# Cloudy tank!!!!



## Rachael (Mar 10, 2010)

I have a 35gl freshwater tank that is cloudy, it is white cloudy. I have tried many things and nothing is working. I have tried emptying the entire tank, rinsing the gravel and filling it back up with water from our larger tank that has no water problems. We have added bacteria, changed filters, added another filter, tried water clarifiers, among other things. It has been this way for several months now ever since we got it. We got it from our neighbor who had no problems with the water. When we moved the tank we took out most of the water and left the fish in the tank since we were only carrying it across the street. Does anyone know what is wrong and how we can fix it?


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## timmo2009 (Jun 10, 2009)

well one thing to try would be to stop putting some much stuff into it, its possible your just causing more problems adding all the chemicals. I can't tell you what exactly is causing the problem, but thats my suggestion.


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## Rachael (Mar 10, 2010)

timmo2009 said:


> well one thing to try would be to stop putting some much stuff into it, its possible your just causing more problems adding all the chemicals. I can't tell you what exactly is causing the problem, but thats my suggestion.


the only chemical we have put in is the water clarifier so I dont think that it making it worse because we stopped once we realized it wasnt working.


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## timmo2009 (Jun 10, 2009)

okay, you said among other things, so thats why i said that, from what i've seen/experienced, it seems like typically you just kind of got to wait it out, and maybe do frequent water changes, but not large. But its possible something in your tap water is causing the cloudy water too, in which case, water changes with tap water is a bad thing


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## Rachael (Mar 10, 2010)

timmo2009 said:


> okay, you said among other things, so thats why i said that, from what i've seen/experienced, it seems like typically you just kind of got to wait it out, and maybe do frequent water changes, but not large. But its possible something in your tap water is causing the cloudy water too, in which case, water changes with tap water is a bad thing


It has been this way for 3 months. It is not the tap water because we have several other tanks and we are not having any problems with them. It is a 35gl and we do one or two 5gl water changes a week. We have tried all of the basic stuff so either we are missing something sooo simple or it is beyond basic. All of the fish are fine but it is annoying to have such cloudy water. It is VERY cloudy.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Rachael said:


> It is VERY cloudy.


R:

The flocculation agent you added is still affecting the water adversely.

Try 25% semiweekly WC's from your main tank.

The tank water should clear up in a month or so.

TR


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## bobdobs (Feb 2, 2010)

First, make sure nothing is dripping into the tank from above, like paint or rain water. Second, don't carry fishtanks with water and fish in them across streets, it makes the water turn white and cloudy. Third, make sure no one is spilling anything into the tank like paint or white out. Fourth don't put anything in your tank that will cause the water to turn cloudly, toothpaste, pasta,milk or anything white and cloudy. Make sure that you turn you filter on and that there is a filter in there. If problem contiues then find a way to make your other tanks cloudy and you won't notice the problem as much in the first tank. You can try to add more carbon to your filter as well to speed up the removal of the yuck!
Good luck!


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## Rachael (Mar 10, 2010)

Please read all of the previous entries.....I am no longer adding anything to the tank and havent been for a long time now, nothing is dripping in it, have been doing water changes, I have a filter, it is on, the water is NOT cloudy because we carried it because it was fine when we first set it up. It has been three months as I said before and we have thought of all the obvious things. NOTHING has worked.


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## timmo2009 (Jun 10, 2009)

bobdobs... seriously... dont' put pasta or white out into your tank??? what valuable input you have. I kind of like the idea by jones, of using water from your old tank to refill from water changes, i know you mentioned that you have tried this, but did u do it frequently or only once?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

White cloudiness is usually caused by swarms of bacteria in the water. They have a huge surge in population when the tank is cycling, but afterward they fall back again once they stabilize at a level matching the amount of food available to them. They also settle out of the water when the surfaces in the tank and filter become "sticky" enough to hold them so they no longer float in the water.

All those things you have done didn't help because with each one you have been working against yourself, making the tank have to start over again. Just leaving it alone for awhile should help quite a bit.

There is also a possibility that you are seeing some sort of precipitation in the water of some mineral. Things like that can drive you crazy until you figure out exactly what is causing it. Use some fresh new activated carbon in the filter for a week ( rinse it off first to eliminate the dust ) and see if that helps. If it doesn't, try using some water from a different source. Your neighbors didn't have this problem, but it's possible that their water is somehow different from yours. ( different pipes, water softener etc...)

What kinds of rocks and decor are in this tank? Maybe one of them is the problem.

Finally, you might just be feeding the fish too much.


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## Guest (May 4, 2010)

is this a glass tank or acrylic?????


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## Rachael (Mar 10, 2010)

ELUVIET: It is a glass tank.
TheOldSalt: The other tanks in our house are fine, the tap water is not the problem. We have cut back on feeding, and the decor is not an issue, it came out of one of out other tanks. We have 4 tanks of all sizes and this is the only one with the problem. 
Timmo2009: Every time we do a water change we put water from our large tank in.


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