Not a bacteria bloom, but possibly and algae bloom.

What kind of filter do you have? I rarely change my filter. I will rinse it to get crud off of it, but otherwise, the filter is where the good bacteria reside.

What's your fish load and did you check your water parameters (with a test kit)?

In any case, it may be the filter change. Good bacteria will need some time to reestablish itself on the filter.

Hi,

For some reason it sounds like your system crashed. Weekly water changes should be done and if you have gravel stir it up to clean it as well.....you mentioned that you slacked off on this.....so this could be where the problem has come from.

As mentioned above good bacteria will need some time to reestablish itself on the new filter or filter media. If you have a hang on tank type filter.....its best to change only one of the filter media (either sponge or carbon) at a time. Also as mentioned above the filter media does last a long time.....so rinsing it when you do the weekly water changes will make it last longer and still keep some of the good bacteria on there.

It would help if you told us what kind of fish and how many you have in this tank, as well as what kind of filter you had and what kind of filter you replaced it with.

Hi Sierra and Sky,
Thanks for your input. Sierra I have a whisper power filter that hangs on the back of the aquarium. Apparently I committed the ultimate "no, no" by changing my carbon and the filter, but do remember I had a serious bacterial bloom before I even did anything. I do think maybe it was because I didn't do my water changes as often as I should have. The tank has always been crystal clear. Since my big water change and cleaning the other day, the water is even cloudier. As far as the fish are concerned, I have 5 small guppies and one catfish. The fish are doing fine, their home is just cloudy. Should I continue to do frequent water changes or just wait? Yes, I'm impatient and the tank is not clearing up as quick as I would like it to. I guess I will just have to wait though.

It does sound like the biofilter crashed. When this happens heterotrophic bacteria take off and grow rapidly. This causes the cloudiness. Test for Ammonia to confirm crash. Your fish load seems OK, What kind of cat? How big? Do you gravel vacuum when doing water changes? There are other causes of sudden cloudiness but its best to start isolateing. To help clear water you can get a pouch of "Purigen" by seachem it is a little pricey but is a perfect size to fit into the whisper filter cartridge. It is synthetic polymer (little white soft rubbery balls in a micron media bag)that polishes the water quite well. It is not as effective as D.E. powder (as its labeling boasts)but is a good way to do a quick clean. It can be reused after it clogs. This isnt a permanent solution but will help for the quick clean.

woeisme.....are you a representative for seachem products?

KimberlySC.....You should continue to do weekly water changes and stir the gravel or bottom substrate if you have any in the tank.

If you do testing for Amonia,nitrite and nitrate...If you get a high reading....do water changes every second or third day....till this settles down again. Then back to weekly water changes.

Your tank will clear out with regular water changes and maintenance. The aquarium fish hobby takes time and patience at times.

LOL, no I am not a Rep. for seachem. I started useing them by price comparison actually (mostly plant fert.). Alot of reccomendations. Purigen is unique to seachem. If I reccomend a product I will give the manufacturer so it isn't confused with similar products or because its the only brand I have tried. Actually, for a quick clean up, a D.E. filter is better IMO.But if all you have is a 1-10 gal. tank (just assumeing this since no other tanks where mentioned)a 5$ bag of purigen is less on the pocketbook then a $60-$100 dollar D.E.filter. But they do have great products and I am brand loyal unless something better comes along. Right now I have to brew some Chock Full O' Nuts , Columbian Coffee. Using it for years nothing better for the price. LOL. Good luck Kim, post your status and results if you can.

But here is the real question......why spend a fortune or anything on all of these products that you are recommending...when regular maintenance will fix the problem? You don't need a DE filter or anything, when ....."the most important thing is up-keep and maintenance!"

Why have you had to use all these products that you are recommending? Are you doing proper maintenance and up-keep on your aquarium? What has caused all of these problems in the first place?

Perhaps nutty coffee is not a good thing to be drinking at any price! LOL!

Kim....be patient and keep up the maintenance....it will clear.....it may take up to a month, but it will clear. The good bacteria just needs some time to get re-established.

Kim --- I totally agree with Sierra about the maintainance and continued weekly PWC's. The product Purigen I reccomended was for speed of clarity, it works like the activeated carbon in the way it removes some toxins and helps clarify water only at a more efficient rate because it grabs very small particles that your sponge,fiber bag and activated carbon will miss. It just works quicker and is reusable/rechargeable. If it is in fact a system crash and the "bad" bacteria is floating I would want it to be gone also. I only mentioned it because you said It wasn't clearing up as quick as you'd like it to. This wasn't meant as a substitute to Sierras advise. Just along with it. Perhaps if I made that clearer their would be no misunderstandings. That I apoligize to you for. Hope it works out OK, Good Luck and do give a status.--------Sierra----I hope I answered the "real" question above. I did not say that it was necessary, just gave an option to speed the clean-up of cloudiness. I would never spend that kind of money either. I do have a D.E. filter that I made DIY style it also can be used as a regular canister filter for a large tank. It cost me .5ppm Phosphate. Don't know why but it did.(Possible run off from heavy snow and rains the last 2 years?) This added with my Fertilizer I was using spiked my Phosphate a little higher than my plants could use. Add the 3.5 watts per gal.= Green Water. Because I didn't Know about the tap water at the time. I did major PWCs for a month and no luck. Did a little reading and asking Tried the Phosguard w/ a 4 day blackout.( we spoke about in a different thread) good results, clear, a little dingy but no green. After a week crystal. Removed the Phosguard then back to lime koolaid. Put back the phosguard, found the source(the tap water) started using my own individual ferts so no extra phosphate. Again the phosphate level raised in my tap. I asked for advise and thats where the DE filter comes into play. I polish the water after each PWC with it for about 2 hours. Each tank. Great results back to the crystal clear water I had for so long. Reason #2, as I mentioned earlier I have CO2 injection. My tap water after aeration is 7.8 pH, not bad but not ideal for some of the plants with the higher lighting. In my "show" tank I had some red shale for years with no problem. I was warned that it could cloud but it never did. Over time I forgot about the warning. About 10 months of CO2 injection and my water becomeing slightly acidic, 6.8 pH, I guess may have contributed to dissolveing the shale. At first I didn't know what the cloudiness was then with help of a freind I realized what the problem was. I used the DE filter for that as well, removed the shale, done. I could have waited but why clog my main filter with the sediment and I had it on hand anyway. 3rd reason In my plant only I experiment with different ferts and substrates. If I dont like the way its going I use the filter to start all over again. 4th and final. About a month ago I went away for a few days. I returned home and fed the fish, flake food, not much actually 1/2 a normal feeding and then the other 1/2 a few hours later. 2 days later a gourami was bloated and reeling and a few neons also bloated. Unfortunatly the gourami died within an hour but the neonsdidn't. They where in a QT tank. Since I never had to use medications before I had to go get some. I thought it was dropsy because the neons had protrudeing scales also. I treated with maracyn2 all it did for them is cloud the water(as it said it would) and crash the biofilter(as it said it wouldn't) I ran the DEfilter for an hour to remove any leftover medication. Rinsed the main filter and sponge and added media from my established tanks. Thankfully it started tocycle in only 3 days. As far as maintainance I do 40% pwc every week, normally have gone 3 weeks on occasion but standard every week. This includes gravel vacuum of areas not planted and just hovering over areas that are. A thorough deep plungeing type vacuum (the way it should be done with a non planted tank)every 4 months. This is the way I do it. It was reccomend by people I trust and also have success and much deeper knowledge than me of chemistry and biology as well as fish hobbyists. One thing that I am not affraid to do is try something different and do a little research before I condone or condemn anything. The thing I don't understand is how you can be against something you didn't bother to check out for yourself. I admit there are alot of crap products out there, more often then not. But ifyou don't allow for some change nothing improves, especially for those with less than ideal conditions. If nothing advanced we would all have slate bottom tanks that weighed a 100pounds with black caulk that leaks. You say you have got 30+ years experience in aquaria and have written for magazines. Even DR.s go to continueing education courses. You also claimed that there are different ways to do things and no one way works for everyone. Follow your own advise or does it not apply to you? I am sure with your years of experience I could learn alot from you but it seems you don't want to share, just dictate. If you have a strong feeling either for or against something, why cant you give an explanation as to why? It would be more informative and useful to explain why something is done, or why someone elses methods or idea is wrong. Of course people will disagree from time to time but, give a fact other than I have been doing this for 30 years so I know better than you. That crap doesn't fly, back it up with fact. The purpose of a forum should be to learn and exchange ideas. I will not continue this problem you seem to have with me on another persons thread. ------KIM sorry for this, hopefully you got bored a while ago and stopped reading this part of the post.

Thank you everyone for all the wealth of information. Do have a question though, like I mentioned in a previous email, I did a 40% water change the other day and cleaned the gravel, in doing water changes, should I siphon the gravel again or just take out some water and not touch the gravel? I also checked my water quality and believe it or not the ammonia was 0. I'm wondering if perhaps maybe I have been overfeeding the fish? I've even cut down on the amount of food I'm feeding. I do know I'm at fault for not doing water changes like I should. Is there such a thing as doing to much?

You can only give it time for the filter to reestablish itself.

Eventually things will balance itself out. I know it's frustrating because you want to see clear water and your fish again! But it will happen. Just have a little patience.

PS - keeep in mind that you are not just talking about "bad bacteria" bloom in your water. When your water chemistry is out of whack, lots of things can occur... including the overabundance of organisms or algae resulting from the lack of "good" bacteria in the filter. What you should focus on is keeping your fish going while everything is balancing out again (which is why it's recommended to keep doing those water changes). If your fish are doing well without signs of illness or disease during all of this, then just be happy with that! Really, eventually the water will clear.

Sounds good. Do you have a nitrite and nitrate reading? If the nitrites are at 0ppm and the nitrate is registering sounds like your system is restored or never died. The appearance of nitrate will confirm your tank is in cycle. I would check every day for a week or two to make sure there are no ammonia or nitrite spikes. Continue weekly or minimum bi-weekly PWC's and Gravel vacuum. If cloudiness comes back and your biological filter is in tact, you can look for other reasons for cloudiness.Good Luck

I checked the water tonight, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are 5.0. I'm going to do a water change and gravel vacuum again. I notice each day the water gets cloudier. This might be an incredible dumb question, but do you think there is any chance whatsoever that perhaps my whisper power filter is not working properly? Seems ok to me, but not sure. If somehow it wasn't working properly could this cause the problem? I know, I'm grasping at straws here. I even so much as have a backup filter, it's a Top Fin powerfilter that came with the tank. I have always used whispers so I just bought that instead. Off to my partial water change.

Sounds good as far as bio-filter in tact. Now for further isolation .When you changed the cartridge in the whisper was it totaly mucked up with brown sludge? When you did gravel vacuum did you smell a sulphuric rotten egg smell? Do you gravel vacuum all the time you do pwc's? If you answered no,When you gravel vacuumed was there alot of brown crud? When you say lax in maintainance, what was the original schedule(meaning % of pwc and frequency? and What was the schedule you have been doing? For how long? I know you said you haven't done anything different in 2 years,but I'll ask anyway. Have you put in any decor,rocks, plants ,different brand of food, Anything? Do you have a Phosphate test? Do you have a "silicate" test? -Reason I asked these questions- You could have caught the "bad bacteria" before it ate up the "good bacteria" , this happens when we get lax part of nature( actually the so called "bad" bacteria, heterotrophic bacteria, is really not bad. It is needed in the aquarium to keep balance of the "goodbacteria". sometimes when there is excess uneaten food and detrius along with high nitrate a little ammonia spike happens and the biofilter cant consume it, since the "bad" bacteria also feeds on ammonia it starts to produce at a higher rate than normal and when it eats the ammonia it hungers for more and eats the supply the "good" bacteria was useing. The good bacteria dies for lack of "food" and the "bad multiplies even more until the "good" finally dies= system crash) or something close to that LOL. OK wake up. If you added something new it could be a chemical reaction. If you dont gravel vacuum or skipped it for a while and just changed water the anaerobic bacteria go nuts and cause cloudiness, accounting for the eggy small. If you have high phosphate, you can get an algae bloom. Sometimes the water isn't green to the eye, just cloudy, or tan tinge. Phosphate can appear in your tap water from either private well or city supplied. Silicate , basically the same as phosphate (as far as explanation)but a brown algae, it will cover anything that doesn't move. Sorry to be so long winded but there are alot of reasons besides the obvious.

woe -
never apologize for owning/using a diatom!
what a grand invention for keeping water pure and stable -- of course they will not replace regular cleaning, i think will all know that!

Not an appology. Just listed a few possibilites when you have less then ideal tap. At any given time well and city water may change drought/flooding/weather/construction blah blah blah. I agree though, itnhas become part of my maintainance. After a pwc I run it for an hour or 2 just to polish the water. Not worth it I guess for a single 10Gal but it was a DIY that only set me back $18.

Hi Woe,
I hope I can answer all questions..When I changed the cartridge in the filter, it was not mucked up at all, as a matter of fact I was quite surprised with the length of time that the cartridge has been there that it wasn't more dirty, (maybe this is where I have in my head that the filter might not be working properly).When I did the water change I did not smell a rotten egg smell, can tell you when I siphoned the gravel my water was black, not what you call brown crud. My normal maintenance usually is doing water changes about every two weeks, at least a 20-30% change with cleaning the gravel. Now here is where I get my hand slapped, I probably went about a 1 1/2 months and last week was when my water started getting cloudy. So since late last week I have done 2 major water changes, cleaning gravel, and the other night changed 2 gallons of water without disturbing the gravel. Again, the water tests seem to be checking out ok. I also have live plants in tank, amazon swords, anubias, and java ferns. The swords looked like they were getting in bad shape so I removed them. Maybe they were starting to decay, (could this be something?) As far as decorations, or changing food, etc., I haven't added anything or changed anything. As far as phosphate or silicate tests, no I don't have these. I think I'm doing good just checking ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, etc. LOL All I plan on doing now is try to be patient and hopefully this tank will clear up. I will continue to do partial water changes. This cloudiness is a first for me. I wish I knew just what has caused this so I can try to prevent this in the future. Thanks for your help.

The sword may have died of from lack of light. If you have a standard fixture on the 10 gal (1 fluorescent tube 15w) that is probably the case. The fixtures that come in kits with bulbs are usually the color enhanceing type and wrong color temp. for live plants.Swords need probably 2-3 watts per gal to flourish. The java fern and anubia(most variety) are low light plants. The plants may have saved you if any bad bacteria destroyed your good. In a planted tank good bacteria is minimal compared to a non planted. The plants process the ammonia similar to the good bacteria. I change out 40% water weekly in my planted and only thoroughly gravel vacuum every 4 months. I still use the vacuum to suck up any poop or crud on the top of the gravel, and the rare bare spot of gravel gets "plunged" but thats it. This is an arguable practice in planted tanks but it has helped the plants. Could have been an algae bloom not all algae is green to the eye, especially if you have lower lighting like I suspect. The nitrates you have are normal for the planted tank, probably wont get much higher even if you didnt change out any water. Other organics could have built and caused the problem since it was way over due. It happens, summer time, work load whatever. I broke my right hand about 1 1/2yrs ago right after my wife was put on bed rest 8 1/2 months pregnant, we had a 20 month old at the time so needless to say the fish tanks had to wait. Good Luck it should clear soon. If no progress after 2 months look for other causes that I mentioned or google search.

Sometimes things will just happen. Like power outages so the good bacteria dies and the system crashes... or we can't get to our tanks to do routine cleaning for whatever reasons that arise in life and then we're starting all over again with balancing out the tank.

All part of the hobby! Wouldn't worry too much - you'll get your nice clear water again. Just so long as the fish are healthy, then you know it's just a temporary cosmetic thing.

PS - decaying plants will add a LOT of organic matter into the water - definitely creating an environment for cloudy water!

KimberlySC.......Hi, I am confused....who did you email? or did you mean post....if you emailed me I did not recieve it.

A couple of things come to mind from reading your posts in this thread....

when feeding your fish...feed only as much as your fish will eat in 5 minutes.....feed once or twice a day. If you happen to feed to much...scoop it out after the five minutes.

I suspect your filter is working fine.....as Skygee mentioned filters crash sometimes.....its all part of the hobby.....the key is to catch it and do the water changes till the cycle starts up again so the fish are ok.

I wouldn't be to concerned as to trying to prevent this from happening again.....it will.....it happens to all of us, occassionally........ For me I just do a water change using water from another tank...and I take the sponge out of that tanks filter and put it into this one. If you only have one tank though you can't do that. Thats also how I cycle new tanks.

Hi Woe, Sierra, Sky,
Well, my cloudy tank is still the same. I just got back from vacation today. I was gone 6 days and had a neighbor feed the fish. She only fed them two days but from the looks of things when I arrived home, she had left my light on the whole time. No doubt about it, I had brown algae on the sides of the glass and all over my gravel :( It's bad enough going through this but now the tank is worse than ever. It looked horrible. The water almost looked like a dirty brown color instead of the cloudy white color. I did a serious water change. (oh I hope I was suppose to do this). I left the filter alone but did a good gravel vacuum and changed 50% of the water. Did I over do this? I feel like I'm right back to the beginning where I started. Instead of hopefully getting better it now has gotten worse. Should I do anymore water changes this week?

Are you still pulling a good amount of crud rom the gravel? 50% pwc is ok, if you do another pwc this week I would just do 10-25%. You can test for silicate and phosphate in your tap water, another option to save a little $ on tests is call the your water supply company and ask what they are testing, they are required to do periodic, if not daily testing and should release the info to you. It is possible that a spike of either is found due to weather/season change. I had a phosphate spike in my well water that was never there in the past 3 years. This could just be an algae bloom. Sometimes photoplankton algae(sp?),normally green in color can appear brown, or it could be just brown algae(diatoms) from silicate. An option would be to use a phosphate/silicate removeing resin in your filter or a micron filter pad that can be cut to fit for your filter, even the Purigen product I had mentioned before. You can just wait it out also doing daily 10%pwc's to see if it goes away. I personally like to find out the cause, before treatment so it can be avoided. I would also only light the tank, max. 12 hours.

Well Kim, as you can see the problem this time was caused by the light for sure. Still no need to panic.....the brown algae has just sloughed off the sides and gravel and is now mixed in the water....this is a normal occurance given the situation. Too much light or to little light can cause these problems. Again a balance must be found. I know it can get frustrating...but really its all part of the hobby. If your filter sponge is full of brown algae you can rinse it out now too but only if it looks really dirty and only once. It won't be good to rinse it to often at this time. Don't touch the carbon for now. The goal now is to get the tank back to where it was and with luck the white cloudy water will soon be gone too. Test for ammonia daily...if its high then do a small water change...daily if you have to...this is for the health of your fish.....If its not reading high then only do a water change every 3 days. When you do the water changes stir the gravel and wipe down the sides of the tank, so the brown algae sloughs off and can be also siphoned out.

Is it ok to constantly siphon the gravel? With doing these major water changes I'd say my gravel is pretty clean by now. No more dirty filthy water when I'm siphoning. I think I have just cleaned everything over and over again. My ammonia and nitrites are still 0, just tested again today. The filter wasn't even that dirty. I'll take a guess at this that the thing that caused this was that I let the tank go to long without doing proper maintenance. I can't think of anything else. No new fish, no new decorations, no different fish food, nothing at all.. what else could it possibly be?

I just set up my new 55 gallon tank. i have 2 20-40 whisper filter.i have 12 african chilids. i tested my water everything looks fine there. i woke up today to my tank being very cloudy, and fish looking like they cann't breath. they all staying at the top of the water with their mouth opening and closing very fast. please help i don't want to lose all my fish. thanks

First of all, DO NOT stir the gravel up. Use a gravel cleaner if you must. Secondly, don't panic and start adding other than usual stuff to your tank. Your best bet is to do 20-25 percent water changes every couple of days. Use Cycle and Stress Coat when doing so. Only treat the amount of water you are changing. Also, you may want to cut back on the amount of food you are feeding them (if it is more than once a day). Sometimes uneaten food, or certain types of food will cloud the water. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Avanipala