Why is My fish tanks water so cloudy?

So about 4 days ago my fish tanks water started getting cloudy. I have a 120 gallon tank with 2 HOB filters, my nitrite and ammonia are at 0 and my nitrate is about 20 to 30. It has never been this cloudy. I bought some API water clear stuff but it doesn't seem to work. I do not want to keep adding more of it just in case it harms my fish. My ph is at 7.6 but I have really hard water. I'm not sure the exact hardness but I am getting g a test kit for it today. Can anyone help with tips or maybe a reason why it is so cloudy thank you

 

So about 4 days ago my fish tanks water started getting cloudy. I have a 120 gallon tank with 2 HOB filters, my nitrite and ammonia are at 0 and my nitrate is about 20 to 30. It has never been this cloudy. I bought some API water clear stuff but it doesn't seem to work. I do not want to keep adding more of it just in case it harms my fish. My ph is at 7.6 but I have really hard water. I'm not sure the exact hardness but I am getting g a test kit for it today. Can anyone help with tips or maybe a reason why it is so cloudy thank you

That API water clear used to work for me way back when I used it years ago. Have you done any recent water changes or do your fish stir up your substrate. What I can recommend that usually works is add more finer filtration pads like filter floss(polyester filling looking thing) that helps a lot with naturally polishing your water.

 

That API water clear used to work for me way back when I used it years ago. Have you done any recent water changes or do your fish stir up your substrate. What I can recommend that usually works is add more finer filtration pads like filter floss(polyester filling looking thing) that helps a lot with naturally polishing your water.

Will that work for my HOB filter ?

 

What kind of HOB filter do you have ?

 

How new is the tank and this may sound funny but what colour is the cloud, it could be a bacteria bloom or a algae bloom, don't add too much in the way of chemicals and cut back slightly on feeding and monitor, do you have surface agitation as they often lower oxygen when it clouds.

 

If it's a new set up, then it's normal and it'll clear on its own.

Is it cycled?

Please stop adding more chemicals they don't work and often do more harm than good.

Good old fashion water changes is what I recommend.

 

The tank is cycled it been cycled for awhile I do water changes every week I have an air pump putting oxygen into the water the cloud is white I have only used a bit of that chemical the water stays cloudy even in my smaller tank the water is cloudy. I think my water is doing it

How new is the tank and this may sound funny but what colour is the cloud, it could be a bacteria bloom or a algae bloom, don't add too much in the way of chemicals and cut back slightly on feeding and monitor, do you have surface agitation as they often lower oxygen when it clouds.

I have cut down on feeding for a couple days now to see if that is the problem it's only cloudy from the side

If it's a new set up, then it's normal and it'll clear on its own.

Is it cycled?

Please stop adding more chemicals they don't work and often do more harm than good.

Good old fashion water changes is what I recommend.

I will stop adding chemicals I do regualr water changes 25 % every week

 

That looks like a bacterial bloom to me.

 

If it is cloudy white, chances are it's a bacterial bloom. There is no harmful effects of this and you can only wait for it to finish... A week or two. If you keep changing the water you keep putting it back so just hold off and ignore it for now. It will go away. It will get worse and worse, then one day you will wake up and it will be gone. As I mentioned it isn't harmful to the fish. So just let it do its thing it's completely normal when a new tank is set up (caused by new tank syndrome) or if you clean your filter and remove too much beneficial bacteria.

 

If it is cloudy white, chances are it's a bacterial bloom. There is no harmful effects of this and you can only wait for it to finish... A week or two. If you keep changing the water you keep putting it back so just hold off and ignore it for now. It will go away. It will get worse and worse, then one day you will wake up and it will be gone. As I mentioned it isn't harmful to the fish. So just let it do its thing it's completely normal when a new tank is set up (caused by new tank syndrome) or if you clean your filter and remove too much beneficial bacteria.

Alright for sure I recently moved my tank from my old house to my new house it been set up for about 3 weeks I thought it would have stayed cycled because I kept my filters wet to save the bacteria maybe it didn't work so well

 

It needs a flow and food (ammonia) to stay at full strength, you have probably kept most and it's just a minI cycle, check your perameters regularly whilst it clears to ensure no spikes, good luck

 

It needs a flow and food (ammonia) to stay at full strength, you have probably kept most and it's just a minI cycle, check your perameters regularly whilst it clears to ensure no spikes, good luck

Thank you I've been checking every day and no spikes have occurred so I think it's just colonizing there might not be enough bacteria so I hope everything goes good to and I don't lose my tank

 

The tank is cycled it been cycled for awhile I do water changes every week I have an air pump putting oxygen into the water the cloud is white I have only used a bit of that chemical the water stays cloudy even in my smaller tank the water is cloudy. I think my water is doing it

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I have cut down on feeding for a couple days now to see if that is the problem it's only cloudy from the side


I will stop adding chemicals I do regualr water changes 25 % every week

25% isn't enough to be honest. Even in a small tank you should be doing at least 30-40%.

 

25% isn't enough to be honest. Even in a small tank you should be doing at least 30-40%.

Won't that mess with my water levels like nitrate and ph and all that

 

Won't that mess with my water levels like nitrate and ph and all that

Well I do and always have done 50-75% water changes depending on the type of fish in the tank.

This 25% rubbish is pointless, you're not taking any of the ammonia out doing that unless you're doing them every other day.

 

Yeah for sure I just think that my beneficial bacteria isn't a full colony because I just moved my fish tank not to long ago. I don't want to be messing around with that just incase it's doing a little cycle to build it back up

 

Hey! If it gets any cloudier, add some extra water agitation. Those bacteria eat up oxygen alongside fish. It might stall your beneficial bacteria's growth, but it'll eventually go away.

Also, oldbean did say to do a lot of water changes, but you can just do regular changes. Some people argue too many water changes will prolong a bacteria bloom. It won't harm your fish besides absorbing oxygen. Doing large water changes will only affect fish if the nitrates/pH dramatically change (7.5 to 7.0 pH or 100ppm to 30ppm nitrates) but it really depends on the sensitivity of your fish.

Also, don't use anything to clear up your water. The chemicals that attach to cloudiness and precipitate it also attaches to fish gills, causing damage. You'll only notice the damage if you go haywire and overdose or use the chemicals for too long, but it's better to stay safe than sorry.

 

Hey! If it gets any cloudier, add some extra water agitation. Those bacteria eat up oxygen alongside fish. It might stall your beneficial bacteria's growth, but it'll eventually go away.

Also, oldbean did say to do a lot of water changes, but you can just do regular changes. Some people argue too many water changes will prolong a bacteria bloom. It won't harm your fish besides absorbing oxygen. Doing large water changes will only affect fish if the nitrates/pH dramatically change (7.5 to 7.0 pH or 100ppm to 30ppm nitrates) but it really depends on the sensitivity of your fish.

Also, don't use anything to clear up your water. The chemicals that attach to cloudiness and precipitate it also attaches to fish gills, causing damage. You'll only notice the damage if you go haywire and overdose or use the chemicals for too long, but it's better to stay safe than sorry.

Awsome thank you I did add one dose of water clear stuff but I won't anymore I have two bubblers and two filter agitating the top water. my ammonia and nitrite are at 0 my nitrate is at 30 to 40 I'm currently trying to get it down. It just started getting cloudy the other day it gets a little better but still is cloudy.

 

Awsome thank you I did add one dose of water clear stuff but I won't anymore I have two bubblers and two filter agitating the top water. my ammonia and nitrite are at 0 my nitrate is at 30 to 40 I'm currently trying to get it down. It just started getting cloudy the other day it gets a little better but still is cloudy.

So everyone has settled on this cloudiness being a bacterial bloom, it's possible I don't recall mine clouding up excessively. Though I will say do use filter floss to polish your water. They will easily fit as it tends to come in a roll so you'd just have to cut it to size

 

It's 100% just a bacterial bloom. Excessive water changes will only prolong cloudiness.

 

Alright so I should wait a little bit on the water change I just changed my filters for my HOB filters to renew the carbon packages

 

Wait! What!?!? You threw out your filter cartridge?

 

Wait! What!?!? You threw out your filter cartridge?

No no I have 4 filter cartridges I changed one of them not the black sponge the carbon cartridge

 

I wouldn't change anything except floss if necessary whilst the tank is still getting settled, unless you are using the carbon to try and clear the chemicals you have been adding then only change the carbon. Can you add any ceramic media? It's great to grow bb and doesn't need replacing (most of the time)

 

Yeah I changed the carbon to try and get rid of the clear water stuff I added the other day and like a ceramic decoration I could probably find something

 

Not decoration something like this in the media area of the filter, you can get it in small netted bags ect

 

Would I be able to put that in my HOB filter that has no place for it I can just put it in the big part of my filter