Cloudy Water Will Not Clear!

Good evening, fairly newb here. I have a cycled 10 gallon tank (0/0/10ppm for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates). It has three tetras in it and everything was going fine for a few months. Now water is cloudy (greyish white cloudy). No visible chunks, just looks milky.

Setup: 10G tank, aqueon quietflow 20 HOB filter with some added Fluval Bio media, the aqueon insert.

So far I have tried:

1. Water change with gravel cleaning. This water I took out looked different than usual "dirty" water - it is almost yellowish, whereas in prior times it was just brown dirty.

2. Put a sponge on intake of filter

3. went from two to one feeding per day (started that change yesterday)

Fish seem fine.

Any thoughts? Looks terrible in there!!!

 

Add some activated carbon to your filter.

 

Sounds like bacteria bloom. How long has it been cloudy?

 

4 days? I was reading about polyfill or purigen??

 

Definitely some filter floss (and carbon, if you want) for water polishing but try this as well....MicrobeLift Concentrated Barley Extract. I use it in both aquarium and tub ponds with great success. What's more is that it's natural and can be used in aquaponic setup for edible plants too.
It's a flocculant, meaning it binds with particulate matter in the water and makes it clear. All three aforementioned items should clear your water very quickly.

 

If you are using those cholla sticks or dried leaves, it can turn the water a brownish red.

 

Bacterial bloom. It happens. Water changes and wait it out. Carbon will not do anything for that condition as it does not meet one of the 4 uses for carbon.

 

We need some more details. Do you have wood, dead leaves, or material like this in the tank?

For example - it is extremely common for driftwood and dead leaves to give the water a brown stain. It can look greenish in low concentrations.

It has also been very common for me that wood and dead leaves can make the water very milky looking.

Both of these will eventually clear up by themselves. It's normal.

 

We need some more details. Do you have wood, dead leaves, or material like this in the tank?

For example - it is extremely common for driftwood and dead leaves to give the water a brown stain. It can look greenish in low concentrations.

It has also been very common for me that wood and dead leaves can make the water very milky looking.

Both of these will eventually clear up by themselves. It's normal.

No live plants or wood.

 

No votes for Purigen??

 

If you want to do it - go ahead. I personally don't see it as necessary.

Just change the water regularly but don't clean aggressively or vacuum the gravel aggressively.

Make sure you rinse out the filter element once in a while.

It will clear on it's own.

 

No votes for Purigen??

It might help as might carbon but difficult to know for sure without knowing the source of the cloudiness. This is a more broad based and safe treatment to consider:

Easy-Life Filter Medium - Easy-Life

Or just keep up with the water changes and wait it out.

 

Cloudy Water: << Click here
The water in your tank might be cloudy due to dirt, sand, fish waste, particles, plant matter, and uneaten food floating around. Moreover, the particles might be way too small for your filter to catch. The stuff making your aquarium water cloudy can’t even be detected or stopped by the filter.
Try the information here first (make sure you have fine filter floss in your filter):
Why Is My Fish Tank Cloudy & How To Fix It
Build a DIY Water Polisher here. I built this and it works great in large tanks:

Here is the pump mentioned in the video.
For smaller tanks, try this:
Diy Micro Gravel Vacuum/Water Polisher

If all the above does not work… this will:
Acruel F
Start with 1 drop per gallon first, not the 2-4 drops recommended to start. Your water will get cloudy for about an hour or so and then start to clear. Make sure you have fine filter floss in your filter. If you need another/higher dose 24-48 hours later, fine. All Acruel F does is clump the free floating particles together so your filter can now pick this up. Guaranteed this works wonders.
Keep your tank crystal clear? ChemI Pure Blue
Green water? Get a UV Sterilizer with flow control (13 watt) and set it to the lowest flow rate so the water stays in contact with the light the longest. Will clear in about 7 days then remove it.

 

I think your tank is fine.Keep every thing current for complete bacteria bloom and water cycle after you change full tank new water And with some added Fluval Bio media....Do your water test in few day gap to make sure no harm for the fish.Do not change the water if your test is fine.The more water you change ,the cycle of the bacteria bloom go longer.Change 30% of water And clean up your fish waste if your test show 1 ppm ammonia .During bacteria bloom you will have your water cycle all over again that make water cloudy ,and you have fish there fore you will have very low % of ammonia and nitrate any way.Your water test will tell you what to do Only shake no stir....

 

No votes for Purigen??

No because its not going to fix this issue.

 

OK Have green machine 9W operating, and added finer filter floss to the HOB. No change in 12 hours but based on advice here will wait it out, no more water changes. All water parameters still good.

 

OK Have green machine 9W operating, and added finer filter floss to the HOB. No change in 12 hours but based on advice here will wait it out, no more water changes. All water parameters still good.

A bacterial bloom will not strain out with filter floss or mechanical water polishing or that carbon garbage. You just wait for it to run its course.