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Thread: Suspicious Water...

  1. #1
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    Suspicious Water...

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    hello guys, this is gonna be a long one.

    i have 2 problems. 1) staghorn algae, 2) cloudy water. I cannot pinpoint what is causing this in my tank, although there are several factors i am suspecting. 1) new place new water, 2) too many years neva keep tanks rusty already, 3) first time using dennerle products.

    STAGHORN
    ----------
    as posted in my previous thread, i've been unable to get rid of this aglae. i've diff kind of algae eaters, but none seeem to touch the staghorn. does anyone know what's the root cause of this specific algae?

    staghorn problem is more specific, only found in 1 of my 3 tanks.


    CLOUDY WATER
    ---------------
    this one's nutty. everytime i perform a water change, i notice that the water turns cloudy and visability drops quite alot. however, water straight from the tap is NOT cloudy. i can't really make out any suspended particles so i do imagine its not dirt chruned up during a waterchange.

    this, affects 2 of my tanks. one is a planted tank, and the other is currently housing a couple of discus with a heater. both tanks are only two feet, and running their own external canisters. both tanks are slightly over a mth old.

    odd as it is, this does not affect my 3rd tank, which is housing terrapins and one large prawn, and a couple of tetras. i speculate this is because this tank is only filled about 1/3 full, and not so large a percentage of water is changed everytime. odd thing is, this tank has only a tiny internal filter. so, i can more or less rule out biological filtration?

    the cloudiness clears up by itself after the water change, about 1 or 2 days later. the fish doesn't seem to be affected by this cloudiness.

    right now, i can rule out the following factors.
    1) temperature (planted tank is about 24/25, discus is heated to 30)
    2) lighting (the terrarium and discus tank have equally low lighting)
    3) fert (only planted tank is fertilised)
    4) bioload (arguable. but i believe the exteral canister is able to filter 50+ cardinal's waste better compared to the internal dealing with the messy red ear sliders)

    does anyone have any input to share? i don't recall facing this problem before i gave up the hobby 3 years ago.

  2. #2
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    You did not mention how long you keep the lights on. typical is 10-12 hours, but depending on the strength of the light, you may have to shorten it if the aglae keeps appearing. (co2 not enough, algae appear).

    the cloudy water is probably "green" water. if this persist, do a black out (cover up the entire tank with black trash bag for 3 days. remember to stop the co2). But you said it is only cloudy upon changing water...so it might be the sediments that you are stirring up.
    if you can read this, you are too close.

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    1) Staghorn algae has hit me recently too. Taken from the Algaefinder over at APC here,

    Although it is very unsightly, manually removing existing strands and increasing nutrient levels are all that are needed to defeat staghorn. It is not eaten by herbivorous fish or invertebrates.
    The cloudy water thing.... take a look at your dechlorinator. I used to have a lot of particles floating around after every water change... now I've stopped adding my decholrinator. Water visibility has improved man.

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    I'm getting wierdness too with water changes.

    My 6ft (600litre) tank water turns cloudy the day after I change water. The previous round was wierder:
    - 1st Morning after water change - cloudy
    - 1st Evening after water change - no discernable difference
    - 2nd Morning after water change - cloudy and brown
    - 2nd Evening after water change - clear

    This setup is new, just before Aquarama this year.

    Each time there is no indication on my Seachem Ammonia Alert of any ammonia.

    Yesterday I did a 50% water change again, but i ran the tap water thru a carbon filter to remove chlorine and other chemicals. Same thing this morning... water turned cloudy and all my yamato shrimps died accept for 4. All fishes at the surface, or making frequent trips to gulp air at the surface.

    I did a nitrite test this morning... 0.3ppm, maybe slightly higher.

    I think next week I'll do a 50% water change again on Saturday morning and observe and test the tank every hour for the rest of the day. The cloudiness seems to appear only in the early morning of the next morning.

    I have a smaller tank, about 200 litres. That one has a newer setup then this tank and I changed 50% water on Saturday (also thru the carbon filter)... no problems faced. In the first few weeks a water change like that would have sent all the fishes to the surface too, but there was never cloudy water.

    Vincent - AQ is for everyone, but not for 'u' and 'mi'.
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    Seems like quite a few are experiencing this cloudy water thingy...Just curious, which part of S'pore are you guys staying? I'm in the west and haven't encounter any of these problems?

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    Do you have any surface movement on that problematic tank?

    Regards
    Peter Gwee

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    im living in geylang, specifically, the red light district. yes, both problematic tanks have surface movement. the discus tank has a spray bar sort of thing im using to agitate the water. the planted tank has little surface momvement - just abit of wobble-ing in one corner where the outlet hits the glass.

    do u suspect its the surface momvement?

    vinz: hello! u are right about the brown colour in the water. i never really noticed it before because it was quite faint. it is a murky brown by the way, for my tank. not clear rusty water.

    however, as posted earlier, the whole process in my tanks seem to last for a much shorter time than yours (one nite no more). there also isnt an obvious clear period before the water turns brown, more like a gradual thing before it clears up.

    do u think that may be because mine is of a smaller capacity of water?

    it doesnt seem to affect my shrimp, they're v happy. (maybe that got too much algae to eat boo hoo!) i think if i get used to this cloudy water changes, i can live with it. the fishes and plants seem to be able to too.

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    Your tanks are fairly new right? In my case I'm quite sure that the chlorine/chlormine/etc in the water is wiping out some of my filter bacteria and there isn't enough left over to take the slack. I suspect the same in your case by mild enough not to bother the fishes/shrimp but enough to trigger a bacteria bloom.

    I think you need to let the filter bacteria colony to build up a lot more so that any time a water change wipes out part of it, the remainder can take up the slack.

    If you can, use aged water. If you can store enough for your usual water change, your problem is solved more or less.

    Change less water for now. Maybe start with 10% per week and observe the effect. If none, then next week 15%, and so on. The planted should be ok with that. For the discus... depends on what you are feeding them and how dirty the water can get. Maybe a more frequent water change for discus until the filter really matures.

    The brown murky water stumps me. Is it only in your planted tank? Or both tanks?

    As for your turtle tank... that tank probably has a really large and healthy bacteria colony from all the waste generated by the terrapins and their food. Filter bacteria grows on all hard surfaces, in the gravel, etc. The small % of water change makes a difference too... less concentration of Cholorine/Chloramine and whatever being introduced.
    Vincent - AQ is for everyone, but not for 'u' and 'mi'.
    Why use punctuation? See what a difference it makes:
    A woman, without her man, is nothing.
    A woman: without her, man is nothing.

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