Weird cloudy water issue

scottysgirl

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]

beetlebz

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.

scottysgirl

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

scottysgirl

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...

Jasey

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.

scottysgirl

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.