My tank is cloudy?

Question

I have a 10 gallon tank with 1 betta, 3 cory cats, and 5 neon tetras. When I get up I feed my betta his freeze-dried blood worms and then my neon tetras some crushed flakes. At night I feed my cory cats some tablets that sink to the bottom, but whenever I finish putting in the flakes the water seems to get cloudy and its been like that for about 5 hours now. I figured my filter would help clean it, but it hasn't. I noticed that yesterday to so I replaced about 25% of the water and renewed my filter cartridge and the water was fine. Can someone help me? Is it the food because I know I shouldn't have to change my water every day, but only once a week. HELP ME, PLEASE! Thanks to those who answer.

Answer 1

Your tank is not overcrowded! It sounds perfect to me. The neons add very, very little to the bio-load. You have a perfect mix of fish, IMHO.

You may be overfeeding slightly and it is just catching up with your filter and bio system. Only feed as much as your fish will eat in 2-3 minutes. I would allow the corys to clean up what the others miss and only give them an algae wafer a couple times a week. I feed my fish once a day and skip a day every week. 30% water changes weekly and stir the gravel once a month. New filter cartridge once a month or 6 weeks.

The water change and new cartridge were the proper response to the problem and it sounds like you solved it. You should only be changing 25-30% of your water every week, not 100%. 100% will cause the tank to go through repeated cycling processes and cloudy water is a natural part of that cycle. If your tank is new (set up in the last 3 weeks) it could be still cycling as some have said and the cloudiness is a natural part of the nitrogen cycle. If it is not new, you have done the right thing.

Note to tskstorm: I worked in a retail chain petstore and we scraped algae, stirred gravel and changed charcoal bags and filter pads twice a week. That's how we kept our tanks clean and healthy. I can only imagine how many dead fish you had returned because the hobbyists' water was so different from your doctored and chemically altered water in your store.

The closer the pet store water is to the customer's, the less problems you have acclimating the fish at home. Always ask the pet store what their pH is so you can adjust the time you take acclimating accordingly. The bigger the difference, the longer you should take in adding half cups of tank water (every 15 minutes) to the bag before putting the fish in your tank.

The more chemicals you add to a tank the more problems you create for yourself down the road. Eventually it all catches up to you and you have a tank that fish are dying in for no apparent reason. Partail water changes and not too much food is the way to go.

Good luck,
8

Answer 2

It sounds like a bacterial bloom, which is usually harmless. If your tank is mature (more than 6 months old) and cycled, you should be changing about 25% of your water every 2 weeks, particularly since you're stocked pretty well, and feeding blood worms which can cloud the water. If your tank is younger than 6 months, you should be changing that much water once a week.

Watch your tank chemistry - get a test kit if you don't have one. And you might consider feeding less. I feed my fish only every other day to avoid overfeeding. Fish in nature don't always get to eat every day, and overfeeding is the fastest way to foul your tank. Your fish's stomach is about the size of his eyeball, so only give that much food. I'd say 1/2 sinking wafer for your 3 cory cats at most.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

You have a bit crowding going on...I don't know if you have new young fish, but them Cory's are going to get larger. So about once a week fresh water changes of 50% will be needed unless you want some fish to die off. The more fish the more H20 is needed. The cloudings sounds like a food problem. To much...neon tetra's don't eat much and neither do betta's. Too much food makes them die faster, crashes your tank from comtamination. It could be from the cory's food as well. Maybe if you use only one flake a day (crushed) for the tetra's, use betta pellets (one a day) and your cory food only everyother day...could stop the problem.

Answer 4

Did you cycle your tank? its most like that, bacteria cant convert the ammonia to nitrate fast enough and is causing the cloudiness, DON'T buy chemicals at the store that promise to remove the cloudiness just let it be and it will subdue in a couple of weeks.

Local fish stores DO NOT buy chemicals for their fish tanks they know how to cycle a tank, and if you do buy chemicals if you read on the back it says "not for fish intended for consumption" That means they poison the fish and it will most likely cause long-term problems.

Next time just cycle your tank properly for about 2-4 weeks.

Answer 5

you can buy chemicals that will keep your water clear (thats how they do it at the pet stores, i know you didnt think they cleaned it
everyday lol)

and perhaps you are over feeding the Cory's on there tablets or too much flakes, should only feed enough that they can consume in about a minute.

on a note to inert ive managed pet stores but they are chain petstores. and we used to poor tons of thoose chemicals in the tank to no ill affect. perhaps you picked the wrong one up.

Answer 6

you would be over feeding. Left over food motives volatile micro organism that consumes oxygen. Oder is likewise brought about by potential of micro organism. (to not be perplexed with helpful micro organism) consequently pass that chemical. enhance your clear out length. Feeder fish nor any fish are mandatory to commence algae. gentle is (the greater gentle the greater & swifter algae enhance). you apart from mght would have presented to many fish to without delay in the event that they are gold fish feeders as they have an inclination to be "grimy" by potential of nature. additionally typical rule a million" of fish according to gal. of water. I take you advise DE-CHLORINATOR not chlorine chemical compounds as chlorine kills fish. If the water have been left as long as you pronounced chlorine remover does not be mandatory. Chlorine could expend interior 40 8 hours at usual room temperature. In new tanks because of fact no helpful bacterial have yet stronger a surprising intro of that many fish would desire to surely commence clouding with little filtration. The aeration is help finished save it going. Given approximately 5days with much less food the tank could sparkling up. you may desire to apply a chemical like "sparkling" that motives "dirt" molecules to bond and be filtered out greater surely or sink to the backside, even though it is going to sparkling without it. shrink lower back to a million or 2 pinches an afternoon and make particular they devour it in decrease than 5 minutes. placed your money right into a greater helpful clear out and purchase chemical compounds basically whilst nessary. do not sparkling the tank & clear out on the comparable time. in case you do your taking away each and all the helpful micro organism at as quickly as and you will could commence the technique over as quickly as greater. sparkling one or the different wait 5-7days and then sparkling the different. you will not could purchase starter em-zines. Do use declorinator whilst doing water differences or addind fish till now 40 8 hrs. except you have properly water.

Answer 7

it's new tank syndrome and you should take out a gallon of water once a week and and a new gallon. it should go away in a couple of weeks. or you can go to a pet store and by some bacterium to fix it.

Answer 8

first go get your water tested somewhere, i know petsmart while test your water and im sure other places will too, once you find out what needs to be changed you can go from their, my guess is nitrate is a little high, its common for tanks that have just got started

Answer 9

Clean it manually once a week and it will stay cleaner. Maybe 2 times a week if u can

Answer 10

you need to go to the pet shop and get some liquid chemicals that will clear it up- fix this problem b4 you kill your fish.