View Full Version : HELP! foggy water?
squishifishi
03/26/2013, 07:49 PM
my water has been pretty foggy lately. It's not like severe,but the tank is 12 inches deep and I can barely see the filter and heater in the back.
I tested the params then did a small water change.
ph: 8
ammonia: 0.20
nitrite:0
nitrate: 20
Usually nitrate is down at 5, so I don't know where that's coming from either.
I use RO water.
the tank is just over 1 month oldnow, and I do weekly 10-20% water changes, and I have some cheato.
I feed sparsely, just the occasional algae wafer chunk or pice of mysis.
everything looks fine and happy. the only other abnormalities are:
the mushrooms only fully open for a short period of time
there are a massive ammount of copepods, like swarming gnats on a humid day. yuck
so, what's going on? I am sooo confused...suggestions?
thankyou!!!
dml931
03/26/2013, 07:56 PM
a system 1 month old shouldn't have any livestock (shrooms) in it yet, IMO that is, especially with .20 of ammonia!! your tank hasn't finished cycling yet, or you induced another cycle once you started feeding it. and are you feeding to help with a cycle, or do you have fish or a CUC in there? i would say your cloudy water is a bloom of either bacteria, or the beginning stage of an algae bloom and with your nitrates that high, algae will flourish.
squishifishi
03/26/2013, 08:53 PM
oh, no no!
I used all live sand, rock, and water so it cycled rapidly. It has had stable params, all running zeros for about 4 weeks, that's why i'm so confused! I've had all my livestock for 3 of those weeks. It's just crabs, snails, softies, lps and microfauna. I don't get why I'm having a random bloom now since the cycle ended 4 weeks ago.
sorry for being unclear,
thanks a ton!
worm5406
03/26/2013, 09:01 PM
Did it even cycle?
Normally what you explain starts from the start and blooms up, then come back down.
What were test results 5 weeks ago?
Sounds like you just started the cycle. The cloudyness could be a huge bacteria bloom from the addition of ammonia and it is converting it as it goes.
dml931
03/26/2013, 09:03 PM
did your cycle complete when you had no living creatures in it? if so, adding as much as you did in 4 weeks could have induced another smaller cycle as the bacteria couldn't keep up with the added bio load. that could account for your .2 ammonia and higher nitrates. your cloudy water is probably either a bacteria bloom, or an algae bloom. either way, id increase your changes to 25% water change, id run carbon in your system somewhere.
i could be wrong or missing something and im sure someone will chime in to point those out if i am, like we all tend to do:wavehand:, myself included ;)
also, i noticed in your sig that you have a 2.5g pico tank. is this the one in question? you are brave for taking on such a small tank. i hear they're extremely hard to keep stable being such a small volume of water to work with.
squishifishi
03/27/2013, 04:47 PM
yep. it's my pico, thanks!
Looking at my calander, it's actually been almost two months since startup now! that means my carbon's prob. gettin gold.
k, I pulled out the old filter insert and replaced it with some polyester filter floss and a pouch of new carbon. hope that helps!
The only critters in the first week of the cycle were hitchickers including a crab, brittle star, and lots of bristle worms, and yes, I was feedingthem to help the cycle. It's not a lot, but It don't take much in 2 gallons of water!;)
as for "adding so many creaturesall at once", Alli haveadded since is 2 snails, an emerald crab, the corals, and cheato algae.
thanks for all the help!
ohyeah, and if anyone's curious, type pico into the search box. I have a journal thread called
adventure in pico reefing
and a seperate thread with pictures.
I'd love for people to check it out!
squishifishi
03/30/2013, 04:36 PM
the nitrate's back at a normal level of 5 ppm. The ammonia is still stuck at .2 though, and I'm totally stumped! I've been doing regular water changes, I'm not over feeding, nothing died, and everything is doing well in the tank! the fogginess has also cleared up.
any ideas?
oh yeah, and does anyone know:
is ammonia as harmful to inverts as it is to fish?
thank you!
gone fishin
03/30/2013, 05:38 PM
If you are using API test they sometimes read trace ammonia even if it is not there.
Ammonia is harmful to all the critters we keep fish as well as inverts.
The problem with such small tanks is it takes very very little to upset them. It is hard to say what caused your problem. Just my 2 cents.
squishifishi
03/30/2013, 08:53 PM
oh yeah, mine is API. the colours are very hard to interpret imo.
I mean, even when you first add the chemicals, before the reaction is done, it NEVER looks yellow all the way. plus, 0.5 looks lighter on the chart than 0.25.
whatever.
It was pretty green this time though, but It's good to know for the future, because that confused me before.
thanks!:)
OrQidz
03/30/2013, 09:37 PM
I always struggle with the SW ammonia kit I have. For FW it's very clearly yellow or green but the SW one looks murky yellowy weird to me. I test a sample from the tank plus a sample of new clean SW made from RO, side by side. If the tank one looks different from the clean one I know I have a problem.
I'm sure you're using RO....but just in case I've heard of tap water having ammonia.
Something is definitely going on, but it sounds like you've cleaned up the filter which has helped a bit. Hmm, I wonder if the carbon in the filter was actually providing some biofiltration, and when you removed it, with such a small tank there was suddenly fewer nitrifying bacteria. Seems unlikely, but with picos who knows.
squishifishi
04/01/2013, 07:36 AM
no, the ammonia and stuff got mixed up before I switched out the old carbon:)
I tested some clean water today to get a better idea of what "normal" is supposed to look like. that will help me a lot!
and yes, I am using RO water.
thanks!
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