Why is my water foggy??

chris55

My 20 gallon long is a little foggy and has been like that for a little while now (about 2 weeks) all my levels are right (amonia=0 nitrites=0 nitrates=10 and ph is 7.1) I have a fire eel about 10 inches a pink gourami about 1.5 inch, a common pleco about 3 inches and a black ghost knife about 4.5 inches, all of them are eting fine and I feed the ghost knife frozen blood worms and the eel about 6-12 shrimp a night, and the gourami and pleco eat flakes and algea wafers (1 a day). I dont want to put clarifier in there cause I've heard alot of bad things about that. PLease some advice on what going on, do i need to remove a fish thats causing this or is it something that i cant test for, oh and the tank is way away from direct sunlight, if you would like i could get a picture of it and post if that would help, thanks guys.

1077

Weekly 20 percent water changes?

Kim

Probably a bacterial bloom. Does the water smell gross? I'd do a water change of your normal amount followed by another one the next day or so. Also, bacteria use up oxygen that your fish need so stick an airstone in there as well to promote gas exchange at the surface. Until the water clears up I would stay away from the frozen food which will only serve to feed the bacteria more.

chris55

yea i do a weekly 20-30 percent water change, but i think i know what happened now, i had the feeder shrimp for the eel in the same tank in a fry holder hanging on the back before i got them a tank of there own and about 10-12 died and laid on the bottom, and i didnt take them out right away for a fear that the live ones would jump out on the floor, this was about 2 weeks ago I remember now. With that bacteria load coming from the rotting shrimp would it cause a cloud like that??? Or is it something else?

FordMan

give it time lots of water changes and activated carbon

iamntbatman

All those dead shrimp could have caused the bloom. Just keep up with water changes and keep the surface of your water agitated so that you've got enough oxygen for your fish.

Tyyrlym

All those dead shrimp rotted and caused a nutrient spike in the water that let the algae multiply quickly. Regular water changes and some vacuuming of the substrate to clear out any remaining bits should do it. Feed the tank sparingly until the bloom is over.