Cloudy/Milky Tank Water

[OMGItsMarky]

 

Hi guys, my tank is around 9-10 weeks olds. Has cycled and has a happy bunch of CRS and RCS both breeding quickly.

 

I have ada Amazonia 2 air filters.

I also added 2 almond leaves around the time it went cloudy, can this be the cause?

 

W.P. Ph 6.5 Kh 0-1 Gh 4-5 TDS 135 NH 0 Nitrate 0-5.

 

The cloudiness started about 4 weeks ago. Have done a couple of 25% changes but no improvement.

 

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

 

 

 

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[jayc]

It's either a bacterial bloom or an algal bloom.

If it's bacterial, don't do anything except for regular 10% water changes. 

No need to panic, as it will clear by itself. 

 

If it's algal, then try reducing the amount of light period.

How long do you have the lights on for ?

 

[OMGItsMarky]

Hi, thanks for your reply!

Ok great to hear.
Lights on 8-10 hours per day.
I have been changing 10% weekly
Did a 25% this week to see if it would help.



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[jayc]

14 minutes ago, OMGItsMarky said:

Lights on 8-10 hours per day.

You can probably cut that down. In fact, you would need to cut the lights out dramatically, to get the tank back to normal.

If it was my tank, I would turn the lights off completely, except for the times you are observing the shrimp. So turn on the lights only as needed.

My reasoning there, if you are interested, is that you have next to no plants in the tank that need so much light for such a long period. 

[OMGItsMarky]

Yeah just a bunch of java moss
Thanks for the advice. Do I need to give the shrimps some regular light during the day on timer (say 4) and then turn it on when I would like to view them?


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[jayc]

12 minutes ago, OMGItsMarky said:

Do I need to give the shrimps some regular light during the day on timer

The shrimps won't care if you added artificial light or not actually. In fact they prefer it to be darker. 

They only reason we add light to shrimp tanks is for the plants, and for our own viewing pleasure.

 

Once you get the algal bloom under control, you can put the lights on a 4-6 hour timer. But until then, I would keep it off and only turn it on to admire your shrimp as needed.

[OMGItsMarky]

Ok great, thanks for your help. I'll let you know how I go.


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[jayc]

No problem. SKFA is always here to help.

[Madmerv]

I had a very similar thing happen in my RCS cull tank a few weeks ago. Added 1 large Mullberry leaf, to a small tank, and a few days later it murked up. Being the cull tank i have been a bit slack on maintenance with it and the added load, coupled with a dirty filter, dirty sub, was the cause. 

I removed 80% of the leaf, cleaned out the filter and did some gravel vacing, so probably changed out 50% of the water, and things were clear in a few hours. RCS can handle a big WC without problems but your CRS might not like that so much so perhaps you might just want to give one of the filters a good clean up and increase the WC to daily for a few days.

Oh and the cull tank has no light just the ambient room light so go with JayC's light reduction for sure.

Good luck.

[Matuva]

Welcome to the milky waters club! I believe it is more likely bacteria bloom

I have the same problem on 2 of my tanks after a massive water change.

On one, as it is a plant tank, I just leave it as is, light on 8 hours a day, and the water cleared itself after 3 weeks and is now crystal clear, even after water changes.

The other one is anther story ?

As being my orange néo tank, I did several water changes quite often: the water always turn milky in the days after each water change.
Then, I added a pump with a UV lamp, and the water came crystal clear after a few days. Then, last friday, the pump passed away and I took out the UV lamp from the tank... and today, my tank is milky again ?

So; I decided to leave it as is. It should clear itself I hope.

Other than that, the shrimps are Ok, and, curiously, it seems the plants are growing better, so...

Edited February 15, 2017 by Matuva

[Matuva]

Here is mine today. When the pump with UV filtration failed past friday, water was crystal clear

Edited February 16, 2017 by Matuva