Hi, recently I have been experiencing an odd cloudy water issue in both my 29 gallon and 5 gallon tanks. In the 29 gallon there is: 2 rams, 4 Celestial Pearl Danios, 3 Harlequins, 1 yoyo loach, 2 khulis, 1 female betta, 3 ottos. The five gallon has 2 dwarf puffers. The 29 gallon has been up for over a year, the five for a couple months. The 29 gallon has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 2.5 nitrates (has many plants). The five gallon is ALWAYS 0-0-0 (has a ton of plants). I have never had cloudiness trouble with the 29 gallon, the five gallon has been getting cloudy on and off since I set it up. Both tanks get CO2, ferts, water conditioner. Both tanks got a whiteish grey cloudiness about 4 days after water changes (I change 30% water once weekly in both tanks). The 5 gallon has a sponge filter and the 29 a bio-wheel filter. The bio-wheel filter doesn't have as much 'pull' as it used to, I dont know why.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Christina[/list]
the first obvious question is, how often are you feeding your fish, and how much at a time? On the other hand, im wondering if there is additional nutrients in the water you use for the w/c triggering a bacteria bloom.
Community (29 gallon) gets fed 4 times a day with a small amount of flake food. Dwarf puffer (5 gallon) gets bloodworms once a day. A small amount of one block of food. I fertilize with recommended dose of flourish once weekly after water change. And then 29 gallon has DIY CO2, 5 gallon gets a tiny amount of flourish excel daily
Thanks
I decided to run another small filter on the 29 and added carbon--water is clearing almost immediately, soon I'll removed the carbon but keep the extra filter on there. I dont know what to do about the 5 gallon though...
I don't have experience with sponge filters but I have a 2.5 gallon tank and I use a box filter with an adjustable flow rate. This might work well for your 5 gallon tank. I use AquaClear 20 (for 5-20 gallon tanks) and it has a sponge, carbon, and bio-max inside and has always kept the tank very clear. Hopefully this could help.
Jasey--that sounds good, I would probably take out the carbon, but the filter itself sounds good, and I have had good luck with my aquaclear.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Tropical Fish Keeping
597.8K posts
83.7K members
Since 2006
forum community dedicated to tropical fish owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about species,breeding, health, behavior, aquariums, adopting, care, classifieds, and more! Open to fish, plants and reptiles living in freshwater or saltwater environments.