# white cloudy water



## Raqs (Mar 10, 2011)

Good morning everyone, 
I got to work to find that my 5 gal freshwater tank is all cloudy white, I checked the chemicals and everything is normal, yet my tetra was dead and it broke my heart, what am I doing wrong?

I read somewhere that I may have bacteria but the other 3 fish are doing fine, I moved them to another aquarium which is my starter one.

Could I have put too much salt? how do you check for that as the test strips are showing all normal levels.

Thanks


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

First off, test your water and post the results here so we can diagnose the problem better. We'll need ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and temperature of your water. I suspect either your ammonia or nitrite are high, and are causing a bacteria bloom. The bacteria aren't harmful to fish, but the elevated ammonia and nitrite are. Also, note that test strips are notoriously inaccurate. The only way to make sure they're telling you what they're supposed to is to buy another test kit and compare results. If you go that route (which I strongly suggest), I would buy a liquid drip test kit like the API Master Freshwater Test Kit ($35 at PetsMart, and you'll thank yourself later, trust me).


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## Jack Harkness (Jan 20, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> First off, test your water and post the results here so we can diagnose the problem better. We'll need ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and temperature of your water. I suspect either your ammonia or nitrite are high, and are causing a bacteria bloom. The bacteria aren't harmful to fish, but the elevated ammonia and nitrite are. Also, note that test strips are notoriously inaccurate. The only way to make sure they're telling you what they're supposed to is to buy another test kit and compare results. If you go that route (which I strongly suggest), I would buy a liquid drip test kit like the API Master Freshwater Test Kit ($35 at PetsMart, and you'll thank yourself later, trust me).


i love the API master test kit


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## Raqs (Mar 10, 2011)

Thank you for your reply I will certainly buy the test kit as you said the strips are giving me ok balances on everything.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Raqs said:


> Thank you for your reply I will certainly buy the test kit as you said the strips are giving me ok balances on everything.


What I'm asking about, specifically, is yours and the test's definition of "ok" water parameters. Anything over 1 ppm of ammonia or nitrite will generate a bacteria bloom, and is also harmful to fish. Not lethal, but tetras are also very delicate fish so the tetra that has passed might have been stressed to begin with from something else, and the elevated ammonia and nitrite might have been the final straw. In addition, test strips are notoriously bad at showing accurate concentrations of ammonia and nitrite up to 1 ppm. After that, they can generally show a good indication, but anything above 1 ppm is outright dangerous for fish. They may survive for awhile depending on how tough they are, but eventually they will start looking haggard as their slime coat is eaten away, their gills will turn red, they will flash (bounce off) of things in the tank to try and alleviate their pains, and will eventually pass. If you notice any of these, I would do an immediate 50% partial water change to lower the concentration of whatever is killing them.

To help further, I would like to ask - how long has your tank been set up and running, and how long has it been between setup and when you added fish? Are you familiar with what is called the aquarium nitrogen cycle? If not, you might want to read the attached article below:

The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

Lastly, if your ammonia and nitrite levels are indeed low, then I would ask: are you dechlorinating the tap water you are adding to the tank? Some public utilities add chloramine to their water to help keep it fresh, and this is toxic to fish. Simple addition of tap water dechlorinator (tap water conditioner) initially to your tank, and then to subsequent new water you add to the tank will alleviate this problem.


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## ARMS87 (Jan 2, 2011)

You put salt in a freshwater fish tank??


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## Raqs (Mar 10, 2011)

I only added what I have been told by several pets stores very little salt, and yes I have always added the water treatment for my tap water. Fish were added after the cycle had completed which took about a month, only after that and testing the water did I put them in.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I hate to stress the point, but what are the readings on your water exactly? In ppm's or degrees.


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