Truly Stumped

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CanadianKeeper

CanadianKeeper

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 25, 2012
1,248
72
66
Ontario
Ok so I am absolutly stumped on this problem ! As you can see in the picture my tank seems "foggy" all the time. I do daily ten percent water changes. Ive tried a weeks worth of 30 percent daily changes. Ive tried putting plants in. I have an FX5 and just Added an emperor 400 to the mix also. I cant seem to figure out what it is ! I do have a very bright home hardware light on there with 2 t8s as you can see. One is a 50/50 actinic and daylight and the other is a soft white light. Do you think it is just the light I am using diffusing in the water ? I mean Its not filtration, its not temps, its not fish, I have NOT done a water test kit. I will have to bring one in to my store this week. But when I turn off the light it seems like good clear water... Maybe get and LED ?

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how long have you had the tank. if its a relatively new tank it could be going through a small nitrogen cycle which would make it a little cloudy until it finishes.
 
What type of water conditioner are you using? Stress Coat+ can "cloud" tank water sometimes.
 
Have you tried waiting it out and let it clear itself, I'd give it a week and see what happens, thats if test results come back on point...
 
Newly started tank will have bacteria blooms.
Newly replaced substrate could have micro particles floating around.
FX5 sucks bad once it clogs up or the filter floss padding gets dirty as well as the coarse sponges.
Overfeeding could be causing spikes.
Water source if traces of ammonia/chloramines will induce a bacteria bloom.
Intense lighting with long photo-period will cause a haze with a slight algae bloom.
If substrate had particles that was not fully washed out the fish could be stirring it up.
Uncycled tank.
 
There can be a number of causes. In my experience especially considering your stated you do daily water changes it could be a high mineral content of the water your using. You can cut down on the water changes giving the minerals and various other floating particles time to settle or use something like Crystal Clear to accelerate the process of settling. You haven't told us how you go about doing water changes. Do you RO the water, do you let the water age before adding it to your tank or do you just use a python hose to fill the tank directly from the tap? If your using directly from the tap and using warm water that would explain the cloudiness as warm water causes micro bubbles and supposedly has a higher mineral content than cold water as well as possible leaching from the metal of the boiler system. Warm water sits in the pipes longer and picks up such things while cold water is constantly flowing and doesn't pick up these things. It's why most people will tell you to only use cold water for consumption and boiling pasta etc. What's funny is people don't know why they say it, they just do and the reason is the one stated above. There are actual studies on the matter. Hope that helps you personally I never have a problem with water cloudiness and I just follow the suggestions I gave you above.

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koltsix said:
There can be a number of causes. In my experience especially considering your stated you do daily water changes it could be a high mineral content of the water your using. You can cut down on the water changes giving the minerals and various other floating particles time to settle or use something like Crystal Clear to accelerate the process of settling. You haven't told us how you go about doing water changes. Do you RO the water, do you let the water age before adding it to your tank or do you just use a python hose to fill the tank directly from the tap? If your using directly from the tap and using warm water that would explain the cloudiness as warm water causes micro bubbles and supposedly has a higher mineral content than cold water as well as possible leaching from the metal of the boiler system. Warm water sits in the pipes longer and picks up such things while cold water is constantly flowing and doesn't pick up these things. It's why most people will tell you to only use cold water for consumption and boiling pasta etc. What's funny is people don't know why they say it, they just do and the reason is the one stated above. There are actual studies on the matter. Hope that helps you personally I never have a problem with water cloudiness and I just follow the suggestions I gave you above.

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I think you nailed it. Ive changed my water with a warm water directly from the tap for years and never had a problem... Then again never had this large of tank. That and the daily watrer changes. Im going to cut down the water changes and use cold water from now on. Also my lighting is strong and is on a 14 hour cycle... Im def going to reduce that.
 
Itsokay to refill a tank with cold water when doing water changes? I always get my water at tap near 80 or same as tank temp then add it, am I doing it wrong? I thought if I added it cold...it'd shock the fish?

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