okay, i can't get the coudy water to go away! can you give me any more ideas?

Question

first of all, 99% of the time, i know what i'm doing with my fish tanks, so it's not novice problems.....

I have a 5 gallon acrillic tank, with light, filter, heater (Set to 70), whisper in tank filter, bubbler, with nice sized air stone, substrate and plants both made for fish tanks, installed correctly (rinsed very well), NO SOAP EVER USED i promise. I've treated the water with Tetra Aqua Safe, and API's Stress Coat, and i cycled my tank for almost a full month before i put in my single 4-6 month old goldfish. I have no evil undergravel filter, and did a 20% water change before i added my fish. I checked all of my water perameters and everything was fine (except the hard water - we have EXTREMELY hard water, but i'ts okay with the fish, he dosn't seem to care, and neither has any of my other goldfish..)

I just can't get the water to get uncloudy. I know that it can be bacterial boom, but fishie is healthy. i'm not over feeding, and I even used Crystal Cear. Any ideas?

ALSO, i know that goldfish need bigger tanks,,,,,,,,,,, dont worry, i'll move him when he gets a little bigger,,, he's a little small to be with the other one at home, and we're shopping for a 40 gallon for the house to move both the babies from home and work.

thanks!!

no live plants, no fertilizer...the only thing livin is the fish and the good bac's.... lol

i'm also sure i'ts not the fish poo.... i'm very used to caring for goldfish. thanks tho!!

Answer 1

It is a bacteria bloom,and if you keep the water changes up it will go away.It may take as long as a month. It will not harm the fish,just keep the gravel clean,and do small regular water changes. This is not uncommon in tanks with a high pH,which you probably have because of the hardness. When the bio-system balances itself out, every thing will be OK. Don't panic and add a bunch of chemicals,anything that would kill the bacteria that are clouding the water would also kill the beneficial ones that you cultivated for a month before you put the fish in the tank. Be patient and it will all work out. ------ PeeTee

Answer 2

What did you do to cycle your tank? I'm guessing that since you just put in a goldfish and you got the water cloudiness ("new tank syndrome") that what you did to cycle the tank was the source of the problem. Did you use one of the "bacterial" products (biozyme, etc.), and if so, was it an "old" product? You also mention cycling the tank for a month. Did you "feed" the bacteria during this time? You have to put in some fish food to get them to multiply; if not the bacteria died before you put the goldfish in.

Goldfish (even small ones are big eaters. If you have (or can purchase) an ammonia test kit (and possibly nitrate), check to see if the ammonia is high (nitrate low). If so, then you don't have a proper bacterial population to break down the food/feces in the tank (and you will have a better idea of what might be going on). Keep up the partial water changes!

Answer 3

yet another plausible challenge - what number fish do you've in the tank? the acceptable is generally a gallon of water in step with inch of fish. My tank saved getting cloudy and that i had 6 fish, yet 2 were virtually 4 inches lengthy each and each (goldfish). after I bumped off a few to get the gallon-in step with-inch ratio, very few days later the water cleared up. it would want to properly be some thing so user-friendly as having 6 or 8 fish, yet in the journey that they are all 2 inches lengthy, we are talking 12 to 16 inches of fish for a 10 gallon tank. All in all, it would want to properly be overcrowding adequate that the clear out won't be able to sparkling the water the way it would want to. (only my 2 cents)

Answer 4

I don't know if I can answer this but I might be able to help. Goldfish are extremely dirty fish by nature, in this they excreate a lot of waste. You might have too high of an ammonia concentration which may be having a reaction to the hard water. I would recommend a 30% water change, on a whole you should do a 25% change every month and a 50% change every year.

Answer 5

Activated Carbon will clear it right up....

I run a 50 gal tank and have 4 small mesh bags in the filter, each bag has about 4 tablespoons in it, each month I toss the contents of the oldest bag and replace with fresh carbon.

I would start off with one bag and work my way up, this stuff works great and clearing the water up to quickly can actually shock the fish :)

Good luck!

Answer 6

i go through that with my little betta tanks -- 3 gallon tanks. my 5 gallon are bigger and the marineland tanks at walmart and i never have problems with them. i use stress-zyme and it usually clears it up but i usally always have this funk floating on top and i have no idea what it is and i only get rid of it by water changes every other day. 5 gallons are very hard to cycle if not impossible. thats why they aren't recommended by most fish enthusiasts. small tanks are a lot of work. good luck.

Answer 7

You said you have used stress coat. That may be what is causing the cloudy water. Read the bottle. The kind I have states right on the bottle that it could cloud the water. It usually lasts about 2 weeks in my tank.

The fewer chemicals you add to the tank the better.

Answer 8

try using a brand called accurell water clear--it's a brownish liquid
I've found that aqua safe and stress coat is a waste of money...
just add aquarium salt to soften the water which also reduces stress. If all else fails, pull all plants and ornaments out and see if that helps. The accurell will definitely help though

Answer 9

live plants... algae bloom? you use plant fertilzer? used a bacterial agent such as "Cycle" ?