why does my tank do this?

[iloveoscars702]

well after every WC (about 20%) my tank get goes through a mini cycle. tank has been up for 1.5 years. but in a day or two, its back to normal. any reason why this is happening?

 

[bigdaddy]

What is normal? mybe do 50% WC's instead of 20%

 

[iloveoscars702]

What is normal? mybe do 50% WC's instead of 20%

normal as in back to clear, etc. when its cloudy all the parameters are the same, just the water is cloudy. no matter how big or small the WC it does the same thing.

 

[erk419]

When you do your weekly water changes what all do you do like do you clean your filters vac the bottom etc. Also when your testing your water are you doing this when its cloudy and also are you testing your water right after the water change?

 

[Mr_Altepeter]

Erk419 has a very good point here. If you are not doing those things, just changing out the water, you may be stirring up stuff when adding water back into the tank. This would cause the cloudiness

 

[bob965]

It could be microbubbles due to the water degassing. Very common in cold weather. Or, if your water supply is treated with chloramine, it could be an ammonia spike.

 

[erk419]

Erk419 has a very good point here. If you are not doing those things, just changing out the water, you may be stirring up stuff when adding water back into the tank. This would cause the cloudiness

I was thinking those things and also if he cleaned his filters everytime he could be over cleaning them or even worse cleaning them in tap water. I was also wondering about when he tested his water cause there could be traces of ammonia and nitrites in the tapwater and if he tested right afterwords he could be picking up on these before the bacteria was able to break them down. I know when I do my water changes its cloudy for a bit after wards but its just because I stir my sand. Another thing if you have sand and stir it each time like me this could cause the cloudiness. And if you were to test the water right afterwards it could cause you to read the test results wrong.

 

[tcarswell]

Could be the bound chloramine before the bio filter removes it.

 

[dawnmarie]

I am going to leap out on a limb here but if a 20% water change "by itself " actually triggers a "mini Cycle" your Bio filter is for some reason not able to accept any minor disruption. I'm betting we need more information to give you a decent answer. KISS=Keep It Simple Stupid or "Let's not over think this"
Come on OP we need more details.

 

[iloveoscars702]

When you do your weekly water changes what all do you do like do you clean your filters vac the bottom etc. Also when your testing your water are you doing this when its cloudy and also are you testing your water right after the water change?

when i do a weekly maintenance on the tank, i either change the water or change the mec. filtration from my filters. and this weeks i did a water change. ive learned not to do a wc and clean the filter out at the same time. stupid mistake before.

It could be microbubbles due to the water degassing. Very common in cold weather. Or, if your water supply is treated with chloramine, it could be an ammonia spike.

Could be the bound chloramine before the bio filter removes it.

never thought of that. i'll have to test my tap water...