# Tank Is Very Cloudy! Messed Up And Washed Filter Under Tapwater



## michaelgillen2

I messed up big time and washed 4/6 filters in my fluval fx5 under tap water like an idiot. I have a 150g with 12 RB's and 9" Pleco.
The tank has been going for about 3 months now. I didnt know how often to clean the filters in my fx5 and I have a sand bottom. I was only gonna clean half when i realized i did 4/6. I knew i shouldnt have ran them under tap water to keep the bacteria but they were dirty and it would of took forever cleaning them in 5 gallon buckets of the tank water. So a cpl days went by and knowing I might have disturbed everything i got the water tested. High ammonia so the pet store guy told me to use ammo lock. I did a 30percent water change and used the ammo lock after. 2 days later i did another 30 percent water change. Everytime I do a water change i use tetra aquasafe dechorinator for water replaced.I put in some more ammo lock. Then about 4 days later i did another 30 percent water change and added some more ammo lock. Then today which was 2 days later from before I did a 30 percent water change and added a box of tetra start zyme complete water conditioner with beneficial bacteria. I only used enough for 80 gallons because i didnt want to add to much chemicals to tank. I thought the bacteria starter would help. And I realize the ammo lock was a bad idea to use because by washing my pads caused my tank to cycle again i think your only supposed to use ammo lock on cycled tanks. So now im sitting with very cloudy water and I dont want to kill my fish I did the 30 percent water change this morning. But ever since i added the bacteria tablets my water is super cloudy. Is this normal? What should I do?


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## Ægir

The tank is just going through a cycle again, so you will have to wait it out. Prob cloudy from a bacteria bloom and high ammonia.

Get your own test kit, will save you lots of trouble.
Dont add anything you arent positive you need or test for, most additives are a waste of money (other than chlorine removal).
Bacteria "feed" on ammonia, so by adding the ammo lock you are just starving them and preventing repopulation.
in the future, use tank water to wash out your filter pads every few months... when you see reduced flow is the best way

Keep up on those water changes, might be a few days to a week before the cloudy goes away. I wouldnt add anything except treatment for your tap water.


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## michaelgillen2

Ægir said:


> The tank is just going through a cycle again, so you will have to wait it out. Prob cloudy from a bacteria bloom and high ammonia.
> 
> Get your own test kit, will save you lots of trouble.
> Dont add anything you arent positive you need or test for, most additives are a waste of money (other than chlorine removal).
> Bacteria "feed" on ammonia, so by adding the ammo lock you are just starving them and preventing repopulation.
> in the future, use tank water to wash out your filter pads every few months... when you see reduced flow is the best way
> 
> Keep up on those water changes, might be a few days to a week before the cloudy goes away. I wouldnt add anything except treatment for your tap water.


How often should I do water changes during this? normally I do a 20-25 percent weekly before all this happened. Also just got back from pet store the water parameters are 
pH 6.2
Nitrates 30's
Nitrites 3.0
Ammonia level is between 1.0 and 3.0
Alkalinity 40


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## michaelgillen2

michaelgillen2 said:


> The tank is just going through a cycle again, so you will have to wait it out. Prob cloudy from a bacteria bloom and high ammonia.
> 
> Get your own test kit, will save you lots of trouble.
> Dont add anything you arent positive you need or test for, most additives are a waste of money (other than chlorine removal).
> Bacteria "feed" on ammonia, so by adding the ammo lock you are just starving them and preventing repopulation.
> in the future, use tank water to wash out your filter pads every few months... when you see reduced flow is the best way
> 
> Keep up on those water changes, might be a few days to a week before the cloudy goes away. I wouldnt add anything except treatment for your tap water.


How often should I do water changes during this? normally I do a 20-25 percent weekly before all this happened. Also just got back from pet store the water parameters are 
pH 6.2
Nitrates 30's
Nitrites 3.0
Ammonia level is between 1.0 and 3.0
Alkalinity 40
[/quote]

Oh also I havnt fed them today yet. Should I? I normally feed them 3 times a day they are 4-5 inches got them beginning of november at 1" Normally feed them raw shrimp and tilapia fillets but i have salmon fillets now im gonna try. Also yesterday was first day i fed hikari gold cichlid pellets. I didnt feed them today because of how cloudy it was I didnt want make the problem worse.


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## Ægir

Keep doing 30 percent daily until it clears up and the levels go back down...

If they are eating, keep feeding... just be sure all the food gets taken and doesnt go to waste in the tank.


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## michaelgillen2

Ægir said:


> Keep doing 30 percent daily until it clears up and the levels go back down...
> 
> If they are eating, keep feeding... just be sure all the food gets taken and doesnt go to waste in the tank.


Did a 30 percent water change Tuesday started to clear up P's were eating good. Wensday did another around 8pm now its thursday at 1 am and they are very white hardly any red and sitting on the bottom to 1cm off bottom. Moving bottom jaw back and forth. I wish i did not do water change Wensday . Are you sure its a good idea to do a water change daily till this clears? Heres a youtube video of them i just filmed they dont look so good.


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## michaelgillen2

Then again I turned off lights and snuck up on them 10 mins later and they are swimming around. Maybe they were pissed they got woke up in the middle of night. My gf woke me up because she said they were white and swimming funny. I asked why she turned on tank light because I turn it off every night at 10. She said she was showing them to her Girlfriend so Idk maybe it stressed them? sorry for freaking out I really do love the little guys and dont want to lose any of em.


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## michaelgillen2

Can't sleep worried about the fish they are still not looking good. I had a bright idea I took 2 of the carbon cartridges from my emperor 400 from my 75g community tank I have and put them in the 150g. The 75g water is emaculate it has an emperor 400 and a aqua clear 110. I'm hoping that all the good bacteria on it will help out the 150. What do you guys think? Here's a pic of the 75


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## addicted216

it will help, but like others said get a api master test kit, so you knowwhats exactly going on,never wash your media in tap water. lesson learned im sure, once every month or so, rinse in 5 gallon bucket with tank water only!. dont completely clean it just get some of the nasty off. as far as your tank goes now, its going through a cycle, wc everyday about 20% because its stocked with fish and it helps control the ammo levels for your fish, or they may die. as far as using your filters from another tank goes, its a good idea to get the bb going, so just keep up with your w/c and get the masterkit. the cheapest place i found is pet mountain.com or next would be pet supplies plus


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## Ægir

Fish "change" colors between day and night... you will notice when the lights first come on in the morning they are lighter colored.

Like I said before, constantly changing things (adding things, changing filters, chemicals etc) just makes it harder for your cycle to balance out. And changing things with no way to monitor water quality is risky. If you could test your water and take notes, do a water change, and test again you would know X gallons of water reduce ammonia a certain amount... and in 6 months when you can look back at your log you will have a better understanding of what does and doesnt need to be done.


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## michaelgillen2

Heres the parameters the pet store gave me this morning. I bought a api master test kit at petsmart. Had a 25% off coupon so it was around 19$
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 60
Nitrite 3.0
Hardness 300
Chlorine 0
Ph 4.0
Alkalinity 6.8

But I retested the pH and this is what i got


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## Ægir

Good work, will make your life easier... get a small notebook and write down your test results with a date. Comes in handy at times!

I would re test everything and see what you come up with... your PH is definitely closer to 7 than 4, which might be caused from taking stagnant water to the LFS vs testing directly from the tank.


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## michaelgillen2

Thanks you guys for all your help its much appreciated.
Heres the ammonia results not sure if its zero or .25ppm


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## michaelgillen2

Nitrates looks really bad??


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## michaelgillen2

Nitrites look about,.50 ppm


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## Ægir

Are you on city water or a well? You should run the tests on a sample of tap water also... I would think with frequent water changes you wouldnt have that high of nitrates. Its possible that your tap water could be boosting those levels when you do water changes. Or your cycle is coming to an end and starting to balance out.

If the tap water is good, do a 30% water change and test the tank again. Like I said before if you write it down, you can compare and see how much your water change dropped things. Only way to reduce nitrates is water changes anyways so.


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## michaelgillen2

City water I tested the city water it had zero nitrates. I think your right the cycle is coming to an end. I put those 2 carbon filter inserts in the tank with bacteria on it around 4 am this morning and i think all the bacteria on them ate up the ammonia in tank and converted it to nitrates?? I did a 20 percent change around 3:45 almost an hour ago. Im gonna retest everything and see what comes up. Ill post results in a few minutes


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## michaelgillen2

Heres the results after water change i took 2 pics one without flash on camera and one with.


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## Ægir

Another water change, test again, repeat if necessary.

As long as your temp isnt dropping a bunch you are fine. You could even do 2 30% changes back to back to help eliminate the shock of doing one big one.


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## michaelgillen2

Ok so I did another water change today like you said this time 30 percent. Here is the results


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## michaelgillen2

Did a 40% water change this morning I vacuumed the crap out of the sand and cleaned the other filter sponges that were full of sand in the aquarium water in a 5 gallon bucket. Moved ornaments vacuumed some more. I also added some aquarium salt to help with wounded p's from heater burn and crayfish pinch wounds i think not sure that'll be a different topic. But heres my results I cant shake the nitrates.








With flash on V









pH 7.4
Ammonia 0-.25ppm It was in between so prolly .10ppm
Nitrite 0
Nitrate still looks over 160 im having a hard time tell between those 3 red colors on chart

I dont know why my Nitrates arnt going down?


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## Ægir

Still just ammonia and nitrites working through the cycle... keep up on those changes and it will eventually come down.


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