My water is very very murky

[PeterW]

I have a 36 gallon bow front tank and in it I have 3 angelfish. It is planted and has seachem flourite soil. My parameters are not very good. I have about a 6.1 ph,0 kh,0gh,0nitrite and 0 nitrate. I got equilibrium and Alkaline buffer to help with this. When I added it the water was already cloudy but after I added it the water seemed a little more cloudy. 2 of my fish looked as if they had itch in their eyes and all of the fish were at the top of the tank so I added parasite remedy by imaginitarium. 1 is aggressive and the other is very docile and gets bullied. I also took out the carbon filter. After that I waited a while. Now the fish are not at the top but the water is very murky and small bubbles are forming next to the glass on top. I have some debris at the bottom of the tank from plants that died after I had an ammonia boom on January 1st which killed my bushynose pleco. Can someone please help me!

 

[Madeline Peterson]

Firstly, how in the heck do you have 0 KH and GH? Are you using distilled water? If so, don't. Treated tap water is better unless you really need to controll GH for some reason. Even then, you add some sort of GH supplement so your water isn't 0 GH. If you aren't using distilled water, either your tap water is really weird or you're doing the test wrong.

Secondly, unless your fish prefer a high pH, use neutral regulator, not alkaline buffer. Even if your fish prefer a high pH, don't just dump a bunch of alkaline buffer in like that when your water is acidic. You'll make your pH increase too rapidly. Add it slowly so your pH changes gradually.

Thirdly, ick doesn't live on fish eyes. I'm guessing the alkaline buffer powder you added is the actual culprit. Either it lodged in the fishes' eyes or damaged them in some way. You generally don't want to add any sort of powder to your tank without dissolving it first.

That's some advice to keep this from happening again. Here's what you do about the current problem. Remove about 50% of your water, vacuuming up the plant debris if possible. Replace this with treated tap water with the appropriate amount of neutral regulator added. Repeat until your water is clear. I can provide some tips on making water changes easier if you like.

 

[Cherryshrimp420]

Haha the above answer is quite forward, but also correct.

But even with all that said, the tank needs to CYCLE. Please read up on "aquarium nitrogen cycling" first!

 

[Madeline Peterson]

But even with all that said, the tank needs to CYCLE. Please read up on "aquarium nitrogen cycling" first!

Forgot to mention that, lol. Good advice. Sorry if I was a bit blunt.

 

[Jilly92]

View attachment 756658
I have a 36 gallon bow front tank and in it I have 3 angelfish. It is planted and has seachem flourite soil. My parameters are not very good. I have about a 6.1 ph,0 kh,0gh,0nitrite and 0 nitrate. I got equilibrium and Alkaline buffer to help with this. When I added it the water was already cloudy but after I added it the water seemed a little more cloudy. 2 of my fish looked as if they had itch in their eyes and all of the fish were at the top of the tank so I added parasite remedy by imaginitarium. 1 is aggressive and the other is very docile and gets bullied. I also took out the carbon filter. After that I waited a while. Now the fish are not at the top but the water is very murky and small bubbles are forming next to the glass on top. I have some debris at the bottom of the tank from plants that died after I had an ammonia boom on January 1st which killed my bushynose pleco. Can someone please help me!
View attachment 756659

Probably add a Waterstone immediately. Was this tank just setup? Hiw did you cycle?

Probably add a Waterstone immediately. Was this tank just setup? How did you cycle? Did you rinse filters/substrate?

 

[PeterW]

Probably add a Waterstone immediately. Was this tank just setup? Hiw did you cycle?

My tank was setup last year but I did a complete renovation changing the soil and everything In mid December . I kept my filter media, I already had 1 angel so I had to put it in immediately. The tank was cycled but it crashed about a week ago so I added equilibrium and alkaline buffer.

My tank was setup last year but I did a complete renovation changing the soil and everything In mid December . I kept my filter media, I already had 1 angel so I had to put it in immediately. The tank was cycled but it crashed about a week ago so I added equilibrium and alkaline buffer.

Also what is a water stone? I have an airstone in there that bubbles.

Firstly, how in the heck do you have 0 KH and GH? Are you using distilled water? If so, don't. Treated tap water is better unless you really need to controll GH for some reason. Even then, you add some sort of GH supplement so your water isn't 0 GH. If you aren't using distilled water, either your tap water is really weird or you're doing the test wrong.

Secondly, unless your fish prefer a high pH, use neutral regulator, not alkaline buffer. Even if your fish prefer a high pH, don't just dump a bunch of alkaline buffer in like that when your water is acidic. You'll make your pH increase too rapidly. Add it slowly so your pH changes gradually.

Thirdly, ick doesn't live on fish eyes. I'm guessing the alkaline buffer powder you added is the actual culprit. Either it lodged in the fishes' eyes or damaged them in some way. You generally don't want to add any sort of powder to your tank without dissolving it first.

That's some advice to keep this from happening again. Here's what you do about the current problem. Remove about 50% of your water, vacuuming up the plant debris if possible. Replace this with treated tap water with the appropriate amount of neutral regulator added. Repeat until your water is clear. I can provide some tips on making water changes easier if you like.

Thanks for the help! I always use water from my tub and it is actually fine. I will do what you told me to do thank you.

 

[feeshi]

Honestly, this is what I would do with a tank in this kind of condition.
Take the fish out, place them into a container/bucket (seperate containers if aggressive) with the murky water. Drain the tank to as low as it will go, vacum debres, remove as much dead plant as possible as organic matter lowers ph. I dont recommend almost 100% water changes but in this case theres just too many problems to fix with a smaller one.
Refill tank with clean dechlorinated water, test the water from the tap so we know your tap water levels, let a glass of water stand for 15mins before testing.
Now you are going to very slowly, acclimate the fish to the brand-new aquarium water. Like they are brand new fish. Remove some murky water, so just enough covers the fish and then slowly dribble fresh aquarium water into their container very slowly, the fish should be calm, if they aren't you are pouring too fast. Once container is around 70% clean water, you can take the fish out and release it into the aquarium.
You now have to complete the nitrogen cycle, it will take around a month.
You will need to test the water at least every other day and dont overfeed, making sure ammonia and nitrite remain under 1ppm.
Since you bought medication I am going to assume you arent against spending money, so grab some seachem prime. It's going to protect the fish from ammonia and nitrite until the bacteria colony is big enough to eat it. It will save you having to change the water everyday while the cycle completes. Its expensive but a little goes a long way.
You must dose every 24hours, and if the ammonia or nitrite go above 1ppm, do a water change. Only double dose prime in an emergency. Eventually you will get readings of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10-20 nitrates, indicating you have a bacterial ecosystem in the tank and are cycled. Then its just weekly water changes to stop nitrates getting too high.
Lastly, depending on your tap water test, if you have a naturally low ph (like me) and low gh/kh, you may have to grab a small amount of dry coral, an inexpensive and stable way to stop ph dropping. It can be mixed into substrate, put into the filter or just hidden in the aquarium.
Sorry this was so long but I hope atleast some information helped you and you can save the tank.

 

[dMog]

Forgot to mention that, lol. Good advice. Sorry if I was a bit blunt.

Sirry but when so much is going wrong the cirections have to be pointed out whith no time for pleasantries of discussions of the weather... Serious issues in that tank and the fish in it will soon die if the keeper keping those fish does not soon see that imediate action needs to be taken. And again sorry for the blunt tersenes of the reply

 

[Jilly92]

My tank was setup last year but I did a complete renovation changing the soil and everything In mid December . I kept my filter media, I already had 1 angel so I had to put it in immediately. The tank was cycled but it crashed about a week ago so I added equilibrium and alkaline buffer.

Also what is a water stone? I have an airstone in there that bubbles.

Thanks for the help! I always use water from my tub and it is actually fine. I will do what you told me to do thank you.

Oops meant airstone ha

 

[GlennO]

Seachem Flourite is known to cause cloudy water, especially if not rinsed well first. It will clear up eventually. I'd focus on getting the cycle re-established. Changing all of the substrate is probably what caused the crash.

I'm still unclear about what's going on with your KH & GH.

 

[dMog]

KH and GH should never be zero readings. not healthy for fish...are you using reverse osmosis water...if so you have to remineralize that water or fish will eventually die