Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => The Emergency Room => Topic started by: Hannspree on November 26, 2016, 09:09:52 AM
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Hi all
I've recently redone my tank and it has gone really cloudy I expected it to go cloudy but not this much I may as well have milk in there instead of water, I've had 1 fish die and 2 plants die within a week and I've checked the water parameters and they look fine ! I've also done some water changes to see if that helps but no luck with that.
(http://picpaste.com/pics/IMAG0439_BURST019-qZGwpKVC.1480446917.jpg)
(http://picpaste.com/pics/received_1765215920394575-6G3Tkgur.1480446969.jpeg)
Any help would be great !
Thanks
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The first thing to ask, is the water pure white or greenish? Greenish is an algal bloom, white could be algae or most likely a bacterial bloom.
Since you have just done some rearranging, a bacterial bloom is the most likely. These bacteria feed on organic chemicals and if you've disturbed the substrate you will have released a lot of organic chemicals - decomposing uneaten food, bits of dead plant and fish poo.
Bloom bacteria multiply very fast; faster than you can keep up with doing water changes. The only option is to wait it out I'm afraid. Eventually they will run out of food and die.
In the meantime, they will be using oxygen in the water. Bloom bacteria don't harm fish directly but they do make the water oxygen deficient. Sometimes enough to kill fish.
If it doesn't already, I would move the filter so that the water outflow makes ripples on the surface. And if you have an air pump with an air stone, or even a deep sea diver, use it as that will churn the water up even more.
And although water changes won't help get rid of the cloudiness, they will help remove anything that we can't measure for that ended up in the water after the tank redo.
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Did you do some DIY backgrounds or stick things together? Did you use bathroom sealant rather than pure silicone? Bathroom sealant won't stick and set properly and has chemicals in it harmful to fish. If this is the case you'll need to remove the items you stuck using the sealant and do some water changes to get rid of the chemicals. If you have a quarantine tank I'd recommend putting fish in there and even doing a 100% water change.
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Thanks for the reply guys, I've put in an air stone now and no the background of the tank was black when I got it :-) hopefully the water clears up I've taken out most of the plants that have died but not all of it because I can't see it :-( I hope no more fish die, there may be more dead fish in there but again I cant see all of them and some may be hiding under the wood.
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I've recently redone my tank
What exactly did you do? Did you put anything new in the tank?
I've just been doing the ironing, a thoroughly boring job but it does allow the mind to wander. And I remembered that a few years ago I bought a rock from Maidenhead Aquatics which made my tank go cloudy overnight. I got up next morning to find I could hardly see through the water, but I could manage to see that all my hornwort had dropped its leaves. It took several water changes to get all those needle like leaves off the bottom of the tank. I removed the rock and put it in a bucket of water to test - and that went cloudy too.
Did you do anything along those lines?
I also noticed when I quoted your post that you had included some photos - or at least the coding appeared in the text - but I can't see them.
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Everything in the tank is new gravel, wood and the rocks, I just kept the filter running in a bucket with about half of the old aquarium water to try and avoid cycling the tank again, good news though the tank is starting to clear up I think :-) and the fish look like they are doing better now the air stone is in there
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Possible explanations include dust from the new gravel (did you wash it well?) and any muck disturbed when you removed the old substrate causing a bacterial bloom.
Keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels for a few days. The 'filter' bacteria also grow on all surfaces in the tank - glass, substrate, decor, plants - so you will have lost a few. But with a good number inside the filter it won't take long to replace the ones you've lost.
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Yep washed the gravel pretty well, and yea I'll keep an eye on the water parameters :-) I'm hoping there is no more dead fish when I can finally see to the back of the tank if there unter the wood I may not be able to them out :-(
That's for you help sue :-) I'll post a picture when it's all cleared up and I've replaced the plants that died.
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@Hannspree Just a thought when I saw the photos, you don't ever light the solid fuel burner do you?
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Nope it don't work :-)
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Hi all
My tank is looking a lot better now :-) I also planted some Monte Carlo so hopefully I get a nice carpet, fish are all doing well now no more died since I put the air stone in :-)
(https://lookpic.com/O/i2/511/tLEDxHDC.jpeg)
Thanks for your help :-)
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Nice tank :) I'm a big fan of that branchy style wood.
I can see a blue crowntail betta and what look like a couple of pygmy cories. Do you have any other fish?
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There is some endlers, pygmys cories, ottos, chilli rasbora & the batta fish :-) and yea I like the branchy wood to :-) found 2 pieces that fit together perfectly did find another bit of wood that looked a bit better but the shop wanted £48 for it !
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Wood is crazily expensive...
I can't see the picture for some reason @Robert
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Odd - me neither, will take a look from a computer later @Matt
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It's working now ???
Looking good btw 8) very natural looking.
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Yea the pictures somtimes show for me but not all the time lol and thanks I was going for a natural look :-) hopefully the carpet grows in and the other plant dont die
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Ok pics fixed.
The first two pictures didn't show for most becuase they were a link to a picture profile page and not the actual url of the images.
The second, used http instead of https.
Should all be fine and dandy now. :)
added: It seems that site hosting those images, does odd things with the image urls, as in they work sometimes, and sometimes not.
If you can resize images and upload them directly, then that's better for all concerned
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Oh dear, I'm back to big blank space again I'm afraid... I can do the copying the link thing now though. Is anyone else having the same issue? If its just me I will gladly be told to stop winging ::)
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Hi guys
I've got some white fluffy stuff growing on the wood I put in the tank can't remember if this happened last time and cleared up on its own.
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This is quite common and should clear up by itself but feel free to remove some along the way if you don't want it in the tank ... pretty sure it's harmless though
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OK cool thanks Matt:-)
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Yes, I had that with the first of my two pieces of wood - I gave it a scrub during every water change regime with an unused toothbrush bought specifically for fishtank cleaning purposes but it eventually disappeared of its own accord after 6-8 weeks. With the second piece of wood, I kept it in a bucket of boiling water which I kept topping up with more boiling water for the first day or two, and didn't have any white fluffy stuff on it.
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Some wood is more prone than others. In my case it has been the branched wood that got the white gooey stuff, the solid chunks didn't.
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Doing a water change today so I'll try and get most of it off :-) and my carpeting plant is actually growing !!! Not had much luck with carpeting plants before :-)
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My experience agrees with what Sue is saying, with the branched wood being the main culprit. I've also found it gets more algae, and I've taken to tying moss to quite a lot of the branched wood.
I've also had problems with carpeting plants, and have found that some are better than others in my hard water. The ones I have in my dwarf puffer tank are responding well to extra fertiliser and liquid carbon.