Need help on Cloudy water

[Clement79]

Hi,

Gong Xi Gong Xi.

Need help on this as I don't understand that why my tank water is getting cloudy more and more today. I checked that no dead fishes and plants is ok.

Tank size: 4ft x 2ft x 2ft
Lighting: 2 x 150W MH (10 000K)
Temp: 26.0 to 27.8 degree
NO3: around 0 to 5ppm
PO4: Unknown
K: Unknown
pH: have not test yet
KH: unknown
Tank age: around 3 weeks start on 04 Jan 03 but tank not doing well for the first week as there is not constant photo period.

My prediction is maybe green water is coming. Me need advice on this. Thank a lot for the help. Anyway Gong Xi Fa Choy! Happy Lunar New Year

[chua]

Hi

From the information that you had given, it may be due to these three reasons.
1) It is due to bacteria cultivation in your tank since it started only for around three weeks.
But normally, it will go off in less than a month depending on individuals.

2) You lighting may be too strong for a 4ft tank. If i am not mistaken, you only need around 6x36 or 4x55W for tank of such size. This add up to around 220W. However, you are using 300W.

3) Imbalance in your PH/KH/CO2 relationship. You must measure your KH and PH as soon as possible. If insufficient CO2, algae in this case green water will appear.

Hope these help.
Thks.

[Clement79]

Thanks.

CO2 don't think it is a problem. I will measure my pH and Kh asap.

Thank for the advice.

[Kingfisher]

Does having too many fishes also cause water cloudiness?

[chua]

Hi

Actually, it is not advisable to add fish into the tank during the cycling process. Definitely not when the tank is cloudy during the intial stage.
Wait till the tank is stabilized before adding the fish.

I am not too sure but i belived that a sudden big increase in the bioload may cause cloudy water. It is due to the sudden increase in the ammonia and nitrate level. However, if you increase your bioload slowly, it should be ok. But you must change more water weekly.

Thks.

[Kingfisher]

My 4x2x2ft tank is slightly cloudly all the time. I also noticed that especially after the night during lights off, the next morning when the lighs comes on, you can see that the water is much more cloudy although it tends to clear abit during the lights on period.

Tank is setup for more than 2 months already.

Using Ehiem 2028 canister filter. Could it be my filter not able to support that high bioload?

I have close to 200 livestocks (tetras, shrimps and the biggest fish is two 5" discus.)

Tank size: 4ft x 2ft x 2ft
Lighting: 6 x 55W PL tubes
Temp: 27.0 to 28.5 degree
NO3: above 40ppm
PO4: Unknown (i'm dosing it)
K: Unknown (Dosing this also)
pH: 6.8-6.9
KH: 2-3

[budak]

clement, i would suggest you just wait until your tank stabilises.... do not add new fish for the time being.... do weekly 1/3 water changes and let nature take its course......

kingfisher, with so much livestock, i would be surprised if your tank doesn't suffer from some severe imbalance. Your filter is also undercapacity for your tank size (a 2226 or 2228 would be needed). I can only say your idea of livestocking can in no way be recommended as a role model for other hobbyists, unless it were a negative case study.

[Kingfisher]

Will be adding another filter and transferring some fishes and shrimps over to another tank once I have it setup. So far other than slightly cloudy water, there has been no dead fish or algae on the plants except green spots algae on the glass.

[Kingfisher]

I was told that shrimps are senstive to water condition but my high NO3 don't seem to cause any problem to the 40 Yamatos, 4 Blue and 4 Rock shrimps.