One of my tanks has suddenly gone cloudy/white

Hi everyone...

In all the years of fishkeeping, this is a first for me and battling to sort it out

Last week after a large water change on one of my tanks, my water went like soemone has poured couple bottle of milk in the tank

I have not added any fish or ornaments that could cause this, I did however remove some rocks from the tank

This tank has beem running for 2 yeras and it has never happened before, as I said its a first for me

I have been doing 30% water changes since then and adding prime and stability but I dont see any improvement
On Sunday I added clarity but that didnt help either
The water change that trigered this off was done a week ago today

My ph was 7, amonia etc was all 0, 0.5 using a Sera kit test

The fish all look ok and eating but Im stressing BIG time..

Any suggestions /help would be gretaly appreciated..

 

I have a similar, mild case of this in one of my tanks every week when I do a 40% water change. My other tanks are all fine with the same water used... Just that one tank. No idea what causes it...

 

If it was following a large water change, you probably wiped out a large portion of your beneficial bacteria resulting in a mini-cycle, and a bacterial bloom. Your beneficial bacteria need to recover, continuing with the water changes will NOT help. Add seachem stability as per label, keep checking your water parameters, it should clear in a couple of days. What substrate do you have?

 

@Broder, yes its strange. Thstingray tank was done same day, same water and its fine.
@Jwh, I thought it is what might have happened but its already a week today... and still no change that's why I'm stressing!

The water change was probably about 50/60% but the tank has sump and 2 cannisters and I didnt change media there so none of that was destroyed..
I only changesd the wool on the sump which I do every week on all the tanks...

The substrate is PFS

I have been adding stability but this morning I was thinking... sorry if stupid question... if I have a bacterial bloom and keep adding stability which is bacteria, am I not agravationg the problem?

 

Problem in SA is, you don't always know what water you add to your tank, perhaps the local authority overdosed chlorine or chloramine, and the normal dose of Prime didn't cope, and so, inadvertently, you wipe out a significant portion of you BB. If this is the case, and you keep doing water changes it may actually aggravate the situation. The bacteria causing the bloom are likely different form the BB you are adding via Stability, you must shake the Stability very well to keep the BB in suspension, when you add it it, the Stability should be slightly cloudy.
As long as your water parameters are OK and fish are healthy and feeding you're OK, fish are perfectly fine in murky water, its only us humans wanting to see the fish that need clear water.
There may be some value in having you water tested by a LFS using different test kits, ask to do chlorine test as well

 

Get a small pump add woll to it replace morning and night that will help clear it . Wool will take out the cloudiness make sure its 100% i had a the same thing happen to me about 4 years ago the woll sorted my problem out . If theres no amonia spike then there are no mini cycle going . Also fish food wat are you feeding ?

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I filled the internal filter with wool only last night but saw no improvement this morning..

Aro gets 3 or 4 finger sized pieces of hake which vanish into her mouth without touching sides!
The rest get Hikari, different cichlid pallets and sometimes the massivore

 

@Jwh, we are on borehole water but I still use prime and I am always generous with the prime..... so cant be a fluctuation in the chlorine or chloramine...

We did water changes on two tanks that day and 3 tanks two days later and they all ok...

I will carry on with the stability and take some water through to the LFS to check if they get same readings as I am getting

Must I not do anymore water changes until it clears?

 

@ mariaS the hake will cloud water how long have you been feeding it ?

Can you skip it a few days just to determin the cause ? Feed something else to them a few days

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@ mariaS i dont think its the water you adding else all your tanks would be cloudy ?

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Been feeding arowana the hake for at least a year... remember aro doesnt chew her food and spit out millions of pieces of fish all over like an oscar for example

That fish goes down one shot and you dont see anything left...

 

Thanks Reedfish.... Will try it and see how it goes....
Should I still add stability at every water change?

 

@Reedfish,

Sorry that happened to your fish.. I guess thats what I am scared can happen
Up until this morning all was ok...

I will drop temperature and use the Prime from Seachem and see how it goes...
Thanks for the advice

 

I would get the water tested by a lab, with the drought we have, water tables have dropped and concentrations of whatever is below ground may have increased

 

I would quite willingly send you some of the BB gel balls I bought to add to your filter.. If ammonia spikes, it dissolves the gel even faster and releases more BB to deal with the spike.. I'm now sitting with about 3 litres of balls and not getting my tank anymore (might put up the 3ft or 4 ft for time being).. You only need like 5 to 10 balls (if I remember correctly) after a water change if you want to keep using it for maintenance.. I will reread the instructions (can also PM you the link from where I bought it) and if you PM me an address, shove a handful or so in overnight post for you..

Kali

 

If you water parameters are OK, and you use borehole water, why would you add Prime? Prime and Safe are reducing agents, and at high doses they will remove O2 from the water as well, especially Safe which is the more concentrated variant. You can do water changes, but i would limit these to keep nitrates in check.
If you can see the floating particles with the naked eye (or with reading glasses), floss will remove them, if not, floss won't help. I had some previously used plant substrate that was probably past it "use date" making one of my tanks cloudy for months, but also after being OK for months before that. I removed it and replaced with PFS, problem solved.
I take it that you vacuum the substrate and that nothing will leach from there, PFS is inert and if clean wouldn't do anything.
I wouldn't "over fiddle", your water test and the behaviour of your fish will indicate serious issues if these arise.
I agree with @Reedfish, reduce the temp of your tank, see if this helps. I would still get the water tested.

 

You are right and the thought crossed my mind.. Think I must do it
What I dont understand is why only one tank out of 6...
We use same watr, same products, same routine on all of them...

Feel very helpless.. like trying to treat a baby that cant talk to you!!