so i took 50 percent the water out the tank put new water in cleaned the glass put new filters in aqua safe and salt aquarium and cloudy water and cleaned the black sponges sand is spotless on the bottom yet this dang tank will not go clear its making me really upset i cant see threw it side ways the front looks horrible when i had gravel it was beautiful but i switched to sand due to the sturgen and to make my pleco and firemouth happy and in return i got ugly looking tank :-( somebody help me plzz make it clear again i am putting a picture up with it front and side and u see for ur self and give me some solutions and iv had the sand for three weeks shouldnt be doing this maybe a month and i dont have a tester and i didnt test the water iv never used one thos in my life and all my fish are beautiful
I use white marine sand in my planted aquarium, and when i do water changes i use my siphon pump to put the freshwater back into my tank, that way the sand doesn't get stirred up at all. I don't get any cloudiness at all.
Let me take a guess...You didn't wash the sand out several times in a bucket before you added it to the tank had you?
What's going to happen there now, each time you do a water exchange you'll super slowly wash your sand out now and eventually its clear - Just takes much longer this way, cause your filter gotta work well each time to 'clean' what came out of the sand into the water (which makes it cloudy).
Another idea: You got big rocks in there, use a watering can (that has NOT had any flower ferts or ANY chemicals in it before AT ALL) pure the water with the watering can right on to your rocks, that's gonna aviod stirring up most of the sand (so less cloudy after water exchange).
i do always pour the water on the rocks not the sand and when i bought the sand it was aquarium sand and said on the front no need wash it first it fish store even said it didnt need to be washed just dump it in so how long before i have clear tank again weeks or months
When i was setting up my tank, i found it was easiest to work with the sand when it was wet. I could clump it up, and smooth out the sandy clay on top of my flourite. Then fill up slowly with the siphon pump.
If you have the appropriate filter for the size tank you got there, it should be cleared up by tomorrow. If you have a bad/ small filter it can take anywhere from here to there.
its still cloudy hell im pumping 364 gallons a hour maybe i buy another filter that way i be pumping 700 something a hour idk but this cloudyness is bugging me.
Leave your tank alone. Measure your water make sure you have no NO2, NO3, Ammonia - If that all comes back zero, leave your tank alone. This can well be a bacteria bloom. Doing all these large w/c will just have you end up with a endless bacteria bloom and it'll never clear up.
I was just about to suggest the same thing. However, I would recommend continuing with doing large water changes. The bacteria that result in these sorts of blooms are aerobic bacteria, which means they need oxygen to survive. Huge amounts of them can seriously deplete your oxygen levels. While your cichlids especially can withstand some pretty low oxygen levels (especially for fish their size) it's best not to subject them to that. There are several reasons why blooms like this happen, probably the most common of which is a mini-cycle that results in a lot of ammonia in your water. Under normal conditions there's nowhere near enough food to support these numbers of bacteria so as your tank stabilizes the bloom will go away on its own. You might want to consider doing something to increase the surface agitation on your tank to help get more oxygen into your water. Add an air stone or lower your water level so that your filters break up the surface of the water better.
Of course, this is all assuming that your problem is definitely a bacterial bloom, but since it seems like the sand has already been in the tank for quite some time and you did your water change the same way you always do (avoiding disturbing the sand) not to mention that you said that the sand is blue (which I don't think would result in a milky looking cloudiness like you've got there) then I'm leading toward bacterial bloom.
i have 4 air stones going at once one at each corner and two in the middle i will continue the water changes is that gonna stress the fish out continuely changing the water over and over
i knw im over stocked i was gonna get another filter to double up the amount of waste in the tank to keep amonia levels down i was thinking another whipser 60 that would make it pump 728 a hour instead 364
k i will but one more thing i feed cichlid pellets and flakes and shrimp at sametime is that bad should i stop the flakes i cant stop the shrimp cuz the sturgeon but i could switch to i think its blood worms im not sure wut there called they look like live little worms moving about and swimming in the tank idk what they are called lol only used them once
Cutting back on the feedings is going to reduce the overall amount of nutrients in the tank that could result in a bacterial bloom. How much do you feed your fish, usually?
i feed them once in the mrning flakes and pellets and shrimp then once at usually ten which is the same alll over again flakes and pellets and shrimp and the lfs store said because i took all the water out put sand in i pretty much started the tank all over again and its gonna be cloudy for 2 he said the same thing bacteria bloom
i think filter is taking a crap to its kinda grinding alittle lol and it stoped working once today and once two days ago i had to pull the tube thing out put it back in to make it work lol
I have six of the Penguin 350B Biowheel Filters (and two of the Penguin 200B's). I really like them.
If you feel like it, though, check out the pricing on these same filters at Foster & Smith as well as Big Al's. It would save you some money to get them there!
Additionally, I use these "SuperCartridges" in them, vs. disposable cartridges. They have TONS of space for the beneficial bacteria and carbon inserts you can use if you choose (inexpensively). These are cartridges that never need to be replaced and cost $4. I highly recommend them... with all the surface on those and the biowheels, you've got lots of space for the good bacteria to live.
The grinding sound is likely due to sand getting sucked into it. How close is the filter intake to the bottom of your tank? You'll want to fix this problem as soon as you can because the grinding sound means that the sand is causing wear on the moving parts in your filter, which will eventually lead to it not working.
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