water?

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darwinvsjesus

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 5, 2010
130
1
0
Tonawanda, NY
this is probably going to sound like a common question, but i'm stumped.

* i know my tank is way overstocked. i'm working on that right now*

so, my 125 gallon (1 rena xp3 on right now, adding another very shortly)

always had beautiful, crystal clear water. very,very suddenly, the water became cloudy, but....only slightly. like, barely noticable. but enough where it's bothering me. water changes don't seem to help. the only thing i've done recently is, i just switched the carbon, and rinsed out the foam pads in the bottom, and then the following week i replaced the micro-filter polishing pad on top. i've got 40 bio-chem stars, and i do weekly 60 percent water changes.

here is the present (temporary) stock
* stared fish are being moved to a 55 gallon very shortly

2 green severums (5 inches)
2 gold severums* (5inch)
1 chcoloate cichlid* (3.5 inches)
1 jack dempsey (6 inches)
1 salvini (6 inches)
1 managuense (3 inches)
5 clown loaches (3 inches)
4 pim cats (3 inches)
6 geo. abalios (3-4 inches)
3 jurupari (4 inches)
1 moonlight gourami* (5 inches)
1 RTS (4 inches)
6 yoyo loaches* (4 inches)
1 wavrini (2 inches) *
1 green terror (3 inches)

the stock is too big, and i'm swapping things around and probably buying another 125 for just the eartheaters in a month or so, but for now, they are staying put and i need to clear this up?

(i've been using seachem prime, but am switching to dechlor brand instead, a sort of 'minimalist' approach' to the water.


i sound like a real ****ty fish parent, but i really do have things in the works (new tanks etc) for these guys to be comfortable. i am almost religious when it comes to the welfare of my fish, and so i really hope this cloudiness is a minor issue. they are fed twice a day.
 
Throw in some biozyme and cut your water changes down to 30%. Are their eyes cloudy too? You are going to have to re-home the managuense unfortunately. Or vise versa!!! Does sound like a cycling issue. How's your levels?
 
Test your levels, throw some prime in the tank, keep up on the water changes.

Seems underfiltered even if it was not overstocked. You could throw a sponge filter on a powerhead and that would help the bio load a bunch. Maybe use your xp3 to power a return from a sump. It shouldn't decrease the flow of the xp3 any and it's really cheap to make a sump out of a rubbermaid tub.
 
Hello...

What are your water parameters? Of the fish you listed, were any introduced recently? How long has the tank/filter been set up and running? Did you rinse the new carbon before putting it in the filter?

The tank does appear to be underfiltered considering that many fish. When you changed out the media, you may have lost just enough bio to cause a bacterial bloom. Most MFK'ers don't use carbon...well, a good number don't anyway. Without the carbon, you have room for more bio. You may want to consider this as well.

I'm pretty sure you're experiencing a bacterial bloom due to the loss off BB. I would definitely, regularly check your water and do changes as needed to keep the parameters under control until your BB reestablishes, you add more filtration or lessen the bio load.

Good luck!
 
parameters are all normal. and i know about the managuense. i've got another tank cycling just for him. the tanks been up for over a year, no new fish in a few months. the cloudiness is VERY faint. it seems gone after my last water change. I do intend to add an xp4, or at least another xp3 in the near future (like, within a month).I get an unbelievable discount on fish and hard goods at my lfs. the xp4 which is 229 here would cost me 149. nice.

so, water parameters are fine, fish are fine, perfectly healthy. i can't see any visible problems except a very faint cloudiness. it was sudden, about a week after i cleaned out my filter.

i DID also wipe down the inside of the glass, that did help a bit. so i'm not really sure what this could have been.

and did i hear you correctly.....
NO carbon? really? is that really an okay thing to do? i don't add any chemicals, for sure. and i recenty bought a quart of dechlor (for four dollars!) because i feel like prime, as good as it is, contains unnecessary additives.

i was also considering adding the 'super micro' polishing pad on top of the regular one.

your thoughts?
 
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