my tank water is cloudy, and i have cleansed it a billion times today, yet it is still cloudy what do I do????

Question

well as you might have read, my water is still dirty, i rinsed the pebbles a lot of times and it is still cloudy!!! i am freaking out, i wonder if my fish will be hurt please help me!!!


S.O.S!

Answer 1

By cleaning the tank as often as you are, you're prolonging the problem. The cloudiness is natural when you set up a tank, and it will clear on its own within a few weeks to 2 months. Right now your tank is cycling. This means that you're developing a population of bacteria in the tank (this is a good thing, despite how it may sound).

Here's what's happening in your tank at the monemt. Your fish eat and they produce wastes, including ammonia. Ammonia is toxic to your fish. The bacteria use ammonia as a source of energy (food) and convert it to nitrite. Nitrite is also toxic to fish, but other bacteria will use this as an energy source and convert it to nitrate. Nitrate your fish can tolerate, as long as the concentration doesn't get too high (best to keep it under 40ppm, although lower is better). As long as there is more ammonia and nitrite than your bacteria need, they'll reproduce. This bacterial "bloom" is the cloudiness you see in the water.

The bacteria will reside in the gravel and on your filter pad. Each time you take out the gravel or filter media and clean it in water with chlorine, you're killing the bacteria. This means less bacteria to process the wastes (which will cause ammonia and nitrite to rise, which can be dangerous to your fish), plus you get additional reproduction, so your water gets cloudy within a few days.

The best way to solve both the water quality and cloudiness issues is to not clean your tank as you have been. Instead, get an aquarium test kit and monitor your ammonia and nitrite levels and let them be your guide as to when to clean the tank. Use a gravel vacuum to clean everything lying on the gravel surface and down into the gravel right in front of the tank (where it's seen) every cleaning. Other than that, only clean about 1/3 of the gravel well. This leaves the bacteria in the other 2/3 undisturbed so they can repopulate the area just cleaned. When you clean your filter media (and most can be reused several times) rinse it in a separate container with a little water from the tank. This cleans the filter without destroying the bacteria with chlorine. And avoid cleaning the gravel and filter media on the same day so even fewer bacteria are lost.

Other than that, just be sure you aren't overfeeding your fish which will add more ammonia to the tank. They should only be fed what they can eat in 2-3 minutes twice a day - no more. If there is any food that's uneaten after 3 minutes, net it out of the tank.

Using this method, the tank will clear on its own and stay that way in a few weeks, as long as you don't overfeed, overcrowd the tank, and don't use antibiotic medications which will destroy the tank bacteria, making you have to start the process over.

See the links below for more info on cycling:

Answer 2

Well, the first question I used to ask my customers is "is it cloudy grey or cloudy green?" Two completely different answers....

(Oh and before I forget NEVER use soap in your aquarium as someone else suggested. It leaves a residue even when rinsed well and will kill fish.)

Cloudy grey: I would ask you several other questions - Have you just set this tank up with new water? If so, the beneficial bacteria hasn't had a chance to multiply yet and when it does, it causes the water to have a cloudy appearance. Add a product to help the beneficial bacteria grow such as Hagen's B-Clear. You could also purchase a live aquarium plant from your local pet store. It will have beneficial bacteria on it and will help to seed your tank. Try Anacharis or Elodia as it is inexpensive and the fish can eat it (depending on the kind of fish you have). How long has the tank been set up and when is the last time you did a water change? By the way, a water change is NOT adding water when the level of the tank becomes low! A water change should be done with a gravel siphon 10% of the tank's capacity once per week - period. No miracle cures, I don't care what the companies that are trying to get you to purchase their products say. Have you had your water tested lately? An abundance of ammonia, nitrite or nitrates in the water could indicate that there is excessive waste or food decomposing in your tank that will cause cloudy water.

(Let's stop for a moment - if this is all new water/new tank syndrome and you keep rinsing the gravel - STOP! You are killing the beneficial bacteria and you have to keep starting over again!)

Are you overfeeding your fish? Fish do NOT need to eat daily (the average freshwater community tank). I feed mine 2-3 days in a row and then I don't feed them for a day. Then 2-3 days then skip a day. They also should only be fed what they can eat in 1-2 minutes NOT 5 minutes like some of the jars of flake food say! Who is telling you to feed that much? The COMPANIES TRYING TO SELL YOU MORE FOOD! :) You can feed once in the morning and then once in the late afternoon - early evening, but don't feed them at midnight, turn the light off and go to bed. You don't eat in the dark - MOST fish don't either. Decomposing food will cause a tank to become cloudy also. The remedy? You guessed it - water changes! NOT complete total annihilation of the entire tank. To get things back in shape, purchase an appropriate size gravel siphon for your tank's size and do a 10-20% water change. Wait til tomorrow and do 10-20% again. People - stop changing 100% of your water and washing the gravel! This kills all your GOOD bacteria! OK, listen..... do you have a dirty bottom in the tank? Can you see waste or uneaten food decomposing in there? Simple - stop overfeeding and start doing water changes!
By the way - the fish can live through the cloudy water if it is new tank syndrome if you employ the water change method. If it is bacteria multiplying in there and the tank is cycling, the ammonia can kill the fish. Water changes like I have described will dilute the ammonia and help the fish to live.
If it is a well established tank and you haven't been doing your weekly 10% water changes don't fret! (Don't tear the tank apart either!) Do 10% water changes daily for a week WITH a gravel siphon and then have your water tested again. Once the tank is back in shape, start the 10% weekly method. Trust me - it works!
Now, if the tank is "green cloudy" that indicates single celled algae spores floating around in the water. NO, algae eaters won't help a bit and algae killers won't either. First, find the source of the problem. Leaving the lights on 24-7? Stop! 8-10 hours of daylight max. Turn your lights off for two days and do 25% water changes daily for 4 days. If the tank is getting direct sunlight from a window - move the tank - not a good place for it.
See, with so many variables, I hope I haven't confused you but it isn't an easy question to answer. I do know this - stop rinsing the gravel! Even if it isn't the cause of the problem, it is contributing now because you are killing off all the good bacteria! Good luck :)

Answer 3

DON'T wash the pebbles or anything else in soap! That will make matters worse and possibly poison the fish! Cloudy water can be good, it can mean the tank is cycling and creating healthy bacteria -- cloudy doesn't always mean bad. Ease up on food, and let the filter clean up the water. Putting in more chemicals to clear up cloudiness will just harm your fish. If you test the water and it's all in range, it could just be healthy bloom. If your tank is fairly new, or you did a major change of water, it is probably just cycling again. You also may want to tell us how many fish you have in how large an aquarium, and what kind of fish -- goldfish, for instance, can make a smaller tank dirty instantly and will always have a cloudy tank unless they have a large enough size. Good luck!

Answer 4

The reason your tank is getting so cloudy is because you are cleaning it too much. The rocks, other than when you first put them in should NEVER be taken out and cleaned. All the water is not to be taken out either.

Clean to you and me is not clean for a fish. The purpose of Cycling your tank in the first place allows good bacteria to build up to keep the waste from the fish under control. Removing the pebbles and water you destroyed the good bacteria in the tank and now the tank is trying to work overtime to make up for it causing a bacterial bloom.

LET YOUR TANK GO. The cloudy water will clear if you just let it go. You will have to test your water over the next few days to ensure you are not getting ammonia spikes.

DO NOT add chemicals to clear the water they are not going to help. Put up with the cloudy water for a few days, it will clear.

When cleaning your tank, you can still remove decorations to clean them scrape the walls of the tank. Using your gravel siphone only remove 25% of the water and replace with fresh dechlor water. Once per week.

Just be sure to test your water each day for the next couple of days to avoid ammonia spikes. If you see your ammonia rising above .5 You will want to do a 25% water change to bring that down.

Feel free to email me if you need more help

Answer 5

Every time you take everything out of your tank and scrub it down, you kill the tank's bioload, it's natural way of keeping the tank water in check. Ammonia is introduced in to the water by fish waste and left over food. Nitrites form and break down the ammonia, which then produces Nitrates. That is the Nitrogen Cycle. Only then, will the tank be stable. Your cloudyness is more than likely a bacterial bloom because the tank is going through it's Nitrogen Cycle. Have patience, do 10% waterchanges once a week and quit breaking the tank down and scrubbing things. That starts the tank cycle all over again. Get test kits for Ammonia, pH, Nitrate and Nitrite. When Ammonia and NItrites are 0 and Nitrates are around 5 to 10ppm, the tank is ready to SLOWLY have fish added to it. When tank is cycled completely. Do 25% waterchanges with good, clean, dechlorinated water twice a month and your water will be clear as a bell, just like mine!

Answer 6

Have you checked the temp? sometimes if it is in the 80s it stays cloudy. do you have a filter? if so it may take a few hours to clean thoroughly. My son put dawn dish soap in my tank last month and most of my fish lived so yours should be fine. Also you might want to add conditioner like clor-out or something similar it neutralizes the chlorine in the water you can get it at walmart. good luck hope I helped some.
(Also if there is too much sunlight it can cause algae to grow and make the tank cloudy.)

Answer 7

It may be the fish. The easiest way to get a fish clean is to get a placostamos. They're kind of expensive, so if you don't want one, I suggest moving your fish into a new bowl for a few days so the water will cleanse them. My brother has that problem. He cleans the tank every week, but you can't see the fish, the tank is so dirty. It's just brown and icky.

Answer 8

Make sure you put in a water conditioner. It might just be the sediment from your pebbles/rocks. Changing out too much water for regular maint. is not a good idea - established aquariums have good bateria colonies growing, and when you change out all the water, it takes awhile for this colony to build back up.

Answer 9

It may just need to run through the filter several times. My tank water was turning green for awhile and no amount of algae tablets or cleaning out did the trick. I left it alone for a week and it cleared up.

Answer 10

take the fish out of the tank and put them in a bucket then take the tank and take it completely apart and vigorously clean every little thing in it then put it back together again and if its still cloudy it shouldn't hurt the fish and it should eventually settle to the bottom or get cleaned out by the filter

hope this helps