I began planting my 75 gallon about 2 months ago, and since then I'm having a hard time keeping the tank clear.
I do roughly 50% water changes once a week, and this clears it up for a day and then it's back to cloudy again.
I use a liquid fertilizer about twice a month, and the plants look amazing...very healthy.
It's not an intense white cloudy, and sometimes it is greenish..
Any suggestions on what I'm missing or doing wrong?
Do plants normally cause this?
What's the general feeling about using Green X phosphate remover? And is it okay to use on a regular basis or is it like a one time deal type thing?
Is there anything cheaper than Green X that could do the same thing?
Hello
I've never seen you in plants section before .. so i can't determine your level of expertise. So please excuse me if any of this sound offending ... But to give you a good answer you should tell us more about your tank ... is it CO2 injected, gravel ? was it rinsed .. etc.. what fertilizers or chemicals do you put in ? given the information u'v given "cloudy - greenish"
I can only guess and say its an algea bloom ... google (algea bloom in aquarium) and see if it looks like yours.. these are usually caused by fertilizers... plants do not cause this at all...
I've never actually tried the Green X phosphate remover ... so no clue whatsoever about it ... but if its one of those pills, then it is a probability ... throw it in a cup of water and see if the water changes....
I hope you get better answers from other members ... goodluck.
If its only been up for two months and you're doing 50% water changes my guess would be ammonia. Your tank probably hasn't fully cycled and your filter isn't seeded enough to handle such a big change. Test your water and lay off the w/c's a bit. Even miss a couple weeks to let your tank fully cycle. What kind of filter are you running?
As robt and chicildated have already said, please provide additional information, especially as it pertains to the type of filtration that you are using, but it sounds to me like you have two issues here...
Greenish water is likely algae blooming, too many nutrients and the algae is having a feast...cut back on the fertilizer, reduce the lighting......Not sure if a UV filter would effect the plants by killing more than the algae in the water column, but that would reduce the algae.
Cloudy white water is probably an indication of an overload on your biologic filtering. Let the tank fully cycle, stop adding plants/fish or anything else until the cycle completes. This may take another 4 to 6 weeks to self resolve, again depending upon the type of filtration that you are using.
In either case, reduce the amount of water volume in your changes, 10 to 15% weekly should be sufficient, unless you are doing something extraordinary, or have special needs for the fish in the tank....
HTH
Ciaus
Hey all. You're right...I should have added more info :-[
I've had it going since christmas, I have an eheim ecco pro 80, a marineland powerhead (medium size..can't remember the #), ammonia/nitrite/nitrate all 0, and ph is 7...none of this has fluctuated at all in a good 2 months. The temp is around 76. I am still 'under stocked' for fish (approximately at 60% capacity, with no plans to add new inhabitants until I can figure this out.) I feed 2 small meals a day, and there is a bit of that lush, emerald green, mossy algae growing on the driftwood/rocks, that the fish snack on.
I just started with 4 small 'val', and 2 small bunches of cabomba. All have been growing well and are quickly filling up the tank with runners and clippings :)
I use the hagen plant gro liquid fertilizer about 3 times a month, and dosing what the bottle suggests.
I have regular aquarium rocks for substrate (about 2 1/2 inches), and will be adding a fertilizing type substrate mid next month.
Did I miss anything? Any suggestions? Thanks :)
Are you sure about your nitrate reading? If you tank is fully cycled you should always be reading something for nitrates. If they are zero it's a sign that your tank is still cycling for some reason. When you clean your filter do you clean it in tapwater or old tank water? Just asking because your tank should have cycled by now.
Jeff
Yeah that's definitely how everything is reading. Ph 7.2. How do I get my nitrates up?
Are you testing the water yourself, it probably wouldn't hurt to take a sample to one of the LFS's and have them test. There are enough other threads in the forum already that say 0/0/0/ and everytime someone is suspicious of that, and rightly so. You may not being doing anything wrong, but the test might be expired, or some other malady is causing bad/poor test results to be shown.
Cloudy water, as you have previously describe it, is a almost certainly a good indication that the tank has yet to complete the cycle process, or you are upsetting the balance in some other manner...You should not be looking to increase your Nitrates, they will rise soon enough on their own once you have a stable and cycled tank.
HTH
Ciaus
So basically adding plants was like starting a new cycle then? No big deal really..I mean the fish are all still happy and healthy.
As long as I know it's such a simple issue and that it will pass than no worries!
Thanks everyone!! Greatly appreciated :)
Plants won't start a new cycle. The tank is cycling because you don't have enough of the beneficial bacteria needed for your filter. You need to figure out why your tank is cycling. However, as said earlier, you should also check your test kits....they may not be accurate.
Are you running a UV sterilizer? I know that with my tank when I dose trace nutrients and I'm running a UV sterilizer I get cloudy water for at least a day if not more.
Jeff
no uv gadgets yet. I'm only 2 months in with the plants, so no techy stuff yet :P
Everything has been crystal clear until the addition of the plants. And the test kits are only a couple months old.
The filter has a good load of bacteria and such, I transferred some of the bio balls from the old tank when I set up the new tank in December.
So I took out the big java fern I had and everything is slowly clearing up now.
Not sure what that is about, since the plant was doing fine.
*shrugs* at least I seemed to have figured out the culprit.
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions & advice :)
Not to be pessimistic but I really don't see how the java fern could have been causing your cloudy water. If anything plants will help keep your water cleaner and adding more plants just makes things even better. I would continue to look for another possible culprit. When you clean your filter do you use old tank water or tap water? Are you adding anything else to your water (eg: cycle, ferts, pH buffer)?
Jeff
Quote from: Jeff1192 on May 04, 2010, 08:27:58 PM
Not to be pessimistic but I really don't see how the java fern could have been causing your cloudy water. If anything plants will help keep your water cleaner and adding more plants just makes things even better. I would continue to look for another possible culprit. When you clean your filter do you use old tank water or tap water? Are you adding anything else to your water (eg: cycle, ferts, pH buffer)?
Jeff
Hi Jeff
I appreciate your input..no need to worry!
I have been doing a bit of research lately on plants and have come across about 5 articles that say Java Fern is good for reducing Nitrates. The plant I had was fairly large, so I took it out; and coincidence or whatever...my tank unclouded, and things are balancing out again :) I always rinse all my media, etc. in the removed tank water, I'd say about once every month or so...just to clear out any debris basically. I definitely don't use cycle anymore (to each his own); I go easy on the liquid fertilizer, but do use plant gro by hagen I think it is; I don't use a buffer or any other chemicals because my PH holds steady at 7.2, which is working for what I have, and my water is neutral. I only use water conditioner when I water change..which is about 25% twice a week, mostly just "poop patrol" cause the pleco is a monster :o
Thanks
Jasmine