Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: pollydoodle on January 30, 2019, 10:19:01 AM
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Over the past week or so, my tank water has started to go cloudy despite water changes and filter maintenance,
what can I do to sort it? I have read it may be a bacterial bloom and there seems to be various remedies to achieve clear water, but what to use?. As usual your help is required, pretty please
ps I don't know what I would do without this site :)
Thank you
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Is it white cloudy or green cloudy (even very pale green)?
White cloudy is indeed a bacterial bloom, caused by a type of bacteria that feeds on organic matter and lives free floating in the water. During your tank maintenance, did you disturb the substrate more than usual? You mentioned in your other thread about scrubbing silk plants and trimming live plants so you could have disturbed the substrate unintentionally. This would have kicked debris into the water which the bloom bacteria feed on. Water changes don't help because these bacteria multiply too fast, and we just can't keep up with them.
The good news is that when they run out of food the bacteria will die, though when the water clears check the ammonia level just in case (dead bacteria could decay to make ammonia).
If it is a bacterial bloom caused by disturbing the substrate, it shouldn't happen again unless you disturb the substrate again.
Green cloudy, and sometimes very pale green which can look white, is algae. Microscopic algae floating in the water. The cure for this is a total blackout for 3 days. The tank is wrapped in something thick which is not removed even to feed the fish. The algae will die when deprived of light.
Algal blooms are often caused by ammonia in the water - and this could come from disturbing the substrate.
I would wait a couple of weeks. If the bloom does not turn green, and goes away by itself eventually, it is a bacterial bloom. But if it is still there after a couple of weeks or turns green, I would try the blackout at that point.
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Thank you Sue, I don't think I disturbed the substrate anymore than usual, but maybe I did without realising so will try your suggestions. It does look white, but I cant say for sure. Didn't help by shaking the wrong side of the fish food into the tank either :vcross: got a deluge instead of a few sprinkles ::) - it was already slightly cloudy, just increased a bit more because of it
Thank you
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Uneaten fish food won't have helped - more organic matter for the bloom bacteria :)
Because I am well known for being clumsy I always measure fish food into a tub well away from the tank, then empty the tub into the tank ;D