# Filter Causing Water to be Cloudy



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I have a 2.5 gallon tank that holds a betta for now. Everything was going well until last night when i noticed right after I turned off the light that there seemed to be a white cloudy substance coming out of the top of the filter. It wasn't doing this a few days ago, but all of a sudden it just keeps clouding the water. Do you guys know what might be causing this? I just thought of it now, but perhaps the filter bag is ripped inside, I'll check it out. Thanks for any ideas.


----------



## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Is your tank still cycling? If it is then it could just be part of the process and should clear itself after a day or 2. Just be a bit patient. If you have already finished cycling I dont have much of a clue why it would be doing this.


----------



## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

I used to have a small tank about the same size that had a sort of bag that had carbon and zeolites in. The pack said to rinse the filter before you use it. Not sure why really but maybe it gets rid of dusty stuff or something in it. Maybe you need to rinse it first if you have this type of filter. Not sure just an idea.

How long after the tanks were set up did this happen and how long did you wait to see if it cleared?


----------



## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

From What I have read it is just a normal thing happening while the tank cycles. It sounds about the right sort of time.

Do you know about cycling your tanks? Have you got any test kits to test the water as in the first month this is the most dangerous for your fish anyway?

If you dont know anything about cycling then I will try and fins some stuff on it for you to read about.


----------



## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Well to be honest Im probably not the best person to be giving advice but ill tell you all I know and Im sure others will jump in.

This is a page I found quickly just doing a google for how to cycle a fish tank or something. http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html Looks like it explains it fairly well.

Test kits, I have the master test kit made by aquarium pharmacuetecals. I think its quite good but you should be ok with any of them. Make sure you get the liquid test kits not the paper strips though. You will need to test for ammonia and nitrite first and then you will also need one for nitrate but probably not for the first week. The set I got does all of those plus it has 2 pH tests and works out cheaper than buying seperately.

As far as water quailty goes you need to keep ammonia and nitrite as close to zero as possible. Once the tank has cycled then it will keep these 2 toxins under control naturally. During the cycle you need to try and keep them below 0.5ppm. You might be able to get away with 1ppm if you have trouble getting it lower but it isnt good for the fish. Do this by doing partial water changes. You want to keep the NITRATE under 40ppm really but my fish all seem fine up o 80 as I have a lot of trouble keeping it any lower. If the levels get too high then you could end up killing your fish. So do partial water changes (upto 50%) as often as you need. Probably every few days while it is cycling.

If you keep replacing your filter every week or so you end up restarting the tank each time. The cycling should take a month maybe more. Once it has finished the only thing that will be able to show up with the tests will be Nitrates the other 2 will be 0ppm. As long as your fish are active and feeding properly just be patient and the tank will sort itself. It is normal for some cloudiness but give it a few days and it should go.

As for choice of fish or other matters like filters Im not very knowledgable. But the carbon is usually only used to remove meds or smells so if you stick with this you mite look into getting a different filter that has carbon as optional.
Sorry for the long post but hope it helps you.


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I think I'm going to wait a few more days to see if the water clears up, but I do think that all of the "powder" is coming from the bag and won't stop. The Ammonia and Nitrites and Nitrates are fine and the pH is around 6.5 to 7. I don't know what the exact pH bettas like but I'm trying to keep it around 7. Hopefully the water clears up and if not I think I'll purchase a new filter, or maybe go to a 10 gallon tank for the betta. Thanks Huugs for your help.


----------



## cheechee65 (Jun 13, 2005)

how do you plan to treat the ammonia? If adding chemicals to counter the ammonia is what you are thinking don't. Because you don't want to start doing this. I would just do extra water changes until the tank fully cycles. How high is the ammonia? It might be an ammonia spike if so you should notice the ammonia drop all of a sudden to O. But do make sure to do water changes. I hope this makes sense.


----------



## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Once your tank has zero ammonia then you know your tank is on the way to cycling. I would say dont do more than a 50% water change daily. but dont do it unless you need to. There needs to be the 'food' for the bacteria in there or you actually prolong it. Im not sure how dirty your fish are (did you say you have a goldfish pleco and betta?) the goldfish and pleco are very dirty fish so you may need to do a larger water change but do it as 2 water changes, ie. one in the morning and one in the evening if you can. This way you put less stress on the fish. And also dont vacuum the gravel every time you do change water. You want to vacuum 1/4 -1/3 roughly every week. You get some bacteria living in here so you want to give them as much chance as you can.

I wouldnt use too many chemicals in the tank if I were you. You should only ned the dechlorinator really. The stuff that claims to get rid of ammonia just makes it less toxic but your test kits still read it and ths means youdont actually know what levels you have in there. I have heard the pH changing stuff is also pretty hard to get right so should really get the right fish for the water but as long as you dont change the ph too quicly or the temp too quickly there shouldnt be too much problem.

On another note Im almost certain plecos will grow too big and goldfish will grow too big for 2.5 Gallon tanks.

Fishnoob: If the cloudiness is because the tank is cycling then it is called a bacterial bloom and should go in a couple of days and as long as you keep the water quailty good then it wont harm you fish. Before you run out and buy another filter read into them all a bit and make an inform decision. You can always ask the question on here when you think you have decided and see what others iews are on it.


----------



## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

All I ever use is chlor-out to condition the water, I do not have it sit out at all. What you could do is buy spring water at walmart for 50 cents a gallon and use that then you wouldnt have to do anything to it.


----------



## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

Yes with taking the gravel out, you were taking all the beneficial bacteria out. Are the 2.5 like the 2.5 you get at walmart or is it 2.5 Minibow?


----------



## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

fishn00b said:


> I have a 2.5 gallon tank that holds a betta for now. Everything was going well until last night when i noticed right after I turned off the light that there seemed to be a white cloudy substance coming out of the top of the filter. It wasn't doing this a few days ago, but all of a sudden it just keeps clouding the water. Do you guys know what might be causing this? I just thought of it now, but perhaps the filter bag is ripped inside, I'll check it out. Thanks for any ideas.


do you have one of those ammonia bags? 
a filter pad would only shoot black substance and make cloudy not make a white substance.


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

It might be an ammonia bag, but when i checked the ammonia levels it was at 0. It was the bag that came with the whisper filter for tanks up to 5 gallons. And nothing black is coming out of the filter, it's all this white could, and it shoots out proportional to the speed i set the filter. I'll try to find a website that shows the filter I am using.


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I went to the petsmart website and I found the aquarium that I purchased. Here is the link:
Aquarium 

And the specific Whisper filter I am using:
Filter 

If anyone has any thoughts on these please tell me. I'd like to fix this problem without having to go out and buy a whole new tank or filter. Thanks again.


----------



## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

The MiniBow should have a internal filter in the hood, if not is that why you bought the internal? I have that filter and my water was very cloudy the first day I had it but then cleared up. Does the internal have a flow control? On mine I didnt see one.... 
What you should have is a white filter floss type bag with carbon in it for a filter pad. An ammonia pad is an insert you can buy that is to get rid of ammonia and has a white substance in it, hence why I asked. But if you didnt buy a separate bag like that then you dont have one. 

Do you feed anything like live foods or shrimp? Is it a film or chunks or what?


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Exactly I didn't buy anything else for it so there is no ammonia pad for it. You are correct in saying that it is a white flossy bag with carbon that goes inside of it, that is exactly what it looks like. Though the Mini Bow did not come with a filter in the hood. That tetra filter is the one that came inside of the box and it latches to the edge of the tank and there is one suction cup position near the bottom of it. The bag just slides right in there. There is a flow control on the filter, it is on the bottom of it near the impeller. 

The filter seemed to be working fine the first day it was used but since then the white cloudy water has been coming out of the filter and doesnt stup unless we turn the filter completly off.


----------



## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

And you said you've tried other pads too?


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

This is the first pad I put in this filter. I have a box of the same brand of pads ready to go in there but I don't want to put it in there and have the same problem and not be able to return the whole thing and buy a better filter for the tank.


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Yeah, but Lexus was saying that the problem stops after a few days so I guess I'll just wait it out and see what happens. I'll get back to you guys in a few days about this problem, or if anyone knows how to fix it tell us. Thanks.


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Today it turned out that the water started to clear up and the betta is enjoying the water a lot more. I'm happy that the filter started working correctly but I hope it doesn't do this for every pad, though I know it probably will. Maybe i should run the pad through water a few days before I actually use it in my tank? But anyways thanks for the help guys.


----------



## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

I dont know anything about that filter really but if its a type of filter that you replace the entire media at the same time then it is possible that this could happen every time you replace the pad as you end up nearly starting the cycle from scratch. When you take out the whole media you are chucking all the bacteria that you have built up. These are the ones that convert ammonia and nitrites to nitrates. and they then have to start building up from the start again.

The filters I have are fluval ones a 2plus and 3plus which have 2 foam pads in and when you need to replace or clean them you only do it with one at a time and that way you reduce the loss of bacteria and the tank should be able to cope with it.

Running the new pad in tap water will not mean you dont get the cloudiness as the tap water probably doesnt contain ammonia and you would have to hold be holding it there for a month even if it did. You could possibly just put the new filter bag in the tank though for a week or so and that mite help the bacteria establish itself on the new filter before you remove the old. Not sure how this would work hopefully others will say whether this would be a useful thing to do.


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I don't think the cloudyness was caused by the ammonia though. I think it was the ingrediants inside of the bag that was the problem. I don't have an ammonia pad inside of the filter, its just a carbon filled pad.


----------



## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Some people get it even when they have a filter which just has the foam pads so it might just be the bacterial bloom. You wouldnt be able to see the ammonia in the tank it wouldnt cause the cloudiness but when the bacteria suddenly multiplies then you get what is called a bacterial bloom and this is the most usual cause of cloudiness in a tank about your age. Its usually just before the ammonia is brought under control. ie the day or 2 before. What are your readings from your test kits now?


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

The ammonia test was at 0 and the pH was around 7. So it seems that everything was fine.


----------



## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

i have the same filter in my 2.5 on high and i have never had any problem with it....it works excellent in my opinion....so it must just be because of the cycle....my tank was cloudy when i was cycling it too


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I guess we'll find out when I change my filter pad next time and see if it happens then. Thanks for your help guys.


----------



## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

where exactly is this switch to turn the filter down?


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

On the bottom of this filter, where the water goes in, there is a black slab that you slide back and forth that controls the flow of the water. If it is open some of the water will flow back into the tank while some will travel into the filter. This is the low setting. With it all the way closed the all the water will be sucked into the filter but this creates a strong current that could be bad for some types of fish like bettas.


----------



## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

I have a couple of old whisper filters, and the carbon packs were called carbozeal? it was carbon and ammonia rocks mixed, black and white. Whisper has new filters out so I might be referring to 5-10 year old equipment.

Rinse your filter pads out with aquarium water, although you don't have a lot of water. When doing a water change and not cleaning the gravel, use that water to rinse out the pads, especially old ones, and add new chemical media. You depending how often you maintain your filter, you should be able to get a couple to three uses out of the pad by rinsing it off in aquarium water, just as long as the filter pad is not too messy that it will impede filters flow, or is currently impeding the flow. When you know you're going to completely change the pad and chemical media, place the new pad in the back of the filter for about a day to accumulate some of that established bacteria.

C


----------



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Good idea, thanks a lot.


----------

