heartsongsinger

I can't figure out the cause of the cloudy water. I was treating my tank (47 gal) with melafix for a ICH infection. While I was treating my tank it became cloudy. It has been 9 days since I finished the 2 week treatment. I used water clearifier on tuesday and repeated on wednesday. The water is clearer as I now can see my fish but it is still cloudy. It's a whiteish color and I can see small particales in it. It is a well airated tank. Besides the filter I have a bubble wall and a 5 in air stone. Any suggestions on clearing it up. I've already done two 25% water changes as well

fishluver101

keep doing the water changes. yur causes can be any of the following:

some medicenes make the water cloudy
those might be the dead ich paracites get rid of them cuz other bacteria and such might feed off them

Shawnie

also, most meds throw a tank into a mini cycle and it could be a bacteria bloom.. have you tested the water parimeters lately?

heartsongsinger

About 5 days ago. I'll test them in the morning. I'm testing all the tanks anyway.

heartsongsinger

Ok I tested it and here are the levels. pH 6.6; ammonia 0; nitrite 0; nitrate 5; Temp 75

I added some Stress Zyme to help cycle the tank. 42 fish currently it will be 43 fish shortly (moving 3 to another tank and adding 4 to balance out male aggression. 12 are neon tetras). How frequently should I do water changes.

Shawnie

you have 42 fish in a 47 gal tank? hmmm

what test kit are you using? those readings mean its cycled but wondering why you are so cloudy if thats the case..maybe it was the meds

heartsongsinger

API Master Test Kit I believe. It's the API test kit that has the liquid bottles and test tubes. One of the fish is going to be leaving because I didn't relise some of the problems he would pose. He's a 5-7 in black ghost knife.

Edit: figured out why the tank was so filthy. the filter was full of brown gunk.

Fishies-for-me

With so many fish in that tank you really need to do a lot of water changes and over filter the tank...You can never have to much filtration.

heartsongsinger

I reliezed that I had miscounted because my fish list has all the names of the fish in the tanks and I accidentally added some that are in other tanks or that had died and weren't taken off the list. I did remove several fish. My LFS took them for credit.
There are currently 5 swordtail (buying one more), 2 mollies (buying one more), 12 tetras, 3 rasboras, 2 glowlight dainos, one betta, one hoplo cat (adding 2 others maybe), one ghost catfish and one pleco. So that's 28 with 4 more being added. I removed 10 fish: 7 to the LFS, 2 because of sex changed swordtails (replacement in 20 gal), and 1 swordtail male (20 gal tank).

edit: my math was off

Shawnie

im lost...27 what?

heartsongsinger

28 fish. sorry i ramble and it makes perfect sense to me but not to anyone else.

DarkRevoultions

You might need to change the water.. do more frequent water changes.

Also, if you put in some plants, that would be a lot more helpful for the water.

Other than that, you must of over fed your fishes, or the cause of the medicine that you put in such as aquarium salt. Too much will fog up the water, and will take about a day or 2 to calm down. And that could probably make the water more acidic.

heartsongsinger

The problem was solved. I don't use aquarium salt. I was taking out 8 gallons every other day as a form of treatment for the disease.