Murky water suddenly in cycled tank??

Anyone know what could be causing murky water, even after 50% water change in cycled tank? The only thing I have changed is the filter media, from soft cotton wool like substance to more of a sponge substance? other than that everything is still the same...

Thanks,
Candice

 

Could be a bacteria bloom. I may be wrong.

 

By removing the cotton, you have started the nitrogen cycle again . . .

 

I don't think so TM as I have ceramic rings in the hood filtration for that purpose (good bacteria to colonise)which I have not touched, the filter wool/sponge is changed regularly, when needed and this has been the case all along. As a back up I also add stability every time I do a water change. I have a feeling that the sponge may have something weird in it, going to get some filter wool today and change it and see if that was the issue.

---------- Post added at 09:10 ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 ----------

Hi Firefly,

How can I tell for sure? and what would be the treatment for a bacteria bloom? I am going to google it now, but if you have experience with this, I would love to know more.. thanks,Candice

 

TM could have touched on a correctly deduced point because it is the only thing that you say has changed, however most people change their filter wool regularly. Yes, the bacteria will colonize on the filter wool, but not as much as on the ceramic rings. The filter wool's primary function is mechanical filtration- to remove the floating debris. This often gunks up the wool, and can slow the filter's performance a lot... so it is recommended that when you do a filter clean that you can actually change all the wool. But this I only recommend if you have other biological filtration in the filter. If you are only running filter wool and filter sponges with no other biological material, then I would only advise changing 50% of the filter wool.

The murky water could be a bacterial bloom. This often happens in the case of a new tank. Basically the bacteria will bloom as there are excess ammonia and nitrites in the water. As this stabilizes, the excess bacteria will die off. Generally it goes away after normal water changes. I cannot answer as to why it has happened in a cycled tank. You should maybe just test your ammonia and nitrites.

I wouldn't recommend using any chemicals to kill of the bacteria bloom, as this will also kill the bacteria in your filter.

If the murkyness has a greenish tinge, then it's an algae... aka green dust algae. In my experience, the only way to cure this is to do a 50% water change, then black out the tank, (completely cover in dark blankets) for 4 days, and when you uncover, do another 30-40% water change. This has cured y greed dust algae a few times in the past.

 

thanks for info Zoom, I will go and do the tests now and see how they come out, will use the liquid ammonia test kit, as the strip test tells me everything is fine... I have ceramic rings, ammonia remover bag as well as a purigen bag in the hood filter, which are untouched.. what I was thinking is the sponge I bought, came in a roll (unpackaged) perhaps this has some sort of debris on it that is causing the milky water? it is not green, just slightly milky the further back you look into the tank.

I am going to change back to the wool (which comes packaged) and see if that makes any difference.

Thanks,
Candice

 

Candice, I would like to suggest that you always wash new filter media, before putting it in your filter, as it may have dust/spores on it. You never know where it's been, before it was wrapped.

 

Should have thought of that.. will def do so in future I have also replaced the faulty powerhead as well as the filter sponge with a new one, and will do another 30% water change and see how that goes, all water parameters are fine, so its not ammonia thank goodness!

 

Hi

If it is milky, then it is most likely a bacterial bloom. This is not a big issue. I would suggest you add additional aeration to maximise the oxygen in the water. It will go away after a week.

When I change filter wool I only change 50%. Even though bacteria colonize the bio media, I have found that whenever I change all the filter wool I get a slight NH4 spike. Test kits often don't pick this up, but I can clearly see it due to the presence of fine hair algae on the plants and sometimes the glass.

Zeolite (ammonia remover) become exhausted after 2 months. It's efficiency is reduced quite dramatically after a month. It is pretty useful when setting up a new tank, but if you have an NH4 or NO2 spike in a cycled tank it is best to replace the zeolite with a brand new bag.

In your case, I would just insure that there is plenty of O2 in the water and just reduce feeding for a few days.

Regards
Lauré

 

Hi Laure,

Thanks for the info, I did another 50% water change yesterday as well as replaced the sponge with a packaged one I bought and cleaned the glass and fortunately,the water is clear now regarding the ammonia remover bag, would you suggest I take it out and leave it out or get a new one?

Regards,
Candice

 

Hi Candice

I use zeolite in new tanks and I just leave it in the filter forever. After it served its purpose it no longer adsorbs any NH4 / NO2, but it makes reasonable bio media at this point. If you need the space in the filter then remove it and replace it with better / proper biomedia such as ceramic rings.

Regards
Lauré

 

Hi Laure,

Ok well thats fine then as I have more than enough space being a hood filter, and also already have ceramic rings in there too will just leave it as is then.

Thanks,
Candice

 

Sounds like a Bacterial Blossom it could be that when you removed the soft cotton wool most of the bacteria entered the tank water and caused a blossom of some sort.