I'm getting sick of this

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Optimist

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 14, 2006
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Connecticut
Hey everyone. It seems as if I just cant keep my tank clear. I do waterchanges every week, but I always get a minor bacterial bloom after each change. Its getting really annoying.:irked: When I do a waterchange to make sure my tank is looking nice and clean for Christmas, I end up with a cloudy tank. The tank usually clears up within a couple days, that is until the next water change. This makes me very tempted not to change the water at all, because the tank looks nice and clear, but I know that I have to. My tank has been cycled and I make sure not to touch my biological media while doing changes. I only changed about 15% of the water during my most recent water change, and I didn't even touch the filters. However, I am experiencing the worst bacterial bloom I have had yet. How can changing a little bit of water in the tank lead to such cloudy water? I'm worried about the health of my fish. Can someone please explain what is going on?
 
sounds like a problem with the water source...Test your tap. What conditioner are you using? Prime has always been great to me.

Eric
 
if you can't find the source of the problem you are probably going to have to resort to a UV steralizer, which isn't a bad idea to have anyway since it eliminates a lot of bacteria preventing diseases, algea blooms and bacteria blooms (not 100% effective though) and that should take care of it.

but its much cheaper to just find the source of your problems. if you live in the country and have a well, it could be it is polluted from fertilizers pesticides or other chemicals or wastes, so if you have a well you might want to get your water tested. If its city water then chances are its not the water source and you'll have a problem with something in the tank or some unknown source.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm going to test my tap water right now, although I never had a problem with it before. I use Stress coat while doing water changes and I have a UV sterilizer, but it doesn't seem to be doing much towards solving my problem. My tank is still cloudy. I'm just confused how such a minimal change could bring on such a bad bacterial bloom.
 
How big of a monster tank are we talking here?

What's the bio-load?

What's the tank's chemistry before and one hour a W/C? pH?

Tap water chemistry? pH?

Have any of your critters gone missing?

What changes have you made to the tank if any?

And again, how much light is it getting?

Over feeding?

Dr Joe

.
 
My first guess would be extra nutrients in the tap water are causing a bloom of bacteria or diatoms in the tank. They use up the stray nutrient then get taken out by the UV filter and the tank returns to normal. The UV filter is probably doing it's job, thats why the tank does go back to clear in a few days.

Another thought - is the UV working properly, I think the lamps in them do wear out?

Cheers

Ian
 
have you ever tried a diatom filter...they work pretty good for clearing up tanks in a short period of time
 
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