Slightly cloudy water

[joe]

Hi guys, would appreciate any advise here on my 2 feet water which has turned slightly cloudly last week. Using Atman 3336 filter, 60W PL light (19 gal tank) and CO2 tank with diffusor.

The densely planted tank has been established for 2 months and the water has been almost crystal clear for weeks (using an external filter). Last week, the water turned slighly cloudy on Tues. I changed 30% water on Wed nite and some h. stricta were replanted before the water change. I did see some Fe fert balls in the gravel being slightly disturbed but it should settle quite fast right? Waiting for another 4 days, the water still remained slightly cloudy. I then scraped the walls for the slight algae and did another 30% water change on Sunday morning. The water is still cloudy this morning. Other than the above changes, I recently started dosing very small amount of liquid Fe fert. No changes liao.

What are possible reasons for this?
1) External filter needs a rinse? (not washed since setup)
2) Dead fish rotting somewhere?

Any advise is appreciated [:] [:] [:]

[bclee]

It seemed to be a norm for tank to turn cloudy at approx the 1~2 month mark. It happened to me.

Wonder if anyone else experience this phenomenon?

You may want to wash the mechanical filter portion of your filter and do some water changes.

BC

[sherchoo]

hmmmm... come to think of it, it happened to me too but at the 5 month mark. Dun think related to you guys. Did not do anything much except regular water change. Cleared up within a week.

[theodore]

I had the same prob a few weeks ago (2.5 mth mark) but the prob was due to a clogged internal filter. I ended up cutting the filter wool in 2, washed 1 piece with some tank water and put both pieces back. Had to keep my fingers crossed that i did not kill too many beneficial bacteria in the process. []

[bclee]

Actually the bacteria does not reside only in your filter. There are everywhere. Probably most of it is in your substrate. So when you tank has already cycled, you don't have to worry too much.

BC

[joe]

hmmmm tis is strange ... any of the others experienced this as well?

bclee, u mean washing the bottommost layer of the filter which filters off the debris and dirt? ... i've done 2 water changes and the only last thing is to wash the filter if all else fails

[toledosun]

This happens to me too. My tank is lightly planted with low requirements plants so over the weekend, I tried turning on the airstone. The water became crystal clear. However, when I turned on the CO2 again this morning (mine is the cylinder type, not DIY), I noticed that the water turned slightly cloudy again.

Wonder why?

[ek]

my guess is with O2 on it helps the nitrifing bacteria to strive better -> clearer water.
but with CO2 the pH somehow drop (more acidic) to below the optimum condition of the nitrifing bacteria -> cloudiness starts

BTW, how bad is the cloudiness?

[toledosun]

In my case, it's not that bad just that you can see that it's slightly hazy. So, by the sound of things, my plants aren't producing that much O2 yet, which also makes sense because it's mainly low requirement plants.

[joe]

its only slightly hazy but i'm used to crystal clear water mah ... so wondering what happened ...

my co2 is only 2bps per second ... did not measure pH/kH for 2 weeks already ... my plants are bubbling quite ok leh ... riccia full bubbles every nite ... h. stricta and polysperma also giving out steady streams of bubbles ... morning i wake up the fishes are well below the water surface, meaning sufficient O2 in the water ... wat gives?

[joe]

juz came back ... water is slightly more cloudly liao ... anyone can help?