# Water is still cloudy



## Glowin_Navi (Apr 21, 2003)

Just lately, as in the last week my tank water is looking cloudy. I water changes, around 30% once a week. I Also clean the glass with a rag to get rid of any algae or slimey crap on the walls. 2 weks ago i cleaned the filter, and i also ad water dechlorinator everytime i do a water change. I thought that the water was a bit cloudy yesterday because of the water change and it would just clear up by itself, but it hasnt. the water is still just as cloudy today.







Maybe im not doing something right when i vaccume the gravel. Is tehre any "proper" way to do it? i was told that i shouldnt dig too deep because then i would be vacuming out bacteria that has buiolt up below the gravel, and thats not good. Right or wrong? Is tehre something i can do to help clear up the water any more? maybe some chemicals? I have a 33gallon tank with an aquaclear 300 water filter, and i also i had a small air pump that i had lying around and i use it cause i like the bubbles







 Other than getting extra oxygen into the water does the air pump do anything else? does not havng an air pump make the water more cloudy? 
Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

when you clean the gravel go right to the bottom every 3 inches. when you clean the glass, try to limit the amount of times you put your hands in the water.oils and films may cause stress in your fish. you should purchase a algea scrubber. air benifits the tank in many ways, i would keep it on.

make sure youy remove leftover food, overfeeding will make your water cloudy!


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

You neverr mentioned what kind of filteration your using. If you have any external filters, try changing the media if you havent done so in aawhile. Also carbon would do great clearing up the cloudiness.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

> 2 weks ago i cleaned the filter, and i also ad water dechlorinator everytime i do a water change.


The filter is where 90% of the good bacteria resides, by cleaning the filter, it sounds like you messed up the cycle. If you have test kits, I would bet you have nitrites that are causing the cloudiness.
I never clean my filters, I rinse out the media every once in a while with tank water, never clean all the media at the same time, alternate so you dont loose too much bacteria.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

Your tank should clear up in a day or two. Do as GG said.


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## bgshortys (Apr 7, 2003)

Besides adding oxygen to your system, the bubbles lift the water around it and bring it to the top. It circulates your tank to some extent. This is the way under gravel filters work.

also, if you don't have any filter carbon, I strongly suggest you use that like RhomZilla said


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## Glowin_Navi (Apr 21, 2003)

cool, sounds good. Thanks guys


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## Glowin_Navi (Apr 21, 2003)

damnit, the water isnt getting any better. I can see tiny little specs of white stuff floating around im noot sure what it is but maybe i should get a bigger filter. I got a sort of starter kit and in it was the ac300 water filter. Im guessing this was just a filter that is basically what would b needed if "normal" fish were being kept in the tank. But arent piranas a whole lot more messy than other fish? I was thinking maybe and Aquaclear 500 and since i already have a smaller aquaclear i think its a 200 or something like that smaller than the 300 i would use that with the 500. can i have too much filtration? Also should i test the water for anything else? like nitrate or nitrite? Could those be causing the water to be cloudy? Thanks


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## thePACK (Jan 3, 2003)

how long have you had this tank running??


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

You can never have too much filtration. But i whould wait on the waterchange. Did you change pads when you cleaned?


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## Glowin_Navi (Apr 21, 2003)

Ive had the tank for a little over a month. I fully cycled before i put the piranas in and i think its been about a month with the piranas in it. I just recently added an electrib blue lobster, now that i think of it, the water really just started getting cloudy recently around the same time i added him. Could the lobster somehow be making the water nastY? i dont think it could be the pellets im giving him cause there pretty small and he usually eats it rite away. And when i did my water change on sunday i didnt clean the styrafoam pad or the carbon bag. I just took out the motor and cleaned that. Im goin ot in a couple minutes i think im gonna buy a bigger filter.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

It could be the pellets. My oscar pellets screwed my water too. Take a couple of pellets and throw in a glass of water. And look in 24 hrs.


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Another thing is try doing a sweep right abouve the gravel. Alot of foods decompose on the bottom of the tank and sometimes blend in with the natural color of the gravel, making suprising cloudiness. My tank recently started getting cloudy, swept the bottom of the tank and picked upi 5 dime size pieces of decomposing beefheart chunks.


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## Glowin_Navi (Apr 21, 2003)

alright sounds good ill try doing that with the pellets in the water. Also RhomZilla how do u mean sweep? just vacume the surface of the gravel? The guy at the fish store told me that the problem is almost 100% the carbon sack in the filter. I didnt know it had to be replaced, so ive been using the same one. when i took it out and ran some water through it i could see how it might be causing the cloudiness. So ill see maybe by tomorrow the water will be clear again.








Thanks for the help so far guys


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## readingbabelfish (Jan 16, 2003)

I have no carbon in my filter at all. But I do know that like gurke says, if you did mess with the filter, that could cause cloudiness. It did in my tank about a month ago. I would not add chems and let the tank filter itself. Just do gravel sweeps and water changes once a week. And since you have a hang on filter, I would not be too concerned about digging deep with the vac into the gravel. I have a wet/dry and I can see all the crap going into the vac when I actually go to the bottom of the tank with it.


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Glowin_Navi said:


> Also RhomZilla how do u mean sweep? just vacume the surface of the gravel?


When I "sweep".. I usually take the net and swish it around the top surface of the gravel, picking up anything the waterflow from the sweep floats up. Then as soon as you remove all unleft pieces of food, then you do your regular gravel vac. The reason why I dont just vacum the gravel is because sometimes when I do, some foods get buried under the gravel when it sucks it up and settles after.



> The guy at the fish store told me that the problem is almost 100% the carbon sack in the filter. I didnt know it had to be replaced, so ive been using the same one. when i took it out and ran some water through it i could see how it might be causing the cloudiness.


Replacing carbon is another neccessity that need to be changed form time to time. Also, carbon doesnt necessarily clear up water.. its mostly used to help filter out chemicals you put in the tank.


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## Glowin_Navi (Apr 21, 2003)

Thanks ill try that sweeping thing next time i do a water change. But im gettng ticked off







The water still isnt clearing up. If i did mess up my cycle. Which im not sure how i could have. I only cleaned my filter motor, not the styrafoam part. I only replaced the carbon after the water got cloudy so it couldnt have been from that. But how long should the cycle take to get back on track? I replaced the carbon and im hoping that will clear up the water, its been one day, maybe im just impatient








Anything else u guys think i should do to clear up the water? I did put the lobsters pellets in some water overnite and it didnt make the water cloudy, so its not that. Oh bty i got on of those bubble wands and it looks pretty cool.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

You could take some of your water to lfs. most of them will do it for free.
Testing kits will run ya about 30 bucks american.


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## Glowin_Navi (Apr 21, 2003)

Ok i think i figured out what was wrong. I was pretty pissed that the water was still nasty so i decided that i would try to wash the bag of carbon again today. I pulled the basket up a bit so i didnt have to put my fingers in the water to get the bag and wehn i pulled out the carbon i noticed that the styrafoam block which is supposed to be white was almost completely black. So i think thats what was causing the water to get nasty. I guess the origional carbon sack got so saturated it just started to sh*t out stuff, and the styrafoam got dirty. I know im not supposed to wash both the carbon and styrafoam at the same time because then all the good bacteria gets washed away. But i had no choice it was so dirty. Ive had the carbon bag in for maybe 30 hours. Im not sure how much or if any bacteria could have built up in that. but i had to wash the styrafoam. So basicly ive got a styrafoam block just washed now with no bacteria, and a carbon bag with about 30 hours of time for bacteria to build up in it. How badly have i messed things up? Should i maybe go to the stor and get some of that cycle stuff? this would put some more bacteria in the water rite? Please let me know. once again sorry for the long post.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

Use biospira not cycle. Biospira is the best and works fast. It's in the fridge at lfs.


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