Clearing Cloudy Water

[smeagol]

Hi guys, started a new tank over the last weekend, a 1 feet low tech with some background plants and some HC. Low tech with a 13w PL light and an hang-on filter which cycles the tank at 230l/hr.







Been cycling the water for around 5 days already. The water still remains pretty cloudy, even after I did 2 water change of around 50%. Can anyone tell me what should I do to eliminate the cloudiness?

Suggestions to improve the tank is welcomed too. For now, I'm about to change the light to a 24W Illuminax, considering a change of filter to the liberty 100, and perhaps finding a suitable piece of wood to introduce some hardscape into the tank. By the way this tank is placed on my table in hall in NTU, so as much as I would love to, I can't work with a bigger tank now. Hahaha.

[Aquaculture]

5 days is enough for the dust to settle. The cloudiness is most likely a bacteria boom. Give it more time and it should clear up.

[comet]

can go to a friendly lfs and ask for their filter media. Than u place them into your filter. Do make sure they take the media from a healthy tank.

[AquaObsession]

Be patient and wait. It will clear up.

[dnsfpl]

i have the same problem
it resolve after adding another filter

[fishy]

Are other alternative such as using products such as Tetra's Water Clarifier which can resolve such an issue?

[bossteck]

My guess is, bacterial bloom, this is quite common with newly set up tanks.

What is happening is that there is an explosive growth of bacteria because of the abundance of nutrients available in the tank. (Nutirents that are provided by fish food, fish waste, dead plants) the bacteria is reproducing rapidly, during this period, the tank will be cloudy. But this will soon slow down and things will stablized.

There're a few things you could do, but I suggest you do nothing at all, waiting it out is the best option. But if you really must do something you could:

1. Do small partial water changes (about 20% be sure to add anti-chlorine/chloramine)
2. Add bottled starter bacteria (available in most LFS) this will speed up the process.
3. Add some media from established tanks.

BTW, I don't think the HC would enjoy being 'shaded'

[Ian Lim]

Bro, those are hairgrass in the foreground? If so, suggest that you spread them out rather then bundling it together in a big lump.

[smeagol]

Hi all, thanks for your inputs. I'll cycle the water for another few days more and see how things go.

By the way, the HC not very sheltered, and are already quite spread out I felt. Maybe I didn't take good enough pictures.

Hopefully the water will clear next week!

[acc]

Be patient and it will clear up soon enough...

[blue33]

I think he has Hairgrass not HC. But the hairgrass is too pack in one clump, got to trim shorter so that it will spread.

[beetlejuice403]

Hi smeagol,

my guess is the same as many had mentioned - Bacteria Bloom. Be patient & wait for a few more days of cycling your tank [Also good for controlling & achieving a good ANN result by then...] & the cloudiness should clear by then... Or if you can't wait, you may try being more hardworking by doing more water change routines...

As for improvement, maybe you would like to get a piece of black (or other colours) Oyama (or just any plain black or other coloured paper) paper to cover the back of the tank... [The first thing I noticed n your pics was that round extension cable thing... ]. Adding in a piece of Driftwood or Bogwood will surely be more appealing to the eyes (but do remember to boil & emmerse the DWs or BWs in hot water for a few days before adding into tank... if not, after solving cloudy water problem, brownish water will confront you as the woods will leak tanin acid in the tank...) If not, you may wish to try adding in a few pieces of rocks/stones to scape your tank...

As for the plants, you can divide your hairgrass into smaller clumps & spread them out in the foreground of your tank. As for your background plants, I think they can grow quite fast (if water conditions are good & light & ferts are sufficient), hence you may need trimming quite fast...

Lastly, looked at your pics & seems like you did not place a base underneathe your tank... You may wish to place a simple base (be it styrofoam - whether you want to wrap it is up to you; a piece of thick cardboard or those plastic sheets) under your tank to prevent scratching the surface of your study table... [Also, in times when you add water & accidentally spill some outside, the base can be rather useful...]. PS: Maybe this is just a very nitty gritty issue for you, but am just recommending lah...

Cheers!!

[khtee]

how's the tank now? still cloudy?

[smeagol]

Hey guys, yea the tank cleared fast after 1 or 2 days. I did rescaping twice since.

The first one,



Found a piece of wood with some hardy plants tied to it, from polyart, but didn't like it that much, always wanted a big piece, better if it looked like some tree trunk..

So I was looking around in C328 last friday when I saw this and got it. Stirred up the subtrate quite alot!



4 days later, now much better, still not most clear, but will do another update in 2 more days.





Yes I know many of you might voice concerns over the large number of fishes I have, about 40+ neons, 10+ cardinals and 3 guppies. I wanted to get a few more neons to add to the original cardinals and guppies, and the cheapest alternative was the 50 neon tetras for $6 at Polyart.. So far so good. All surviving well after one week and its really a wonderful sight to look at whenever I get sick of my books!

Changed my lighting to the 24W Illuminax (the tubes go by the name of Odyssea, 12000K daylight), and added a cooling fan to keep the temperature between 26 - 28 degrees. Wanted to spread the hairgrass more but now with the new piece of attraction, not much space to spread them out too, but still it seems to be growing quite well.

Just another question, can another help me ID the moss on the wood I have? I don't know if its java or not. Heh.

[wei]

why dont you consider changing your filter to a bigger capacity one? The hang-on might not be able to cater for the high bio-load.

[smeagol]

Any recommendation? I find the one I'm currently using to be quite good, as in its quiet, flow rate is decent for a 1 foot tank.

I was considering the Eheim Liberty 100, but the flowrate is twice as large, will that affect my fishes alot? Also, I think if I do get that, I will let the existing filter to continue running, and allow bacteria to grow in the new filter (supposing I get another one) before I decommission the current filter. Would that make sense?

[dnsfpl]

a external canister will be more suitable for that kind of bioload

[k3nlim]

maybe you can look at eden 501, due to its larger capacity to hold more filter media?

[Joseph*]

Actually I think his current filter is still capable of handling his current bioload.

I don't think neons etc will have very high bioload.

And I think that canister is a bit overkill.

I have 8 goldfishes in a 2ft and I am still using a HOB filter (atman 600) too.

Actually most of the time I also neglect my filter media for quite a long time, the main thing I only check for is if the nitrate in the water gets too high too fast then I might decide to upgrade something (or else I have to keep changing water).

If not I will only clean or change my wool whenever I feel like it should be quite thick with muck.

[Binks]

For a 1 foot tank isn't 40 Neons plus guppies a bit of a bio overload? A cannister may be better in this case. not washing the filter media is a good thing, it lets the nitrosomas and allied bacteria be to do all the conversions.

However, Smeagol to balance the comparatively high fish load, you could do with a denser plant growth.