* A word on UV Sterilizers, Water Skimmers and floating protein slicks. Here is yet one more situation which can cause clarity issues in your aquarium, so if the video did not answer your questions- try giving this story below, a read. Thank you. Puffers are eating and making a mess, as puffers usually do (i get this issue in my puffer tank) ... so you have food particles floating in a water column that has no dominant bacteria yet (clean water change water)... so because the food contains more than ammonia and nitrites/nitrates ... mold and bacteria will find that protein (check if you can make the water surface smooth and turn off the filter or aeration and check for a protein film that looks like oil or gasoline shimmer on the surface of the water.) So this uncolonized body of water is growing bacteria in the water collumn fueled by the various forms of bacteria from the food, the fish and just oddball bacteria or spores/fungi from your tank's microbiome. Then eventually it settles, the bacteria run out of food to live off of and settle back into the substrates until new water and or new food or particles enter your tanks. Likely this is protein loving bacteria and harmless. However, if you want to get rid of it, you can get a uw sterilizer or a protein skimmer....or both (that would likely fix it). You could also get some more filter floss polishing pads to filter the water through a smaller filter and catch more debris. Lastly, you could try new foods or rotating the feeding (clams, blood worms, flakes or snails etc...) using only one type when feeding - every other day or smaller portions each day. Good luck Everyone!
You all prolly dont give a shit but does anyone know of a way to get back into an instagram account..? I was stupid lost my password. I would appreciate any tips you can give me
@Oakley Chandler I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I've been lucky with my new tanks so far. Here are my suggestions to avoid a bacteria bloom: 1. Use at least 50% water from an established tank. I use water change water. Make sure to get a good amount of mulm in the water. 2. Use a seeded sponge filter or seeded media from an HOB or canister filter. 3. Add a couple handfuls of substrate from an established tank. 4. Add live plants to the tank during the setup. Re number 4 - if you're setting your first tank, live plants can really jumpstart the cycle. In my experience, you cycle a brand new tank in about a week if you add enough plants. My favorites for this are hornwort and guppy grass, because both plants have a lot of surface area. Hope this helps...
This was super helpful and, perhaps oddly... relaxing to listen to. I've just put a huge piece of wood in my tank and BOOM; cloudy water. Slime on the wood, just as you said. As usual, I find your content incredibly interesting, fascinating, helpful, and entertaining. Thank you.
In the beginning of the video “I’ve watched a bunch of videos on this topic…generally they just put a link to something they want you to buy…”. At the 5:25 mark of this video, “I suggest you buy…there are affiliate links in the description “, LOL.
Lol you make a good point. At the beginning I said 'beware of people selling you a simple solution or cure". So im okay with people offering things that actually fix a problem or work, but I don't think tossing chemicals in the tank is a great idea in nearly all cases. Cheers
Thank you. I tòok notes and you explained all this so that it made sense. I appreciate you sharing yòur knowledge. It's much easier to remember when it's laid out so that it makes sense. A fan.
No problem at all. Its usually harmless...sometimes it shows thag a change is occurring, but usually its a good one, in that you had higher ammonia or waste levels and then the bacteria that relies on the waste for its nourishment, dies and the clear cell membranes/ walls then cloud up the water by the millions ...and either settle over time, or just get water changed- away.. Let me know if you need any clarifications and have a great week, Carolyn!
This was a really helpful video. I have a problem tank that I am trying to sort out, it's a 75 gallon. A week and a half ago I made the mistake of doing too much cleaning. I thought I should do a proper thorough gravel vac, so I took all the driftwood out and really vacuumed the heck out of the substrate. I think the driftwood (and attached plants) probably sat out of the water long enough to kill a bunch of the bacteria, and probably the walls of the tank dried out a bit. I really didn't think I had it all out of the tank that long, but the next morning the water was milky. All my tests show nitrates (a bit high), no ammonia, and no nitrites, so I suppose I just need to be patient. I've never had a bloom last this long before, though. I read somewhere that a bacteria bloom can cause an oxygen deficiency, so I dropped an air stone in just in case, even though I have lots of surface agitation already, I figured it couldn't hurt. Maybe I will put some activated carbon in the HOB today.
Yeah just a few water changes and time and itll all return to normal ... if you start adding chemicals and so forth, itll clear then cloud, then algae then clear then cloud etc etc etc
Best video thankyou I'm having issue with cloudy water in my 55 litre aquarium Live planted tank with a male betta Have used clarifies no change Did test ammonia issue Nitrite nitrate are 0 Will daily water 30% changes help clear and reduce issue of ammonia n cloudiness Thankyou
Watched 6 videos before yours, none of them meet in the middle, im left in more confusion than before an overload of useless information unless i can make sense of all 6 and make a conscious decision based on the correct thing to do. Wished i just watched yours first and saved time and Internet data, plenty of reasons for this issue as you very well highlight and all logical, practical and common sense, never use chemicals, never feed my pets colourants and preservatives, most times we only need to take minimum interference if needed and let nature take care of itself and relax Im already subbed, your channel and father fish are the only two channels anyone keeping fish really needs, watch anything else and you're most likely going to fall for the usual marking scandals and fish sterilisation quarantine tanks many people keep their fish in.
Well im glad it was somewhat useful then! If you you have a question or subject/species/plant or biological process you're curious about, try "@fishtory xyz" ... xyz being the topic you want info on...but @ symboling my channel should narrow down the other videos, if you so desire :) welcome to the channel as well
@@Fishtory ha ha me: "super useful" but I do have a couple moderately clouded tanks I'd like to clear up so glad youtube had your video popped up. Hey, I got a pair of pygmy sunfishes...okefenokee: www.aquaculturestore.com/okefenokeepygmysunfish.html These little guys are both skittish and interesting. I hope yours are doing good for you. Thought I'd share this video I found: th-cam.com/video/tMN126_SLmI/w-d-xo.html
I just set up a a 40 gallon tank with soil sub straight and covered with sand. 2nd night in it was like a watered down milk shake in there. I’m on day 3. Going to test the water after watching your video and see what I do from there. Everything in the tank is new including the filter so interesting to see how it plays out.
Searched prime to condition water ..after that use stability as directions say for 7 days with a sponge filtration ..good to go wish I new this when I started ..your tank will cycle and you will have clear clean water with water changes and cleaning when needed ..test your water …✌🏻
Bloom is normal during the Nitrogen Cycle and will eventually subside once a balance has been met. Using Seachem’s Prime and Stability right at the beginning is always an easy way to jump start it. I recommend using prime and stability every water change. Also, when you are establishing a tank don’t do any water changes, be patient.
Thanks so much for this video! I've actually been battling this problem for a while now and I've had no luck with getting it to clear up. I'm going to try again with your suggestions 😁
Yeah it can grow in hard or soft. It's a fungi that eats lignin and cellulose. Then the cell walls end up empty of nutrients and waft off into the tank as a milky snotty cloud or coverage of the wood and nearby surfaces. Then bacteria moves in and does much of the same, but once the easy to acess tannins and lignin is gone, the colony also dies and can produce a larger or thicker, foggy look- until it settles or is removed via water change
I've found that doing less to the tank stops it being cloudy. Have a planted tank. Dont vac substrate and dont do water changes just do top ups. Everything will settle in fast and the plants will take the nitrates away.
I really enjoyed the info in this video, especially the segment where you explained the slime mold on the manzanita and cholla wood. Thanks for this discussion!
I have a 75gall9n tank with turtles that i hadn't cleaned in months. I finally got a decent filter, a fluval fx4 and after installing the water looks exactly like a bacterial bloom situation for 2 weeks now. Should i wait longer for it to settle, replace water, or something up with the filter?
I am having that problem on a relatively new tank; without an ammonia issue. I will take you advise and just let it be for a while, because this is a planted tank with wood and rocks.
Did your planted tank clear on its own or did you have to do something else? How many days after setup did it become cloudy? Or was it cloudy right away? How long did it take to clear? Thanks. I've been in the hobby a very long time, but I am experiencing an issue I have never had before with a new planted tank setup.
I have a lower level fog in my shrimp walstad vase at the moment. It went through it's cycle a month or so ago. But noticed some lower plant break down. All fish a pair of clown killifish, a pair of otocinclus and shrimp are all doing fine. All water readings are at 0. But have also been doing small dosing of bacter AE. So assume it's from that. Or I had to treat the tank with No Planaria as I had an outbreak of hydra. Going to leave it alone and see what it does.
Thank you for this topic! I have 2 tanks of 5 that are dealing with this issue, and you’ve given me quite the homework assignment! By the way, do you think rapashy can cause cloudiness? Just wondering.
Yes rapashy definitely can... bacteria and fungi eat the stuff that melts away or is left over. Any excess energy sources in your water can cause it technically speaking
Two products your defiantly need is seachem prime and stability ..about all I use to cycle a tank and I use sponge filters ..with water changes and cleaning of tank when needed ..I always have clear water ..✌🏻
I use one or the other every time...I probably just assumed everyone uses some dechlor...but those ones are the best in my mind. API can go fly a kite lol
Thank you.... my tank looked like i had tipped milk into it when i upgraded to a bigger tank. I'd moved the contents of my old tank over to the new one but I'd not fully calculated the new volumes when adding water to the new tank so i hadnt declorinated it properly. I lost x2 fish within days and the water was so milky i had to move the fish into a bucket whilst i did water changes. It took about a week to fully clear and the chemicals i bought to stop it did nothing to help. *note to self to make sure i calculate correctly.
Pretty sure my tank went cloudy after I added some calcium bicarbonate to raise the KH since it was at zero. But it turns out my pH was already at something like 8.0, I didn't realize this because the one and only time I checked my pH I had a bunch of Biologicals in the tank no doubt bringing the pH down. So adding the baking soda probably shot the ph up to something like 9 or more, and I'm guessing that that killed a lot of the bacteria. Thankfully it hasn't killed my fish yet. I'm now working to bring things down with water changes including adding some bottled drinking water that has a 6.0 pH, and adding Catappa leaves. I guess I want to bring the pH Down somewhat slowly, to not shock the fish yet again. Anyway thanks for the video, it pointed me in the right direction.
If you have a newer tank and the cycle is establishing with elevated nitrite and rising nitrates, isn’t it better to not do water changes and let the aquarium sort it out and continue undisturbed while it establishes itself? If you do water changes, won’t it set everything back? One can add some prime and stability to tie up the nitrite so it doesn’t harm fish, no?
I suggest you put a timeline on this with the situations broken down. New tank, cloudy water. Added something, cloudy water. Added wood, cloudy water. Water cloudy for over (how many days). You waited, water still cloudy. Testing cloudy water. And so on.
I have well water, and for some reason lately the water has been slightly that orange color. I did a decent water change and now its pretty cloudy. Would carbon help with this issue? Or what do you suggest? Thank you so much!
Carbon could help a little bit, but more-so just time and letting those particles settle down will help. Perhaps adding polishing pads to the last layer of your filtration would clean that up also. Good luck, regardless, it shouldn't be harmful
Is it wise to use Catappa leaves which release those tannins and lower PH while a bacteria bloom is happening? Set up tank 2 weeks ago. I have a 5.5G tank with live plants as well as one Betta and using Fluval Spec Substrate for plants. This also lowers PH slightly. I'm currently using Seachem Prime to help detoxify Ammonia/Nitrite and I almost never have a spike. Some people say that having a low PH wont allow the bacteria to grow and will die off so I'm not sure what range of PH I should really be in. Others say a Betta can thrive in acidic water too. I'm usually at a 6.0 - 6.4. If I do a water change, PH is at neutral 7.0 then back down again. I just want to get a clear explanation on what is beneficial for the bacteria and plants as well as my Betta so I'm kinda stuck here. Lol thanks!
Sure thing. So nitrofying bacteria that we need for cycling our tanks can generally survive 5.0 or 6.0ph up to 9.5 or 10ph usually. There are definitely exceptions, but the 'normal' strains will occur in that range. As for harmful bacteria, the same is essentially true... lower ph then 5 or 5.5 will kill external bacterial infections, but more than that- the actual chemical components in tannins, are antimicrobial and encourage a healthy slime coat and a digestion in fish that come from "black water" or acidic & tannin rich lakes or streams. I would recommend pre-mixing 2 gallons or so, of new water in a bucket about 24 hours ahead of your water changes...and you can play with whatever leaves or tannins you'd like. You actually can skip prime and let chlorine evaporate off within 24 hours also...but the prime isn't harming anything in low doses as recommended. I hope this helps answer what you were curious about, but if not- please feel free to ask more questions Best of luck to you and your fish! (PS I've kept bettas at as low as 4.5 ph , when lowering it over time and not shocking them with water changes of more than half a ph point or so away from whatever the betta are living in.
What's your top tips for cyanobacteria? I thought I'd beaten it, but it seems to be back. Gonna do a big clean and water change and clean my HOB. Weirdly, a good amount of red root floaters are turning brown and my green tiger lotus doesn't look happy. I do have some Easylife cyanobacteria treatment, but I'd rather use as a last resort
@@ineedadab Yeah, I saw that on GreenAqua's channel. It's more on the exposed surfaces. I'd rather not be introducing another chemical into the system if I can help it. I'll keep it in mind
Honestly, acidity! Drop that ph and often times itll kill the cyanobacteria 6.0 to 6.5 or so will often kill most strains. However, antibiotics, specifically erythromycin is probably the best bet sadly. It will slightly harm the good nitrifying bacteria also, but as long as it's well established, itll be fine, just keep up with the water changes as per the meds directions... ive actually had good luck killing it with one day of erythromycin dosing. A uv light sterilizer will also rip right through green water or cyanobacteria if it's suspended in the water column. Hydrogen peroxide in a syringe to spot treat it , if its down in the front substrate, works well too...but usually itll return eventually since some of the colony will survive a spot treatment. Good luck, my friend!
Hi! I'm looking for advice on my 5gal fish tank. I've had cloudy water for the past two weeks or so after what I assumed the tank to be cycled. I did a fishless cycle of the tank, which took about 3 months to "cycle". First month it was about what was expected, ammonia introduced by fish pellets, some nitrites, then the second month I believe the cycle had been stalled because my nitrite readings where off the charts. I did a couple of water changes on the third month to get the nitrites down and now I'm reading .25 ammonia (API test kit) 0 nitrites and 20 nitrates. During this time, I believe in the first month the tank had cloudy water and it went away after a couple of days. My new cloudy water issue came after I added some water to top off my tank as evaporation takes a significant portion of the water out of the tank. I used API fresh coat + to dechlorinate the new water. Any advice would be great, the general advice on the internet is a new bacterial bloom, however I don't think that's the cause as it's lasted for longer than average. The water parameters have been stable during the cloudiness. Thank you!
It could be the water changes causing an rise and fall of temp/ph/tds and nitrates...but the cloudiness can often be DEAD Exoskeletons of microfauna and not just a bloom of more living bacteria...so it could be that you need to skip the water changes for like 2 weeks and see if it clears up. At this point that is what I would do and see If it settles down. Best of luck to you, my friend!
Definitely if they die. Often shrimp in New water shed their shells which in theory does release some kh and gh...but I'm not sure if its enough to show up in the water column. It may-however, be a food source for microscopic fauna and thus cause a bloom of calcium loving bacteria or something perhaps?
@@Fishtory but it cause some of the sensitive fish specially tetra start to go near surface of the water and snail stop eating and rush to surface of water until i change almost half of the water in slowly way, and reduce shirmp, then only they all back to normal , creature and the eco system in water is so fragile , we must protect environment ...
I did a fishless cycle and everything cycled and my ammonia went to zero and then I added a few snails. As soon as I added snails, by the morning, the water was super cloudy and it has been and it’s been about 4 days. I’ve been doing small water changes but I’m not sure what the issue is! Any ideas?
So doing those water changes refers that good bacteria's food load each time...since you have such little ammonia and nitrates, the bacteria double in less than 12 hours ...then run out of food and some die off (the core cycled ones should be fine still though. ) So you are seeing dead cells of bacteria that are making it cloudy.. just leave it a week or two even and it'll get very clear. Also just don't over feed your fish or snails as you cycle it up. But it's not harmful as long as your ammonia and nitrites stay 0
I got a moss ball plant that eat thru water column ,I was curious if I got it from petco in a tank with fish should I add it or eh risky .still cycling day 7.
i add water and soil from another really little tank in my main tank, and now water is cloudy, it is dangerous ? I got shrimps, copepods, ostracods, water isopods, blackworms, and guppys. I have no filter at all, it's a low tech tank.
Probably not dangerous, as long as ammonia stays 0. It's likely a strain of bacteria that killed off some of an old colony and then there tiny clear cell membranes float into the water. Within a week it should settle down and water changes can speed it up. Cheers
I think my milky water is worse than this. I get huge bacterial blooms that coat everything in white slime, even to the point of clogging the filters & killing the live plants. One fish store owner told me "This is a negative bad bacteria from your home." Some saltwater fish keepers on TH-cam told me b/c I clean things around my apartment w/ rubbing alcohol, the fumes could accidentally be carbon dosing the tank causing bacteria blooms. I just tried to cycle a tiny tank w/ no fish & ammonia chloride drops + Fritz Turbostart 700 & sure enough, white water & clime clogged filters again.
Yeah back off the cleaning for a while perhaps? Fumes could be killing things. Sometimes a bloom takes a month to finish and naturally go away...any longer than 2 or 3 weeks and something is very wrong
What if I set up a tank with plants (and snails), didn't add fish and the water got cloudy. I do a 25% every week, parameters are good but the water remains cloudy 3 months later. I have just added a fish for the first time. I've never had this in my life and have had 10 15 tanks. No issues in my other current tanks.
Hmmm my guess is that you had an over colonization of beneficial bacteria and it used decaying plants, fertilizers, or substrate nutrients to spike the initial bacteria growth, and then it was dying without enough ammonia or nitrogen (which is fine...just don't add a bunch of fish super quickly.) I'm guessing the bacteria is just getting used to how big it needs to be, and it will eventually equalize. Orrr it could be tannins or something coming off wood in the tank? Good luck trying to sort it out.
My tank was crystal clear for nearly 10 years , until a couple of months ago when I had to do an emergency upgrade due to my 29 gallon bowing at the front. I swapped literally everything over to the new tank and it's been hazy ever since 🙄 I know I missed something I just don't know what
Hi, could i ask for help? I have 90 ltrs planted aquarium and i am challenging with cloudy/dusty/milky water and sometimes also i getting green water... but... Did anybody have problem like i have in my tank that water is cloudy when light is off, but then during photoperiod after an hour or two water crystalizing itself? Shortly after light on, i can see dust in the water, but then later on after an hour sometimes 2hrs water is getting much more clear... Because of this issue i haven't been feeding my fishes quite long time What is causing that? I am doing water changes 1/week 20ltrs RO/Tap water I have gravel 2-3mm gradation and on the back 7-8cm layer in front 4-5 cm layer. I have been doing many times tests for Nh3, NO2, NO3 but tank looks established... nh3 0 and no2 0 No3 10-15 Do i have to give more NO3 fertiliser to have more nitrogen? I have some fertilisers like phosphates, nitro, potassium, and some Fe but i need properly chelators... i am not dosing CO2. Whenever i dose fertilisers i am getting algae like green dust algaes on glass, green spot algaes on the glass leaves etc.. Green hair algaess.... i have tests for Fe, Po4, No3, Nh3, No2, K Gh and Kh... My Gh is 7 Kh 3 Am i doing sth wrong?
I dont see cloudiness as a problem. It will always correct itself if your water is of good quality.....I look at cloudy water as evidence of some process happening.....parameter checks can help to figure it out. I personally won't use clearing drops. The less artificial things added to your aquarium, the better off it will be in the long run.
I just came across this video and informative but Im still confused. Ive watched over a Hundred Videos and still cant see a process of what to do. New tank owner 36gallon here going on 3 weeks now. Have rock substrate, with some live plants 2 swords and some annubis floating up top with a couple fake plants and have a driftwood in the bottom i have a HOB Fluval 50 with sponge filter and 2 layers of micro filter pads took out the charcol pad and the Bio Stones and rplaced with a purigen pack. I have a Bubbler and Airator Test water weekly and just tested yesterday at fish store. Ph 7.6 Ammonia .15 Nitrate 0 Nitrite 0 They said that was good but water is still cloudy. Added Clarity and did nothing. Fish are super active dont seem in distress. And been using the prime and stabilty for a week. And added a Purigen pack in HOB yesterday and went 24hrs with no change. So I am stumped. Looking for guidance..
I've been experiencing cloudy water for the past 3-4wks & somehow none of those fits my situation. 29gal heavily heavily planted tank (been propagating a lot in prep for an upgrade to a 50gal), CO2, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5ppm nitrates. Running a fuval 307 canister filter at about half flow. The tanks been established for nearly 5 months now. Not my city water bc I have 2 tanks in my home & only experiencing this issue in one of them. I do roughly 50% water changes every 5 days on this tank bc it hold 9 dwarf puffers which are a bit messy, 3 oto cats & 20 amano shrimp. Sand substrate, manzanita & seiryu stone. I dose easy green, easy iron & Seachem Excel. I haven't medicated the tank in over a month. I did use a clarifier which worked for a few days but the cloudy water came right back. What gives? Oh & I did the white container check to make sure it wasn't green water I was experiencing & there was no green tint at all.
My guess is that the messy puffers are eating and making a mess, as puffers usually do (i get this issue in my puffer tank) ... so you have food particles floating in a water column that has no dominant bacteria yet (clean water change water)... so because the food contains more than ammonia and nitrites/nitrates ... mold and bacteria will find that protein (check if you can make the water surface smooth and turn off the filter or aeration and check for a protein film that looks like oil or gasoline shimmer on the surface of the water.) So this uncolonized body of water is growing bacteria in the water collumn fueled by the various forms of bacteria from the food, the fish and just oddball bacteria or spores/fungi from your tank's microbiome. Then eventually it settles, the bacteria run out of food to live off of and settle back into the substrates until new water and or new food or particles enter your tanks. Likely this is protein loving bacteria and harmless. However, if you want to get rid of it, you can get a uw sterilizer or a protein skimmer....or both (that would likely fix it). You could also get some more filter floss polishing pads to filter the water through a smaller filter and catch more debris. Lastly, you could try new foods or rotating the feeding (clams, blood worms, flakes or snails etc...) using only one type when feeding - every other day or smaller portions each day. Good luck! Puffers are a tricky one!
@@Fishtory Thanks! Yeah I already rotate between frozen bloodworms & bladder snails. I'm just mystified bc the tank looked great for 4 straight months then bam cloudy water. No bio film, my fast growing stem plants do a great job filtering the water. I'll up my water changes & like I said I'm bout to upgrade them to a 50gal so hopefully the larger water volume will help keeps these issues to a minimum. Thanks again for this vid & ur help!
I have a bacterial bloom for my fish only tank for over a month now…liquid test results says it is cycled.. i have been feeding very few and i have three filters loadedwith foam media and ceramic media for a 10g tank with only 4 fish (mollies and angelfish).. they say leave it for a month and it will clear but it has been over a month of no water change and all i am getting is some dead fish.. tried quickstart and stability but no effect 😢
@@Fishtory initially when the water was stil clear i would get ammonia readings then later nitrate. I seeded my tank by squeezing filters from an established tank. However after 1 week after that, the tank started getting cloudy and then i would consistently get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate reading. Now 1 month and 2 weeks passed my tank is 90% milky white and you could see white smokey cloud swirling inside the tank and my filters foam media are full of biofilms/gunks. I am feeding 2-3 pellets per fish once a day and only 5 times a week. Until now water is still 90% milky, consistently 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate, pH at 7.2, and white foamy bubbles are starting to form in the water surface. Lots of people told me not to do water changes and let the bacterial bloom clear on its own but already 6 weeks and nothing seems to change…
* A word on UV Sterilizers, Water Skimmers and floating protein slicks. Here is yet one more situation which can cause clarity issues in your aquarium, so if the video did not answer your questions- try giving this story below, a read. Thank you.
Puffers are eating and making a mess, as puffers usually do (i get this issue in my puffer tank) ... so you have food particles floating in a water column that has no dominant bacteria yet (clean water change water)... so because the food contains more than ammonia and nitrites/nitrates ... mold and bacteria will find that protein (check if you can make the water surface smooth and turn off the filter or aeration and check for a protein film that looks like oil or gasoline shimmer on the surface of the water.)
So this uncolonized body of water is growing bacteria in the water collumn fueled by the various forms of bacteria from the food, the fish and just oddball bacteria or spores/fungi from your tank's microbiome. Then eventually it settles, the bacteria run out of food to live off of and settle back into the substrates until new water and or new food or particles enter your tanks. Likely this is protein loving bacteria and harmless.
However, if you want to get rid of it, you can get a uw sterilizer or a protein skimmer....or both (that would likely fix it). You could also get some more filter floss polishing pads to filter the water through a smaller filter and catch more debris.
Lastly, you could try new foods or rotating the feeding (clams, blood worms, flakes or snails etc...) using only one type when feeding - every other day or smaller portions each day.
Good luck Everyone!
You all prolly dont give a shit but does anyone know of a way to get back into an instagram account..?
I was stupid lost my password. I would appreciate any tips you can give me
@Mateo Ronnie Instablaster :)
@Oakley Chandler I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and im waiting for the hacking stuff atm.
Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Oakley Chandler It worked and I actually got access to my account again. Im so happy!
Thank you so much you saved my ass !
@Mateo Ronnie Happy to help xD
Thank you for your most helpful post. your voice is so soothing i fell a sleep. I woke up and got to watch you all over again. thank you.
Haha sure thing! No problem. How to cure insomnia...and a cloudy tank! Cheers! -Alex.
I've been lucky with my new tanks so far. Here are my suggestions to avoid a bacteria bloom:
1. Use at least 50% water from an established tank. I use water change water. Make sure to get a good amount of mulm in the water.
2. Use a seeded sponge filter or seeded media from an HOB or canister filter.
3. Add a couple handfuls of substrate from an established tank.
4. Add live plants to the tank during the setup.
Re number 4 - if you're setting your first tank, live plants can really jumpstart the cycle. In my experience, you cycle a brand new tank in about a week if you add enough plants. My favorites for this are hornwort and guppy grass, because both plants have a lot of surface area.
Hope this helps...
I totally agree mark! Thank you
This was super helpful and, perhaps oddly... relaxing to listen to. I've just put a huge piece of wood in my tank and BOOM; cloudy water. Slime on the wood, just as you said. As usual, I find your content incredibly interesting, fascinating, helpful, and entertaining. Thank you.
Thanks for watching, my friend! Im glad it helped a bit.
Appreciate you taking the time to teach us things brodie 👍
You bet
excelente video, me tranquilizo mucho saber que es parte normal de un nuevo acuario con sustrato profundo. saludos desde CDMX
Very in depth great video im battling this cycle right now its terrible arghhhh
Hang in there, and keep at it. Thanks for tuning in, and best of luck to you, Adam!
thank you so much this answered my q’s!!!
Very glad to hear. Don't be a stranger! You're always welcome in our community here :)
In the beginning of the video “I’ve watched a bunch of videos on this topic…generally they just put a link to something they want you to buy…”. At the 5:25 mark of this video, “I suggest you buy…there are affiliate links in the description “, LOL.
Lol you make a good point. At the beginning I said 'beware of people selling you a simple solution or cure". So im okay with people offering things that actually fix a problem or work, but I don't think tossing chemicals in the tank is a great idea in nearly all cases.
Cheers
Thanks for "clearing that up" 😂
Any time! Hahaha 😆
Thank you.
You're welcome!
Thank you. I tòok notes and you explained all this so that it made sense. I appreciate you sharing yòur knowledge. It's much easier to remember when it's laid out so that it makes sense. A fan.
No problem at all. Its usually harmless...sometimes it shows thag a change is occurring, but usually its a good one, in that you had higher ammonia or waste levels and then the bacteria that relies on the waste for its nourishment, dies and the clear cell membranes/ walls then cloud up the water by the millions ...and either settle over time, or just get water changed- away..
Let me know if you need any clarifications and have a great week, Carolyn!
This was a really helpful video. I have a problem tank that I am trying to sort out, it's a 75 gallon. A week and a half ago I made the mistake of doing too much cleaning. I thought I should do a proper thorough gravel vac, so I took all the driftwood out and really vacuumed the heck out of the substrate. I think the driftwood (and attached plants) probably sat out of the water long enough to kill a bunch of the bacteria, and probably the walls of the tank dried out a bit. I really didn't think I had it all out of the tank that long, but the next morning the water was milky. All my tests show nitrates (a bit high), no ammonia, and no nitrites, so I suppose I just need to be patient. I've never had a bloom last this long before, though. I read somewhere that a bacteria bloom can cause an oxygen deficiency, so I dropped an air stone in just in case, even though I have lots of surface agitation already, I figured it couldn't hurt. Maybe I will put some activated carbon in the HOB today.
Yeah just a few water changes and time and itll all return to normal ... if you start adding chemicals and so forth, itll clear then cloud, then algae then clear then cloud etc etc etc
great info Alex
😊 thanks. Great to see yuh, as well!
Best video thankyou
I'm having issue with cloudy water in my 55 litre aquarium
Live planted tank with a male betta
Have used clarifies no change
Did test ammonia issue
Nitrite nitrate are 0
Will daily water 30% changes help clear and reduce issue of ammonia n cloudiness
Thankyou
Let me know if it doesn't work out, but im happy to help...because IVE BEEN THERE TOO! hehe
I know that this video is a year old, but I just came across it. I found it very helpful. Thank you so much.
Oh great! Glad to hear it, and welcome to the channel and community, Cathy
Super informative, thanks!
Thank YOU for watching. I'm glad it helped
Watched 6 videos before yours, none of them meet in the middle, im left in more confusion than before an overload of useless information unless i can make sense of all 6 and make a conscious decision based on the correct thing to do.
Wished i just watched yours first and saved time and Internet data, plenty of reasons for this issue as you very well highlight and all logical, practical and common sense, never use chemicals, never feed my pets colourants and preservatives, most times we only need to take minimum interference if needed and let nature take care of itself and relax
Im already subbed, your channel and father fish are the only two channels anyone keeping fish really needs, watch anything else and you're most likely going to fall for the usual marking scandals and fish sterilisation quarantine tanks many people keep their fish in.
Well im glad it was somewhat useful then! If you you have a question or subject/species/plant or biological process you're curious about, try "@fishtory xyz" ... xyz being the topic you want info on...but @ symboling my channel should narrow down the other videos, if you so desire :) welcome to the channel as well
Lots of good info in here i had no clue about. Stepping that yet game up I’m liking it keep the gold comin :D
I just added a large piece of driftwood and i suspect that is the cause of my current cloudy tank. Thanks for the helpful video Alex!
I almost guarantee that it is... but also harmless :)
glad you did this video; super useful!!
Glad to hear it!
@@Fishtory ha ha me: "super useful" but I do have a couple moderately clouded tanks I'd like to clear up so glad youtube had your video popped up.
Hey, I got a pair of pygmy sunfishes...okefenokee: www.aquaculturestore.com/okefenokeepygmysunfish.html
These little guys are both skittish and interesting. I hope yours are doing good for you.
Thought I'd share this video I found: th-cam.com/video/tMN126_SLmI/w-d-xo.html
I just set up a a 40 gallon tank with soil sub straight and covered with sand. 2nd night in it was like a watered down milk shake in there. I’m on day 3. Going to test the water after watching your video and see what I do from there. Everything in the tank is new including the filter so interesting to see how it plays out.
Congrats!
Searched prime to condition water ..after that use stability as directions say for 7 days with a sponge filtration ..good to go wish I new this when I started ..your tank will cycle and you will have clear clean water with water changes and cleaning when needed ..test your water …✌🏻
Bloom is normal during the Nitrogen Cycle and will eventually subside once a balance has been met. Using Seachem’s Prime and Stability right at the beginning is always an easy way to jump start it. I recommend using prime and stability every water change.
Also, when you are establishing a tank don’t do any water changes, be patient.
Thanks so much for this video! I've actually been battling this problem for a while now and I've had no luck with getting it to clear up. I'm going to try again with your suggestions 😁
Good luck, and if you still have problems, let me know and maybe i can help. Cheers
Love your videos very helpful 💕
Glad to hear it! Thanks
My water has very high TDS, and I get the white slime on driftwood. It seems to also go by the name water mold
Yeah it can grow in hard or soft. It's a fungi that eats lignin and cellulose. Then the cell walls end up empty of nutrients and waft off into the tank as a milky snotty cloud or coverage of the wood and nearby surfaces. Then bacteria moves in and does much of the same, but once the easy to acess tannins and lignin is gone, the colony also dies and can produce a larger or thicker, foggy look- until it settles or is removed via water change
Great info as usual. Always something to learn in this hobby!
I've found that doing less to the tank stops it being cloudy. Have a planted tank. Dont vac substrate and dont do water changes just do top ups. Everything will settle in fast and the plants will take the nitrates away.
Good point. Totally
Very helpful information!
Oh good, I'm happy to hear that someone finds a video interesting or helpful@ cheers and have a great weekend
Mind is very clear
I really enjoyed the info in this video, especially the segment where you explained the slime mold on the manzanita and cholla wood. Thanks for this discussion!
100% thanks for tuning in and leaving your thoughts. Have a great week!
@@Fishtory And you as well, please don't stop your type of content, your channel is where I turn for concrete science based information!!! Thanks!!!
Alexander I love this! Love the knowledge you share. Thank you!
I have a 75gall9n tank with turtles that i hadn't cleaned in months. I finally got a decent filter, a fluval fx4 and after installing the water looks exactly like a bacterial bloom situation for 2 weeks now. Should i wait longer for it to settle, replace water, or something up with the filter?
I am having that problem on a relatively new tank; without an ammonia issue. I will take you advise and just let it be for a while, because this is a planted tank with wood and rocks.
Did your planted tank clear on its own or did you have to do something else? How many days after setup did it become cloudy? Or was it cloudy right away? How long did it take to clear? Thanks. I've been in the hobby a very long time, but I am experiencing an issue I have never had before with a new planted tank setup.
Another awesome and informative video :).
Thank you kindly
I have a lower level fog in my shrimp walstad vase at the moment. It went through it's cycle a month or so ago. But noticed some lower plant break down. All fish a pair of clown killifish, a pair of otocinclus and shrimp are all doing fine. All water readings are at 0. But have also been doing small dosing of bacter AE. So assume it's from that. Or I had to treat the tank with No Planaria as I had an outbreak of hydra. Going to leave it alone and see what it does.
Yeah I bet it's the bacter ae... let me know though!
Thank you for this topic! I have 2 tanks of 5 that are dealing with this issue, and you’ve given me quite the homework assignment! By the way, do you think rapashy can cause cloudiness? Just wondering.
Yes rapashy definitely can... bacteria and fungi eat the stuff that melts away or is left over. Any excess energy sources in your water can cause it technically speaking
Two products your defiantly need is seachem prime and stability ..about all I use to cycle a tank and I use sponge filters ..with water changes and cleaning of tank when needed ..I always have clear water ..✌🏻
I use one or the other every time...I probably just assumed everyone uses some dechlor...but those ones are the best in my mind. API can go fly a kite lol
@@Fishtory why the no go with API?
Very well said 👏 👍
Thank you.... my tank looked like i had tipped milk into it when i upgraded to a bigger tank. I'd moved the contents of my old tank over to the new one but I'd not fully calculated the new volumes when adding water to the new tank so i hadnt declorinated it properly. I lost x2 fish within days and the water was so milky i had to move the fish into a bucket whilst i did water changes. It took about a week to fully clear and the chemicals i bought to stop it did nothing to help.
*note to self to make sure i calculate correctly.
What happen to the plants during cloudy water?
Pretty sure my tank went cloudy after I added some calcium bicarbonate to raise the KH since it was at zero. But it turns out my pH was already at something like 8.0, I didn't realize this because the one and only time I checked my pH I had a bunch of Biologicals in the tank no doubt bringing the pH down. So adding the baking soda probably shot the ph up to something like 9 or more, and I'm guessing that that killed a lot of the bacteria. Thankfully it hasn't killed my fish yet. I'm now working to bring things down with water changes including adding some bottled drinking water that has a 6.0 pH, and adding Catappa leaves. I guess I want to bring the pH Down somewhat slowly, to not shock the fish yet again. Anyway thanks for the video, it pointed me in the right direction.
100%. Slow and steady. Youre doing it right
If you have a newer tank and the cycle is establishing with elevated nitrite and rising nitrates, isn’t it better to not do water changes and let the aquarium sort it out and continue undisturbed while it establishes itself? If you do water changes, won’t it set everything back? One can add some prime and stability to tie up the nitrite so it doesn’t harm fish, no?
I suggest you put a timeline on this with the situations broken down. New tank, cloudy water. Added something, cloudy water. Added wood, cloudy water. Water cloudy for over (how many days). You waited, water still cloudy. Testing cloudy water. And so on.
Next tank I do, I will
I have well water, and for some reason lately the water has been slightly that orange color. I did a decent water change and now its pretty cloudy. Would carbon help with this issue? Or what do you suggest? Thank you so much!
Carbon could help a little bit, but more-so just time and letting those particles settle down will help. Perhaps adding polishing pads to the last layer of your filtration would clean that up also.
Good luck, regardless, it shouldn't be harmful
Use spring water
Publix spring water is what I use
Is it wise to use Catappa leaves which release those tannins and lower PH while a bacteria bloom is happening? Set up tank 2 weeks ago. I have a 5.5G tank with live plants as well as one Betta and using Fluval Spec Substrate for plants. This also lowers PH slightly. I'm currently using Seachem Prime to help detoxify Ammonia/Nitrite and I almost never have a spike. Some people say that having a low PH wont allow the bacteria to grow and will die off so I'm not sure what range of PH I should really be in. Others say a Betta can thrive in acidic water too. I'm usually at a 6.0 - 6.4. If I do a water change, PH is at neutral 7.0 then back down again. I just want to get a clear explanation on what is beneficial for the bacteria and plants as well as my Betta so I'm kinda stuck here. Lol thanks!
Sure thing. So nitrofying bacteria that we need for cycling our tanks can generally survive 5.0 or 6.0ph up to 9.5 or 10ph usually. There are definitely exceptions, but the 'normal' strains will occur in that range.
As for harmful bacteria, the same is essentially true... lower ph then 5 or 5.5 will kill external bacterial infections, but more than that- the actual chemical components in tannins, are antimicrobial and encourage a healthy slime coat and a digestion in fish that come from "black water" or acidic & tannin rich lakes or streams.
I would recommend pre-mixing 2 gallons or so, of new water in a bucket about 24 hours ahead of your water changes...and you can play with whatever leaves or tannins you'd like.
You actually can skip prime and let chlorine evaporate off within 24 hours also...but the prime isn't harming anything in low doses as recommended.
I hope this helps answer what you were curious about, but if not- please feel free to ask more questions
Best of luck to you and your fish!
(PS I've kept bettas at as low as 4.5 ph , when lowering it over time and not shocking them with water changes of more than half a ph point or so away from whatever the betta are living in.
@@Fishtory Awesome! Thanks for helping me out
What's your top tips for cyanobacteria? I thought I'd beaten it, but it seems to be back.
Gonna do a big clean and water change and clean my HOB.
Weirdly, a good amount of red root floaters are turning brown and my green tiger lotus doesn't look happy.
I do have some Easylife cyanobacteria treatment, but I'd rather use as a last resort
You can inject seachem excel directly into the substrate using a syringe into the infected areas.
@@ineedadab Yeah, I saw that on GreenAqua's channel. It's more on the exposed surfaces. I'd rather not be introducing another chemical into the system if I can help it. I'll keep it in mind
Honestly, acidity! Drop that ph and often times itll kill the cyanobacteria 6.0 to 6.5 or so will often kill most strains.
However, antibiotics, specifically erythromycin is probably the best bet sadly. It will slightly harm the good nitrifying bacteria also, but as long as it's well established, itll be fine, just keep up with the water changes as per the meds directions... ive actually had good luck killing it with one day of erythromycin dosing.
A uv light sterilizer will also rip right through green water or cyanobacteria if it's suspended in the water column. Hydrogen peroxide in a syringe to spot treat it , if its down in the front substrate, works well too...but usually itll return eventually since some of the colony will survive a spot treatment.
Good luck, my friend!
Hi! I'm looking for advice on my 5gal fish tank. I've had cloudy water for the past two weeks or so after what I assumed the tank to be cycled. I did a fishless cycle of the tank, which took about 3 months to "cycle". First month it was about what was expected, ammonia introduced by fish pellets, some nitrites, then the second month I believe the cycle had been stalled because my nitrite readings where off the charts. I did a couple of water changes on the third month to get the nitrites down and now I'm reading .25 ammonia (API test kit) 0 nitrites and 20 nitrates. During this time, I believe in the first month the tank had cloudy water and it went away after a couple of days. My new cloudy water issue came after I added some water to top off my tank as evaporation takes a significant portion of the water out of the tank. I used API fresh coat + to dechlorinate the new water. Any advice would be great, the general advice on the internet is a new bacterial bloom, however I don't think that's the cause as it's lasted for longer than average. The water parameters have been stable during the cloudiness. Thank you!
It could be the water changes causing an rise and fall of temp/ph/tds and nitrates...but the cloudiness can often be DEAD Exoskeletons of microfauna and not just a bloom of more living bacteria...so it could be that you need to skip the water changes for like 2 weeks and see if it clears up. At this point that is what I would do and see If it settles down. Best of luck to you, my friend!
@@Fishtory Appreciate it man
i think new added shirmp can cause cloudy, because when they get shock they will release a lot of ammonia right ? and if they die will even worst....
Definitely if they die. Often shrimp in New water shed their shells which in theory does release some kh and gh...but I'm not sure if its enough to show up in the water column. It may-however, be a food source for microscopic fauna and thus cause a bloom of calcium loving bacteria or something perhaps?
@@Fishtory but it cause some of the sensitive fish specially tetra start to go near surface of the water and snail stop eating and rush to surface of water until i change almost half of the water in slowly way, and reduce shirmp, then only they all back to normal , creature and the eco system in water is so fragile , we must protect environment ...
What is the name of the nail polish color on your nails 💅?
Cheap haha whatever my wife has for like 1.99 from Walgreens
I did a fishless cycle and everything cycled and my ammonia went to zero and then I added a few snails. As soon as I added snails, by the morning, the water was super cloudy and it has been and it’s been about 4 days. I’ve been doing small water changes but I’m not sure what the issue is! Any ideas?
So doing those water changes refers that good bacteria's food load each time...since you have such little ammonia and nitrates, the bacteria double in less than 12 hours ...then run out of food and some die off (the core cycled ones should be fine still though. ) So you are seeing dead cells of bacteria that are making it cloudy.. just leave it a week or two even and it'll get very clear. Also just don't over feed your fish or snails as you cycle it up. But it's not harmful as long as your ammonia and nitrites stay 0
I boil my water in pots . Then cool it . Put it in the tank
I got a moss ball plant that eat thru water column ,I was curious if I got it from petco in a tank with fish should I add it or eh risky .still cycling day 7.
It's fine to add :)
i add water and soil from another really little tank in my main tank, and now water is cloudy, it is dangerous ? I got shrimps, copepods, ostracods, water isopods, blackworms, and guppys. I have no filter at all, it's a low tech tank.
Probably not dangerous, as long as ammonia stays 0. It's likely a strain of bacteria that killed off some of an old colony and then there tiny clear cell membranes float into the water. Within a week it should settle down and water changes can speed it up. Cheers
I think my milky water is worse than this. I get huge bacterial blooms that coat everything in white slime, even to the point of clogging the filters & killing the live plants. One fish store owner told me "This is a negative bad bacteria from your home." Some saltwater fish keepers on TH-cam told me b/c I clean things around my apartment w/ rubbing alcohol, the fumes could accidentally be carbon dosing the tank causing bacteria blooms. I just tried to cycle a tiny tank w/ no fish & ammonia chloride drops + Fritz Turbostart 700 & sure enough, white water & clime clogged filters again.
Yeah back off the cleaning for a while perhaps? Fumes could be killing things. Sometimes a bloom takes a month to finish and naturally go away...any longer than 2 or 3 weeks and something is very wrong
@@FishtoryThanks. IDK if I can do that; maybe I just won't be able to have fish tanks.
@@FishtoryI think I might be making progress using pothos with their roots in the water.
What if I set up a tank with plants (and snails), didn't add fish and the water got cloudy. I do a 25% every week, parameters are good but the water remains cloudy 3 months later. I have just added a fish for the first time. I've never had this in my life and have had 10 15 tanks. No issues in my other current tanks.
Hmmm my guess is that you had an over colonization of beneficial bacteria and it used decaying plants, fertilizers, or substrate nutrients to spike the initial bacteria growth, and then it was dying without enough ammonia or nitrogen (which is fine...just don't add a bunch of fish super quickly.)
I'm guessing the bacteria is just getting used to how big it needs to be, and it will eventually equalize.
Orrr it could be tannins or something coming off wood in the tank?
Good luck trying to sort it out.
@@Fishtory I'll see what happens. Thanks for all the awesome videos!
That's what I had to do
My tank was crystal clear for nearly 10 years , until a couple of months ago when I had to do an emergency upgrade due to my 29 gallon bowing at the front. I swapped literally everything over to the new tank and it's been hazy ever since 🙄
I know I missed something I just don't know what
For how long? It can take 2 or 3 months to level off
Hi, could i ask for help?
I have 90 ltrs planted aquarium and i am challenging with cloudy/dusty/milky water and sometimes also i getting green water... but...
Did anybody have problem like i have in my tank that water is cloudy when light is off, but then during photoperiod after an hour or two water crystalizing itself?
Shortly after light on, i can see dust in the water, but then later on after an hour sometimes 2hrs water is getting much more clear...
Because of this issue i haven't been feeding my fishes quite long time
What is causing that?
I am doing water changes 1/week 20ltrs RO/Tap water
I have gravel 2-3mm gradation and on the back 7-8cm layer in front 4-5 cm layer.
I have been doing many times tests for Nh3, NO2, NO3 but tank looks established... nh3 0 and no2 0
No3 10-15
Do i have to give more NO3 fertiliser to have more nitrogen?
I have some fertilisers like phosphates, nitro, potassium, and some Fe but i need properly chelators... i am not dosing CO2.
Whenever i dose fertilisers i am getting algae like green dust algaes on glass, green spot algaes on the glass leaves etc..
Green hair algaess.... i have tests for Fe, Po4, No3, Nh3, No2, K Gh and Kh...
My Gh is 7
Kh 3
Am i doing sth wrong?
I dont see cloudiness as a problem. It will always correct itself if your water is of good quality.....I look at cloudy water as evidence of some process happening.....parameter checks can help to figure it out. I personally won't use clearing drops. The less artificial things added to your aquarium, the better off it will be in the long run.
I agree too
I just came across this video and informative but Im still confused. Ive watched over a Hundred Videos and still cant see a process of what to do.
New tank owner 36gallon here going on 3 weeks now. Have rock substrate, with some live plants 2 swords and some annubis floating up top with a couple fake plants and have a driftwood in the bottom i have a HOB Fluval 50 with sponge filter and 2 layers of micro filter pads took out the charcol pad and the Bio Stones and rplaced with a purigen pack. I have a Bubbler and Airator Test water weekly and just tested yesterday at fish store.
Ph 7.6
Ammonia .15
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
They said that was good but water is still cloudy. Added Clarity and did nothing. Fish are super active dont seem in distress. And been using the prime and stabilty for a week. And added a Purigen pack in HOB yesterday and went 24hrs with no change. So I am stumped. Looking for guidance..
I agree. Too much info. Do nothing or do something.
👍
👍👍👍👍
Just let the bacteria bloom go. It will clear itself.
Bingo
Systemic water
I've been experiencing cloudy water for the past 3-4wks & somehow none of those fits my situation. 29gal heavily heavily planted tank (been propagating a lot in prep for an upgrade to a 50gal), CO2, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5ppm nitrates. Running a fuval 307 canister filter at about half flow. The tanks been established for nearly 5 months now. Not my city water bc I have 2 tanks in my home & only experiencing this issue in one of them. I do roughly 50% water changes every 5 days on this tank bc it hold 9 dwarf puffers which are a bit messy, 3 oto cats & 20 amano shrimp. Sand substrate, manzanita & seiryu stone. I dose easy green, easy iron & Seachem Excel. I haven't medicated the tank in over a month. I did use a clarifier which worked for a few days but the cloudy water came right back. What gives? Oh & I did the white container check to make sure it wasn't green water I was experiencing & there was no green tint at all.
My guess is that the messy puffers are eating and making a mess, as puffers usually do (i get this issue in my puffer tank) ... so you have food particles floating in a water column that has no dominant bacteria yet (clean water change water)... so because the food contains more than ammonia and nitrites/nitrates ... mold and bacteria will find that protein (check if you can make the water surface smooth and turn off the filter or aeration and check for a protein film that looks like oil or gasoline shimmer on the surface of the water.)
So this uncolonized body of water is growing bacteria in the water collumn fueled by the various forms of bacteria from the food, the fish and just oddball bacteria or spores/fungi from your tank's microbiome. Then eventually it settles, the bacteria run out of food to live off of and settle back into the substrates until new water and or new food or particles enter your tanks. Likely this is protein loving bacteria and harmless.
However, if you want to get rid of it, you can get a uw sterilizer or a protein skimmer....or both (that would likely fix it). You could also get some more filter floss polishing pads to filter the water through a smaller filter and catch more debris.
Lastly, you could try new foods or rotating the feeding (clams, blood worms, flakes or snails etc...) using only one type when feeding - every other day or smaller portions each day.
Good luck! Puffers are a tricky one!
@@Fishtory Thanks! Yeah I already rotate between frozen bloodworms & bladder snails. I'm just mystified bc the tank looked great for 4 straight months then bam cloudy water. No bio film, my fast growing stem plants do a great job filtering the water. I'll up my water changes & like I said I'm bout to upgrade them to a 50gal so hopefully the larger water volume will help keeps these issues to a minimum. Thanks again for this vid & ur help!
I make my own charcoal. Use wood to make it
Change your filter and charcoal
Lost glasses
API test kit sucks. use Hanna or Salifert.
True, I use litmus paper now for ph too
😂
53
Sure!
I have a bacterial bloom for my fish only tank for over a month now…liquid test results says it is cycled.. i have been feeding very few and i have three filters loadedwith foam media and ceramic media for a 10g tank with only 4 fish (mollies and angelfish).. they say leave it for a month and it will clear but it has been over a month of no water change and all i am getting is some dead fish.. tried quickstart and stability but no effect 😢
So are you getting ammonia also? Fish shouldn't be dying otherwise
@@Fishtory initially when the water was stil clear i would get ammonia readings then later nitrate. I seeded my tank by squeezing filters from an established tank. However after 1 week after that, the tank started getting cloudy and then i would consistently get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate reading. Now 1 month and 2 weeks passed my tank is 90% milky white and you could see white smokey cloud swirling inside the tank and my filters foam media are full of biofilms/gunks. I am feeding 2-3 pellets per fish once a day and only 5 times a week.
Until now water is still 90% milky, consistently 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate, pH at 7.2, and white foamy bubbles are starting to form in the water surface. Lots of people told me not to do water changes and let the bacterial bloom clear on its own but already 6 weeks and nothing seems to change…
do nothing if there is no dead fish