VISITOR'S QUESTIONS
25... Water Clarity
You are probably right about it not being the rocks,
as for the gravel, if you did not clean it prior to setting up your
aquarium the dust that is contained within the gravel will have been
disturbed when you cleaned the aquarium water. There is a more likely
cause though.
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 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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