Clearing Cloudy Water – Common Aquarium Questions
One of our most frequently asked questions is answered below. There tends to be a spike (pun intended) in cloudy aquarium questions after the holiday season has passed and all of the new gift aquariums get set up. This might help if you’re a newbie!
Tom wrote:
I have a 90 gallon fresh water tank with a Fluval 405 canister filter. The tank is about 4-weeks old. I have been using Cycle to speed things along, but my water for the most part of 4-weeks has a white cloudiness to it. When I do water changes, the water clears up and then a day or 2 later it’s cloudy again. I have well water with a built in water softener and sediment filter. My main question is, do you recommend the use of resins in conjunction with carbon to battle this problem?
From Marinebio@thatpetplace:
If the cloudiness is caused from particulates in the water, then yes a resin will help. If the cloud is from a bacterial bloom, which is highly likely, then resins will not solve your problem. Have you tested your water? Any ammonia or nitrite present? If either of those are showing levels above 0ppm, small weekly water changes of around 5% will help keep the toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite diluted, while still allowing you to cycle the tank. The trick is to keep the levels low enough to not lose fish, yet high enough to not to disrupt your nitrogen cycle and the beneficial bacteria that are trying to colonize. Large water changes can lengthen the amount of time it takes to finish your cycle, thus lengthening the time your tank stays cloudy. So if you can test the ammonia and nitrite levels, we can see where you are in your cycle.
For additional info on beginner aquarium basics and the nitrogen cycle view the following articles:
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about 2 years ago
Some causes for cloudy water could be from overfeeding, too much direct sunlight (causing evcessive algae), or your tap water is cloudy. I use a chemical called “clear”. It only takes a few drops. It causes the small particles to co-agulate into bigger particles for your pump to be able to filter. Try to do a 20%
water change monthly (change the filter cartridge when dirty). You hear different people tell you different amounts of water change at different time frames but be sure you do them on a consistent basis and use water conditioner. Your old freshwater also makes a very good fertilizer for your houseplants.Freshwater only!
You also could be getting cloudy water if yu use live plants and they tend to decay. I have a friend that had bad tap water and they used bottled water. It worked great.
about 2 years ago
I have a 55gal tank. IN IT i have 3 huge oscars i cannot keep my tank or filters clean. do i need
a diferent filter system or what?I don’t have a lot of money so what do you suggest?
about 2 years ago
Ihave a 55 gal aquarium with 3 large oscarsin it. I can’t keep it clean or fresh, do i need to change the filters or what? I’m just about ready to throw them away and they are about 7in. long. please advise me. my hair is getting shorter.
about 2 years ago
Hi Wilma. Sounds like the tank is overloaded. A 55 is barely large enough for 1 oscar as it grows and the filtration is probably having a difficult time keeping up with the bioload. They would probably require 20-25% water changes every 2 weeks as well as filter cartridge changes to keep the tank maintained well enough. You can try upgrading the filtration, but they will ultimately outgrow the tank, sooner than you may think. I would recommend that you take to oscars to a local pet store or give them away to someone with a larger tank to accommodate them. A 55 gallon is ideal for a freshwater community stocked with smaller fish with smaller max size like tetras, barbs, rasboras, ect. With smaller fish you should have an easier time with the maintenance and a better tank experience hopefully. Good luck.
about 1 year ago
I have just set up a 40 gallon freshwater tank because my smaller tank was getting crowded. The tank ran for two days and the water was clear. I moved my fish to the new aquarium and within a few hours the water turned cloudy. I removed two gallons and replaced it with fresh water and that helped just a little. What can I do to clear the water and make sure that I do not loose any of my fish.
about 1 year ago
You’ll have to leave the tank alone to let the nitrifying bacteria to restablish in the new tank. You can add Cycle or some other live bacteria culture to help the bacteria establish faster and monitor the chemistry, but don’t remove any more water or do any other maintenance, it will only perpetuate the cloudiness. Once the bacteria colonize (hopefully you have adequate biological filtration on the larger tank) the tank should clear, you’ll see the ammonia and nitrite levels drop and nitrate rise. Then you can do your first 20-25% water change. The water should clear hen the chemistry stablizes, just be patient with the new tank.
about 1 year ago
I just set up a 20 gal tank 4 days ago. Everything looked good until 1 day ago when the tank water got cloudy. How do I get the water clear again. I had the water tested today & they said everything was good & they told me to put some fish in the tank. The water is still cloudy & I am starting to lose fish. Please help.
about 1 year ago
Hi Michael…the water in your new tank should clear up on its own once the beneficial nitrifying bacteria colonizes in the tank. It is not uncommon to lose some starter fish, they may not tolerate the fluctuating chemistry in the tank as it cycles, and now that there are fish in the tank to contribute these bacteria, the chemistry will be more variable as the cycle starts and progresses. Don’t do anything to the tank…no water changes, no gravel cleaning, no filter maintenance, ect. just feed the fish once a day and continue to test the water every day or 2. The cloudiness is caused by the bacterial colony blooming and as the cycle completes the water will clear and ammonia and nitrite will break down to nitrate. When the water clears and the tests show no ammonia, no nitrite, just nitrate amounts (or no nitrates in some cases) you’re ready to do your first 20-25% water change and add a few more fish. The cycle can take a few days or a few weeks depending on how large the tank is and how many fish you have, you may choose to add synthetic bacteria (Cycle, biozyme, microbelift) to ease the cycle and speed it up.
about 6 months ago
Hi, I have a 10 gal tank and it took about 6 months to cycle and clear now I have changed the filter and its cloudy again I have about 10 baby guppys in the tank any ideas about what to do?
Thanks
about 6 months ago
Hi Cathy. My guess is that the tiny guppies aren’t producing enough bacteria to maintain a bacterial colony. The tank took months to establish and clear because they are only contributing a tiny amount of wasste and bacteria to a relatively large volume of water. By removing the filter media, you probably removed much of the established bacteria so the tank is starting over. Is there gravel in the aquarium? What kind of filter is on the tank, and what did you change? Is the water tested periodically? Allow the tank to establish and clear again. You may not need to change the media for a very long time with such a small bio load depending on the type of filtration you have.
about 3 months ago
Got a 37galllon tank with 5 mollies and 2 plecos. the tank went through its bacteria bloom about a week ago. and is now doing it again. ammonia is high and im using a ammo lock to make it non toxic. nitrite has finally gone back to 0ppm. is the tank going through a anothe cycle cause i replaced my filter cartridge?
about 3 months ago
It’s possible that the balance of the aquarium was upset by the change in filter media, it’s also possible that the tank simply isn’t cycled entirely as you may see several spikes in nitrite and ammonia until the chemistry stabilizes. What kind of filter do you have? If it has more than on cartridge or media, try alternating your changes (one cartridge or media each time the maintenance is performed) to reduce the amount of beneficial bacteria removed. Once the tests read only nitrate present, you can do a small (20-25% water change, and this should be done every 2-4 weeks depending on how your chemistry tests.