# Newbie, cloudy tank



## Cabpos29 (Jul 17, 2011)

Hi all, 

I've got a 70lt upright tank ( hexagon ) shape. All is set up and running ok, for a new aquaium i think? However i've several Black Neons now and the Ph was slightly high so on advice i added a ph proper additive, which reading lately i shouldn't have?!!! My fish are fine and not bothered but the water is quite cloudy and doesn't look as best as when i first set up. My real question is will this cloud go in time with filtration and water changes. As someone new to this i'd rather make mistakes early and get it right. Any advice would be very helpful.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Good morning Cab...

Every tank is different, just like fishkeepers. I sometimes get cloudy water in my tanks after a water change when I vacuum areas of the substrate or remove and replace plants, just disturbing the gravel in general. 

Cloudy water is just small pieces of plant and animal material floating in the water, pretty simple. The water will usually clear in a few days, but when I get impatient for crystal clear water, I add an HOB power filter to the tank. I have an extra just for this reason. I use a fairly large one, and just use polyfiber media in it. 

Polyfiber works great, because it filters out all the tiny food and plant particles in the water. I leave the HOB in the tank until the water clears, usually two to three days. Again, every tank is different, so it may be a day or a week before the tank water clears.

Give this a try and let me know how it worked.

B


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## Cabpos29 (Jul 17, 2011)

Cheers BBradbury, your advice is well received. On a filter note, mine came with carbon and i've heard that you dont actually need it in there? For that reason what do i replace it with? I've currently got a 3 compartment filter, the 2 ends have bio balls in, would the polyfibre media replace the carbon or all of it?


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Most fish do fine at a ph of 6.5 to 7.5. If you buy your fish from a Big Box Store, all the fish are usually kept at the same ph. Brackish water and SW fishes like it 8.0 and above. Cloudy water is usually due to a bacteria bloom and will go away with good filtration and limited feeding.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Cabpos29 said:


> Cheers BBradbury, your advice is well received. On a filter note, mine came with carbon and i've heard that you dont actually need it in there? For that reason what do i replace it with? I've currently got a 3 compartment filter, the 2 ends have bio balls in, would the polyfibre media replace the carbon or all of it?


Hello again Cab...

A little carbon is good. It filters the water and helps eliminate tank odors. I understand it can also filter out some tank nutrients the plants need. I dose a couple of different kinds of liquid fertilizers to help my low light plants grow and so I use a small carbon pad instead of the large bag that typically comes with the HOB filters. That way the plants get the bulk of the nutrients they need, but I get the benefit of carbon filtration too.

The polyfiber is the mechanical part of tank filtration. It doesn't replace the carbon. The carbon is the chemical part of the filtration process. The ammonia bag is the biological part. I use all three, but just use small pads for ammonia and carbon. The bulk of the filtration is the polyfiber. It keeps the tank water crystal clear.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. I'm by no means an expert, but I can tell you what has worked in my low light, low tech tanks.

B


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Was the tank cloudy before adding the ph additive? If not, it should go away in a day or two. If it was cloudy before adding, I would say it is a bateria bloom and is common for new tanks. Could be a combination of both. Time will help more than filtration, IMO.


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## Thalamus (Jul 7, 2011)

Cabpos29 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I've got a 70lt upright tank ( hexagon ) shape. All is set up and running ok, for a new aquaium i think? However i've several Black Neons now and the Ph was slightly high so on advice i added a ph proper additive, which reading lately i shouldn't have?!!! My fish are fine and not bothered but the water is quite cloudy and doesn't look as best as when i first set up. My real question is will this cloud go in time with filtration and water changes. As someone new to this i'd rather make mistakes early and get it right. Any advice would be very helpful.


I'm a newbie myself, and I had a lot of problems with cloudy water when I first got started. One of my major problems was that I was overfeeding pretty badly (I actually lost a few ghost shrimp because of that). I've found that dried shrimp, grains like oats and barley, and vegetables like broccoli seem to make the clouding much worse.

As far as filtration goes, I think having a few plants helps (correct me if I'm wrong). Also, a fabric bag of zeolite in the filter can work wonders (don't get it from a petstore, though; I'm pretty sure you can get the same quality zeolite from a garden center a lot cheaper).


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