cloudy water?

Question

I've never had plecos before so I didn't know that I was supposed to wait for about 1 month before putting them in my tank. I asked a fish person at the pet store what I should do to make sure it gets food until there is algae to eat. I was told to finely crunch up the fish flakes so they would sink to the bottom of the tank and the plecos could eat. Well, I did this and now my clear tank is cloudy and has been for a full day. I have a filter, but it's not helping the cloudiness. What should I do and how should I do it?

This tank is only a few days old and all the fish were added at the same time. The water didn't cloud up until I crunched up the food for the pleco. I really like plecos, it's not just about them cleaning the algae.

Oh, its a 10 gallon tank holding 75 degrees. I have 4 tetra neons (did have 5 but one was dying and I pulled it out), 3 candy tetras, 1 pleco, 5 ghost shrimp and 1sm goldfish.

Answer 1

You got some bad advice there. The crushed up flakes are the root cause of the cloudy water, it's like way over feeding your tank . First, give your tank a water change. 25% or so and clean the gravel well to remove as much of the old food as possible. Next, consider if you really need the fish you have. The two most common algae eaters out there are the common pleco (grows to about 16-18" usually) http://www.bowfinanglers.com/images/nickv_pleco_072806.jpg or a Chinese Algae Eater http://www.aquariumlife.net/profile-images/algae-eater.jpg (nasty fish that shouldn't be imported IMO). If you have either of these fish and less than a 100 gallon tank, you should return the fish for a better choice for your tank.

I can't really advise you on what would be a good choice sense I don't know your tank size, and without knowing what fish it would be I can't really advise you on how to feed it either.

The common pleco can eat aglae wafers (available from most pet stores) ans well as assorted fresh green vegetables such as spinach, cucumber, zucchini and the like.

The Chinese algae eater will eat meatier sinking pellets until it's large enough to start killing and eating your fish.

MM

Answer 2

What's the overall population and size of your tank? If there has been nothing in there till now, then you have a bacterial bloom of beneficial bacteria growing. If this is an aged tank with a population in for awhile, I'd suspect the influx of the bio load from this new pleco has caused a temporary spike in your ammonia and therefore triggered a bacterial bloom. To be honest, you don't even need that pleco if you keep your tank upkept properly and keep proper lighting, algea won't even be an issue, but your sales person has also misled you. Plecos are just like any other catfish, they are from the armored family, and eat regular food just like any other tropical fish. They only consume algea as an emergency food source. Time and doing your regular water changes, and the water will be clear again. This is normal.

JV

FOLLOW UP:

Ty MM!! definetly return the pleco or get a larger tank please. Very few, and only rare plecos stay small enough for a ten gallon tank. Right now he might be fine, but growth ability is going to become stunted over time, and it's just a matter of time before they'll be ready to be moved. And not moving them is going to cause thier life to end abruptly.

Answer 3

First of all your tank is not cycled yet
2. Your tank is way to small for your pleco, you're going to stunt his growth, and with that shorten his life, as I assume that you have a common pleco in there
3. Very very bad advice for feeding your pleco, they eat special algae wafers just made for them
4. most likely your fish are going to die because of ammonia spike in your tank
5. you need to get yourself an ammonia and nitrite testkit, if both readings are at "0" your tank is cycled and ready for fish to be added


Here is a couple of sites for you to read up on
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cloudywater.php

Hope that helps
Good luck


EB