Cant fix cloudy water

[sam00]

Hi i have a 165L tank in which i just cant fix the cloudy water. PH, nitrate and ammonia are all fine, i dont over feed the fish and change 20% of the water every fortnight. I have about 25 fish. I have a fluval filter 205 which cycles about 680L per hour, anyone know what my problem is?

[Pixeltoy]

Age of tank? (been cycling for how long now?)

[sam00]

tank is about 8 years old however just bought it second hand, been cycled for about 2 weeks now. Is my filter big enough?

[_PhanToM_]

Hi,

You've been cycling for 2 weeks and you've got 25 fishes in there? That might be your problem right there, usually it is adviced to cycle for at least 6 weeks then slowly add in the fishes.

From my point of view I would say you've not given it enough time for the bateria to build and thus created the cloudy water.

Mind if I ask what kind of lights you are using and are there any plants in the tank?

[sam00]

No real plants just plastic and have 2 x 25W pro glo lights in which are on about 4 hours a day. If i bought some Stress Zyme would this fix the problem?

[yarra2]

Stress Zyme is good to have anyway, but it won't address this problem. How big are your fish? 25 guppies or danios would probably be okay but I agree with PT it does sound like a bit too much a bit too soon.

Mike

[sam00]

They all vary - 4 small sharks, 6 medium Guaramis, 4 tiny neon tetras, 3 small angels, 2 large silver dollars, 4 small tiger barbs. So how do i fix my problem any ideas??????

[_PhanToM_]

The only way I can think will fix your cloudy water by doing frequent water changes.
10% per day for 2 weeks should do the trick, but you need to make sure you have enough bacteria in there to process the waste.

Give that a go.

[wombat1100]

Just a thought,
we all seem to agree that the problem is largely caused from the lack of cycling the tank got before adding the fish, and generally the 10% daily water changes would fix a cloudy water problem, BUT in saying that, wouldn't that cause the cycling process to slow if not stop all together????
I would say the tank is going to continue to cycle but I would be crossing my fingers as to losing some of those fish as the ammonia spikes :-(

More thoughts:
Maybe its not just cycling thats the problem here.
I would say that your filter is big enough, what exactly have you got inside it?
Have you been tempted to clean it? DON'T
Was your substrate in the tank cleaned before adding the water?
did the tank become cloudy over a few days or was it like that from the start?
Could there be something that was added that has caused this problem.
Is the tank cloudy white or cloudy green?
I know there is a lot of questions here but try to answer them so we can help you out.
Dazz

[sam00]

ok guys even though this is driving me insane i do have some good news
i changed 25% of the water 2 days ago, yesterday no improvement however today it has improved but still noticeable. Not sure if it was the water change or the bacteria building that has made it better?

answers to your questions are:
Filter have 4 pieces of filter wool, 2 trays of noodles & 2 trays carbon
Havent touched filter for 2 weeks and dont intend too
Gravel was cleaned to a satisfactory level but to be honest could have been cleaned more
Tank cloudy from start
Was cloudy before anything added apart from gravel as i had it running for 3 days empty no ornament or fish
White cloudy colour

Bottom line it looks to be improving but its a very sloooooow process
Will it clear up totally can i spend up the process, im tempted to buy Stress Zyme?

[sam00]

Great News!!! Thanks to PhanToM_ (http://www.thefishtank.com.au/forums/member.php?u=3126)i have been doing 10% water changes everyday and my tank is now looking fantastic almost 100% cloudiness has disappeared. What a difference it has made, not sure if it was caused from dirty gravel or bacteria not building up as yet. My wife keeps bagging me about these forums but you all have helped me thanks heaps!!!:)

[yarra2]

Hooray!

Mike

[wombat1100]

got to hear its clearing up
I would say the problem was your gravel not being clean enough if the tank was cloudy from the start
your filter seems to be set up OK and I'm happy you haven't touched it yet, i would leave it for at least 2 months before being tempted, then only clean it about every 6 months unless it gets blocked IMHO
I would add a filter with fine sponge or wool in it , just a cheap one and run it until you get all the suspended particles in the water out and ease up on the water changes to about weekly.

[_PhanToM_]

Good to hear your water has cleared up.
I would take on Wombat's advice and add some fine wool to the filter to help with small particles that might be floating about.
Since your water is cleared now there should be no need to do daily water changes anymore and should revert back to weekly.

Glad I could help!
^.^