Cause of cloudiness

Hi All,

I'm struggling to figure out what could be causing some cloudiness in my 3 month old 200 litre community tank. I have no live plants in the tank, just rocks and driftwood with pool filter sand as substrate. Running an Oase Biomaster 250 filter.

When I dose Seachem Clarity my water becomes crystal clear...then a day later you can already see some cloudiness appear again

Water parameters seem very good (zero nitrites, nitrates or ammonia). I'm pretty sure it's not from over feeding or over crowding and there is never any detritus visible in the tank...the tank and substrate appear to be very clean (apart from some green spots on the wood here and there). I do a water change of at least 30% weekly and have only ever used RO /DI water in the tank.

Any tips on how I can determine what the source of the cloudiness could be?

Thanks
Chris

 

Thank you for the reply. The tank was definitely cycled...I monitored it closely through all the stages in the first 4 weeks. I don't use pure RO water, I use Seachem Replenish and Alkaline buffer to recondition RO/DI water. If there is a small amount of Nitrates present, it doesn't seem to show on the API test that I have (see test I did this morning attached).

After the initial Nitrate spike and my first water change after the cycle I never saw noticeable Nitrates on the test strip again.

 

I concur with @Reedfish. Bacterial bloom caused by an incomplete cycled tank.

 

Thank you. I'm not sure about that though...I did a fish in cycle using Seachem prime and went though all the stages of the cycle over a period of 4 weeks - first there was an ammonia spike, then a nitrite spike, then when nitrite spike was gone nitrates started to increase just like you would expect and then I did my first water change. Ammonia test constantly shows 0 since then, which is where I would expect to see something if the tank was not properly cycled.

 

I'm using Purigen in my filter, so I'm not sure if that is perhaps hiding something that is going on? This is what it looked like at the worst time before I used Clarity and what it looked like now after using Clarity

 

I would say from experience that using clarity is cheating your bacterial bloom into going away, only to return. Let it get cloudy and let it stay cloudy for a day or 2 and I'm certain that once it clears up on its own, it's going to be gone for good. Instead of clarity, maybe get pristine instead to add bacteria and this will be way more beneficial for your cause than clarity. I have both products on hand and pristine is definitely my go to over clarity

 

Just realised you're using pool filter sand. How well did you clean it? Pool filter sand takes forever to get cleaned and can very well be the cause of your cloudiness too

 

Thank you for the input. I spent hours washing this sand until I saw no sign of dust before I put it in the tank, but that was a couple of months ago and there were no cloudiness when I filled up the tank or for the first month or 2. Guess it could still be the sand I guess, but it seems unlikely.

 

Yeah the rule of thumb with PFS is that you wash it until it's clean and then wash it again. However if you're certain it's not the sand then it's gotta be a bacterial bloom, unless you have a rock that's leeching something into the water it can really only be one or the other. Tank decor or bacteria. You may also try a UV steriliser but I still think you should just let it do it's thing

 

Bacterial bloom commonly is caused by different bacteria than the ones in the cycle. They are heterotrophic bacteria feasting on all kinds of compounds in the water. Waterchanges / adding chemicals and minerals (remineralizing RO water) often only make things worse.

Normally there are two remedies : Patience and doing nothing (hands out of the water !)

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This is the hardest!

 

Definitely : and the cheapest !

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