Having a problem with dirty water?

Question

I have a 2 gallon fish tank. I have a Whisper® In-Tank PF-10i in the tank. After 1 week after introducing the fish the tank is so dirty you can almost not see thru the water. I havent vacuumed the bottom yet because I have heard you need to let the tank setup for approx 2 to 8 weeks. I did salt the water when we 1st setup the tank.

Ok there are 2 small fish in the tank

We let the tank sit/cycle for 4 or 5 days before introducing them to the tank.

The cloudiness is not green but whitish. There is also a bit of particulate on the fake plants and on the bottom

And yes I was speaking of freshwater salt. we did this when the tank was sitting/cycling.

Should we dump the tank and clean it and rinse everything? Then reintroduce the fish after letting it sit for a longer period of time ?

Answer 1

Well, I'm glad that you knew about cycling your tank, but you're supposed to do that before you get fish. At this point, you need to siphon the substrate and get the gunk out of there. That's what's fouling the water. You don't need to salt the water for no reason unless you have a salt water tank or a brackish tank. It's not a good idea to use salt as a regular maintenance sort of thing.

EDIT: No, don't dump everything because you're just going to disrupt whatever amount of cycling has taken place. Do about a 60-70% water change to get rid of some of the salt, rinse the filter really well, but don't replace it with a new one, add spring water or dechlorinated tap water and siphon all the gunk from the gravel like I mentioned before. Trim all of the plants really well to remove anything dead. Also add some Bio-Spira to get the beneficial bacteria growing (hopefully the salt won't kill it). Get the test kit like I mentioned also and check the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Following the link I gave on cycling, keep the water going and get the parameters in line. And like I said, salt is not part of a cycling process and is not necessary for part of a regular maintenance program, so you don't need to keep adding it. In this case, having it doesn't help the cycling process because it kills the beneficial bacteria that is necessary to getting a tank properly cycled. Salt only needs to be used for sicknesses. So, just start from here, read the links, do your water tests and do your water changes and you should be fine.

Answer 2

The "setup" you're talking about is called cycling and if you're doing it with fish in your tank, you have two choices:

1) Let the tank get foul and your fish die. Buy more. Repeat. This is a very cruel and unstable way of cycling a tank and usually creates much more frustration than it does healthy bacteria.

2) Test your tank water daily for ammonia and nitrites. Anytime you get a reading above zero, do a 1/3 to 1/2 water change. Vacuum the gravel once or twice a week. When the tank is cycled, the readings will stop going up so fast. Then you can start doing water changes only once or twice weekly depending on your fish. Keeping the water clean is your only chance at live fish. Although if you're overstocked, which is likely in a 2 gallon tank, you're probably headed for failure anyway.

Answer 3

How is it dirty?

Is it really cloudy? Maybe white like cloudy? If so then this is a bacteria bloom. It is common in new aquariums (altho letting the water sit 24 hours before you add fish usually helps to reduce it).
The bacteria is good for the fish - just let it be and it will clear up on its own.


Now if it is green - that means you have algea in your water. Are you leaving your light on a lot? is it near a window?
Light makes algea grow, so reducing the amount of light will help to keep it from getting green again. To clean algea out of the water, so small water changes each week until it is clear. Do not change too much at one time or it will stress out the fish.

Okay how many fish are in this 2 gallon tank? I hope only one? And I hope it is not a goldfish. You may have too many fish in it, or you could also be feeding it too much. Fish only need to be fed once a day. Just a small bit. Their stomach is only the size of their eye (usually).

By salt I am assuming you mean freshwater salt.

if you can give more details, I may have other answers.

(edit) A pleco is NOT a bottom feeder, it is an algea eater and it is too large for a 2 gallon tank.

You are very limited to what you can add to a 2 gallon tank.

Answer 4

Maybe a bacterial bloom. If it is like white fog, it is probably a bacterial bloom, which is normal for all new tanks. It is annoying (I know) but wait, it will go away in a few weeks.

The bacteria is not bad for your fish. You may be able to speed it up by introducing some beneficial bacteria to the tank (speeds up the cycling process). Also add some small (your tank is not that big) plants to help with chemical filtration (if your fish are not plant eaters that is).

Check out this link for information that is really good for starting a new tank (using plants):

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm

As mentioned above, it could be "greenwater". Which is easy to get rid of by blacking out your tank for 2-3days (leave the light off, cover it with a blanket or something to completely cut out the light). Resist the temptation to peek. This will starve the algae of the light it needs to live (killing it of course). It will not hurt your fish or any plants to go without light and food for 2-3 days (yes don't feed the fish, the nutrients from the food are also feeding the algae to some extent).

UV fiters can help prevent (and even eliminate) green water. But they can be expensive...though worthwhile for some.

Answer 5

A 2 gallon tank is so small it cannot cycle. The water quality is always very unstable in a smaller tank. You should just change 100% of the water twice a week. If you have goldfish you will have a problem though because of all the ammonia they produce, they won't survive in that amount of water for long.

Answer 6

Do you have a bottom feeder? Maybe a placothamus( algae eater) u need those they keep the tank clean...u could also be over feeding the fish