What Can Fix This Cloudy Water?

HI all!
I have a forty gallon tank with a common goldfish and a common pleco.
I'm not here for stocking advice-- the goldfish and pleco have a several hundred gallon tank in the works waiting for them in the next few months, and the water is at around 70 degrees so both are happy.
Anyway, the water in the tank is exceptionally cloudy. I do weekly 25% water changes and the tank has already been cycled. I feed the goldfish flakes in the morning and the pleco gets some algae flakes at night (the bottle advertises non-cloudy?). The light is turned off at night.
Why is it so cloudy? I have tried using clarity brand water clearer but it doesn't seem to work.
The filter is a 50 gal fluval power filter.
I guess goldfish are naturally pretty nasty, but could he be the cause of this? Or is it a bacterial bloom?
I tested the water (with a test strip. I know they are less accurate but it's all I had available)
Nitrate was kind of high- about 35ppm
The water is very hard but that's how it is I'm all of our tanks, none of which have a cloudiness issue
Normal nitrite
Low alkalinity- 10 or 20 ppm
Very acidic- about 6.2 ph or less



Thank you for any advice!

 

Have u tried aerating the water via an air stone?

 

I just recently heard this. And found it easier to understand.

Cloudiness:
White- bacteria bloom
Green- Algae
Grey - Overfeeding

Yours appears to be green from the photos. So that sounds like algae. The best way to get rid of algae is to decrease the amount of light exposure and adding snails or shrimp as a clean up crew. It looks like you have live plants. So try splitting up the time your lights are on. So 2 hours in the morning with a 4 hours off, then 4 hours on at night. Also keep the tank away from the windows.

Hopefully it will clear up quickly

 

Hello!

Your got some green water. Usually comes from an excess of nitrates, phosphates and some ammonia. Very annoying to deal with because they are easily adapted to feeding on different types of nutrients in the tank. The best way you can get rid of it is doing a total blackout for 4 days; you'll want no light reaching the tank, so you'll most likely have to use some dark paper or blankets or trash bags to cover the tank in darkness. What this will do is help starve the algae and they'll die. The only issue is that the remaining detritus will decompose, thus increasing ammonia. Therefore, you'll want to do a pretty large water change before starting the blackout, and after 4 days, do another large water change. Monitor the ammonia carefully as well and don't do water changes unless the ammonia gets very high. Don't feed your fish during this time; they'll be fine for the few days without food. The plants won't like the time without the light, but they'll fare a lot better than the algae and should bounce back afterwards.

If this method doesn't work, there are others you can try, but it's a bit harder to get the supplies. So try the blackout method first

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Thank you guys for responding quickly!! The consensus seems to be algae... I think I'll try a blackout method as you guys suggested, and maybe generally try to make sure that the fish are eating all of their food.
As for the air stone, I've never tried that but I think it might be beneficial to the tank in general.
Thank you guys!

 

I read through everything said so far, and yes to blackout and moving the tank away from windows. That would probably solve the problem. I would maybe go a step higher on the filter, or add a bag of carbon.

Also get yourself a pothos to help control the nitrates.

PS: Love your comet!

 

With a common and a pleco in a 40 I would recommend higher filtration then you likely have.... instead of the normal 10x I would aI'm for at least 20x.
Also, your kH is low... with a ph of 6.2 I would be super concerned with pH crashes. You should look into ways to correct this... some do by adding crushed coral to their filters, I add seachem alkaline buffer with every water change to maintain my kH.


I would normally recommend at least a 50% change on a tank of this size/stocking, if not 75% weekly, but be sure to test your tap and make sure it is close to your tank, if not you will cause a ph swing as you possibly increase the kH.

Not sure the water is actually green or if that just the lighting in the photos... also, runs mag scrape on the glass, sometimes algae built up on glass can tint the look of the water, but not the water itself....

 

Hi,

I would advise you just leave it. It would clear on it's on. It's nature taking its course. I wouldn't add anything to clear the cloudy water.

HI all!
I have a forty gallon tank with a common goldfish and a common pleco.
I'm not here for stocking advice-- the goldfish and pleco have a several hundred gallon tank in the works waiting for them in the next few months, and the water is at around 70 degrees so both are happy.
Anyway, the water in the tank is exceptionally cloudy. I do weekly 25% water changes and the tank has already been cycled. I feed the goldfish flakes in the morning and the pleco gets some algae flakes at night (the bottle advertises non-cloudy?). The light is turned off at night.
Why is it so cloudy? I have tried using clarity brand water clearer but it doesn't seem to work.
The filter is a 50 gal fluval power filter.
I guess goldfish are naturally pretty nasty, but could he be the cause of this? Or is it a bacterial bloom?
I tested the water (with a test strip. I know they are less accurate but it's all I had available)
Nitrate was kind of high- about 35ppm
The water is very hard but that's how it is I'm all of our tanks, none of which have a cloudiness issue
Normal nitrite
Low alkalinity- 10 or 20 ppm
Very acidic- about 6.2 ph or less



Thank you for any advice!
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