trojannemo

hey guys. my tank was doing alright except for some algae that started growing on the glass. it was white/see-through and about 1.5mm in length. it would sway back and forth with the water flow.
i got a magna-float magnet and scraped all the algae so the glass looks perfect now. that same day i added a small bottle ful of Cycle because i thought i had high ammonia levels (turns out it was a false reading due to using ammo lock). also added 10 lbs of Estes black gravel (after rising/cleaning).
next day the water started looking hazy. since then i've put twice the water clarifier, which makes it much cloudier and then when its "done" goes back to being the same hazy way it's been since i scraped the algae/added the cycle. i have no idea what it could be that's doing this. i changed the water already and nothing. i stopped my air pump and shut off the oxygen intake on my filter so there's virtually no bubbles in the water, only surface movement. i still see a great amount of very small particles in the water that the clarifier nor the filters are taking care of...
could it be that having scraped the algae led to this? what else could it be and what can i do about it?
thanks!

btw, i have a 50G marineland bio-wheel filter and a 40G marineland wet/dry filter. both with double filter pads and some aquarium gravel in them for the bacteria...

help/suggestions please. i want my water back to clean!

Jay

IME there are two causes of cloudy water perhaps three if you sit your coffee cup on top of the light and...well you get my drift.

One is biological, a bloom of a bio critters whether algae or euglena or a combo. The bio-film you scraped off the sides of the glass usually contain a whole colony of micro critters. The algae in particular will begin to produce micro spores almost immediately after you hassle it. The cloudy water will go away in time with some common sense husbandry IE cut down on your feeding, large water changes to drop your Nitrate and DOC levels etc. A Diatom Filter or a UV Sterilizer will get rid of it in a day or two.

The second is a non biological problem, which goes like this. No matter how thoroughly you think you rinsed that new gravel or disturb your existing substrate and stir up mlum, you can still get a micro dust called "fines" that reflects light and therefore appears cloudy. It will eventually settle out or can be filtered out with a Diatom Filter.

I have not one iota of fact for this, but using a flocking agent, a chemical designed to bind and hold micro organic particles in "large" clumps so they can be filtered out and Gill Function has always bothered me.

Jay

trojannemo

alright. so it's a possibility. it looks more like the second theory, wherein there's little particles reflecting the light. i say this because with my light off the water looks perfect. i can see everything in the tank crystal clear (but dark!)...however if i turn on my lights, then i get that hazy look. i've already cut back on the feeding since yesterday, and i'm changing the water tonight or tomorrow morning depending on time. let's hope it goes away :-) thanks for the help.

cassb

One thing you can do (which is actually fascinating to me, anyways :-) is get a magifying glass and look at what those little white things are on the glass. I had that same issue quite often, and when I looked closely, it was actually 1000s of tiny rotifers! It was pretty cool to watch them. There also was this little fast-moving thingy that I never identified, but it was white, round and smaller than the size of a pinhead, and it moved really fast through the water and when crawling on the glass.

By the way, if you really want to 'polish' your water to crystal-clear, you can use diatom powder in your cannister filter and that will take out micro-particles from the water.

Jay

WHOA WHOA Put down that diatom powder and step away from the filter!!!!

DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU FILTER IS DESIGNED TO USE DIATOM POWDER

DIATOM POWDER CAN BE A REAL IRTATANT TO GILLS AND LARGE AMOUNTS OF IT LOOSE IN YOUR AQUARIUM WILL CAUSE DAMAGE TO THE FISH.

Jay

cassb

Well, yes of course. I forget people may just dump diatom powder into any old filter and call it done. "Please read the instructions on how to use diatom powder in your filter." Sheesh, I've had enough with HIPAA and now I have to put disclaimers on a fish forum??

Here you go -- all you want to know about diatomaceous earth and use in aquaria, with extra links for free!

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...omfilters.html
http://www.vortexproducts.com/main.htm

trojannemo

wow that certainly looks cool. unfortunately for the moment i cant spend the money on it. so what to do? i've got double filter pads in my filters right now and will change water tomorrow. fish dont seem to mind, they're all swimming around seemingly fine. any other magical solution like a diatom filter that's not so expensive?

cassb

Actually, if you have a canister filter (Magnum in particular), I believe you can get micron filters for them that will filter out the particles. At least that's what I used when I polished my water before. The only thing I have used diatomaceous earth for so far is to kill slugs and ants in the garden.

tropical1

i am experiencing the same thing. when my tank was fishless 4 days ago i did a 90% water change with new filter and everything looks good today. i has the slightest haze to it but alot better. i might hit the local fish store and see if they have some of those filters yall are talking baout.

cassb

Yeah, and if you do get one, you only have to use it for an hour or so at a time, when the water is hazy like that. You don't need to leave it running all the time.