VISITOR'S QUESTIONS
11... Cloudy Water
First of all I'll assume you are talking about "white
cloudy water" and not a green "algae bloom", or a greyish brown cloud
caused by the gravel not being sufficiently cleaned, which will eventually
clear as it settles and gets filtered out by your external filter.
White or grey cloudy water in most cases is caused
by a phenomenon known as "bacteria bloom" and is always associated with
excess nutrients in the water, and usually occurs in the absence of
strong illumination. Fine filtration or aquatic remedies may clear the
water initially but they will not cure the basic cause of the problem.
Excess nutrients must be eliminated, this will starve
the over populated colonies of bacteria resulting in clearer water.
Excessive cleaning of all the filters at once, or the changing of the
gravel can trigger a bacteria bloom, this is due to the removal of bacterial
colonies that had settled on the filter media or substrate. Also changing
too much of the water at one time can have the same effect, resulting
in an explosive growth of bacteria. The bacteria are either re-establishing
themselves, or are feasting on high nutrients. In nutrient rich water
they can multiply at such a high rate that the water becomes cloudy
white.
Another cause can be medical treatment of the tank
using antibiotics, which may destroy these colonies. A chemical imbalance
could also cause a greyish-white haze in the water, although this more
likely to occur in harder water which contains more minerals. If this
is the case and you are using "Proper pH TM " it is possible
a slight haze may form in your aquarium due to its precipitation with
the mineral salts. This should be filtered out by your filter. Using
other chemicals could also compound the situation.
It may surprise you to know that the colonies of bacteria
in your aquarium actually use large amount of oxygen, just a few grams
of bacteria can consume roughly the same amount of oxygen as an adult
person. It is therefore very important that these colonies of bacteria,
although very important to the health of the aquarium, don't get out
of control, thereby posing a threat to the aquariums oxygen levels.
Immediate action is therefore required if the problem is severe, or
persists.
So, what can be done to address a nutrient problem?
Basically it boils down to good house-keeping. If you haven't very recently
changed some of the water i.e. within the last 48 hours, do a partial
water change of about 20%, be sure to get rid of any accumulated debris,
and use a good water dechlorinator/conditioner. Then avoid feeding your
fishes for 3 or 4 days, they won't come any harm in that time from lack
of food. Hopefully you should start to see some improvement towards
the end of a week.
Avoid overstocking your aquarium with fishes, a given
amount of water can only support so much fish stock, in the case of
freshwater tropical species allow 1 inch of fish for every 10 square
inches of surface area. Don't let uneaten food, decaying plant matter,
etc. accumulate in the aquarium thus allowing nutrient levels to rise.
It's also worth checking on your tap water to eliminate the possibility
of a high nitrate content that may be present in it. This is unlikely,
however if there is a high nitrate reading from your tap water it will
need to be reduced.
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