all of them. when you added more to the bio load they had to increase to cope and this can lead to a bloom as it compensates for the extra and the amount it has to catch up on but it clears as the filter catches up with the waste and the extra bacteria, "created" to cope with the excess waste at the time, that are now starving start dying off.
you also decreased the bacterial colonies numbers when you did the 25% water change so you added more bio load and took some of the bacteria too. hence the boom. thats my opinion for this situation at least.

if it isnt clear in a few days to a week then try fine filter pads/filter wool to polish your water. and possibly a chemical to clump the fine particles together so it gets caught by the pads/wool.

 

[cichlid2006]

you may also want more than one external for 4 P. Bass.

 

[Mr Pleco]

you may also want more than one external for 4 P. Bass.

Did I miss the thread where you said how big was your tank? When the first PB died what were the water parms? I'd get some more bio filteration 404 is more of a mech filter...