In Need Of Help

[KansasFishGuy]

Take a look at the picture below. The tank has been like this since august.

What gives? In october I decided to go R/O water all the way. No tap. My tap water conditions are horrible. During october to the 19th of november I put in about 300 to 350 gallons of R/O water. The parameters of the tank went from 8ppm ammonia,3 ppm Nitrites, 190 ppm Nitrates too an amzing 0 ppm Ammonia, 0 ppm Nitrites, and 10 ppm Nitrates. But during that time the tank still stayed cloudy. Now I have not tested it but I will tonight as I lost a stingray which tells me the conditions are unfavorable. I need help; have no idea on were to go from here as I can not figure it out. Current stock is as follows
2uarus
1 gold sev
1 blood parrot
1 flagtail
1 ornate bichir
1 jupari
3 geos

Currently running a FX5 for mechanical,2 xp3's for biological, and recently added an aquaclear 110 for mechanical use also. I am stuck.

If any ideas please pass along

 

[Burtess]

8ppm ammonia,3 ppm Nitrites, 190 ppm Nitrates

And you had fish living in that

Sounds like the tank wasn't cycled. Even if the tap water used for water changes was not too good (contained NH3/NO2), in a cycled tank it should all be quickly converted to NO3.

A couple other questions, what is the tank size, and what are the parameters of your tap water?

Burt

 

[albyoscar]

The high numbers were from before he switched to pure r/o water . Do water changes and use tap water and prime itll clear up

 

[Mr Pleco]

Alby you know the story with this tank as cloudy as it is .

Tonights readings confirmed by our LFS is:

Oppm AMM, 0ppm NO2, 10ppm NO3...he's worked hard on this tank, these readings have been stable for over 2.5 weeks. Yet the tank stays cloudy , in fact we've had a couple cichlid pairs lay eggs, fish are active and eating well. You just can't see them clearly.... Bio Spera? no effect Stablity? no effect 25% water changes every two days.(combination R/o and tap) tap is treated with Prime.

nada, zilch, no change....in fact when the readings where high the tank was clearer...He's going to hook up a mag 250 tonight with micron sleeve and diatom powder to try and take the floating bloom out of the water.

He's thought this through and was diligent...we will wait and see what happens,.......

 

[Wolf3101]

I have one tank with a recurring problem like this and I traced it to a high level of nutriants in the water due to feeding...This is a 150 gallon grow out for Pbass and is fairly heavilly stocked. I get it as crystal clear as the others and a month later it's whitish again.

Lower the water temp to the 76 - 78 range...cut back on the feeding and scrap the AC HOB idea. they do very poorly removing fine particles and this is actully a bacteria problem rather than a filtration problem.

Run the stock foam in the FX5 and fill the baskets up with bio-media. Run the Xp3...pure bio.
By giving the bacteria more space to colonize you'll have less in the water.

Like you... We use only RO/DI water and buffer it to a steady 7.6 PH With crushed coral. We also have EXELENT water perams in this tank and VERY healthy fish.

Add a pair of air driven Hydro5 sponge filters to the tank and it will do wonders.
Cut back on the water changes...especially the mixed ones as I suspect your tap water is adding nuteriants for the bacterial bloom.

 

[albyoscar]

Wish you guys the best and hope it clears up at least the fish are healthy

 

[Wolf3101]

Thanks...mines not that bad by a long shot but I have Crystal clear tanks on either side of it that makes it look a LOT worse than it really is. Once this batch of Pbass move on it'll clear up again.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Are you adding minerals to that tank to make the RO water livable for your fish? You need to complain to your water dept as your water isn't suitable for human consumption!