Please Help! Foggy Water

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
P

pistonville

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 14, 2015
17
0
1
45
Please Help!

I recently setup a brand new 125 gallon freshwater tank. I installed a Fluval FX6 canister filter and put in 12 Zebra Fish to get the tank cycling. The water was crystal clear for a week. After testing my water I added 3 fish (1 Oscar, 1 Jack Dempsey, 1 Needlenose Gar). My tank remained crystal clear but my pH was too high. The fish store recommended that I add Discuss Buffer and add peat granules to my filter, which I did. Within a couple days, my water was no longer crystal clear. My water is now a little foggy, and getting worse each day. I rinsed the peat granules before I added them, but could they be causing my water to get foggy? It wasn't foggy before I added them to my filter? The only other thing I can think of is that my fish are not eating very well and the food I'm putting in the tank is just settling on the bottom. The food that is settling on the bottom is regular Omega Freshwater Flakes, New Era Cichlid Pellets and New Life Spectrum Medium Fish Food.

Why is my water cloudy? How can I fix it?

Please Help!

Thanks,

Joffrey
 
Once you start to chemically alter your water it becomes unstable in my opinion. Sounds like to me your were just going through the cycle in why it turned cloudy.
 
freak78 said:
Once you start to chemically alter your water it becomes unstable in my opinion. Sounds like to me your were just going through the cycle in why it turned cloudy.
Click to expand...

So, do you think if I just let it continue to run that it will fix itself?

Since it has been a week, I did do a 25% gravel water change.
 
If you could've seeded your aquarium with media from an already established tank it would've sped up the cycling process. Your tank was probably going through a bacteria bloom which is normal for a new aquarium. It's part of the nitrogen cycle. Yeah it should fix itself but you'll want to monitor your water to make sure your ammonia isn't high. That will kill your fish quick.
 
If you can use some media from another tank it will help a lot ,
your tank still had 3-4 weeks to go through the cycling process .

As mentioned above watch the ammonia closely because you added
some buffering to the system it may spike the ammonia very fast at this
point doing the 25% water changes may be the answer but now the
cycling process will take longer , the best thing at this time would be to
add some established gravel to your new tank , I would also think about
removing the larger fish that you added there going to have a rough time .
 
Thanks for the replies so far. A couple things...

As of now, my ammonia is 0.

If it is going to take another 3-4 weeks to cycle, should I have waited to put the fish in?

The fish are not big at all; the three fish I added were babies

Should I stop water changes until the cycle is completing done (3-4 weeks)?

I was planning on adding two more cichlids this weekend. Can I add them, or should I wait. I want to get all of my cichlids in the tank together quickly so they can grow together to (hopefully) cut down on possible aggression towards between them.

Thanks.
 
edit double post...
 
continue with your water changes, as long as you are using prime it will have no effect on your cycle, test your water every day to be safe. the peat could very well have caused a bacteria bloom in a tank with an already new/low bb bacteria count (all those nutrients), keep the filter outlet splashing at the surface as a bad bacteria bloom can really lower the o2 in the water.

don't add anymore fish yet, another few weeks wont hurt at all...
 
If it were me, I'd stop adding any more of any buffed or such. Keep checking daily water parameters. You mentioned 0 ammonia how a out nitrite? Continue small 20% water changes every few days. I got impatient for my water to clear up and being green whiled I cycled. But rather than chemicals, I stuck in a UV sterilizer and saw a difference within 2 days and I attribute the water clearing up to that. Then I just continued to cycle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom