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Hello,

I hate to beat a subject in the head but my 46 gallon tank is really cloudy, I think from over feeding. Yesterday I did a 50% water change and this morning the water was still cloudy. I did a 25% water change today. Is this the right procedure or should I be doing something else, thanks.

I've just set up a new 80gal tank and after a week I started to get cloudy water. Adding some "Cycle" has improved the tank within 24 hrs. It's still a little cloudy but I'm expecting it to clear fairly quickly now.
Cheers, James.

How long has the tank been set up? Sounds as if the cloudiness may be being caused by a bacteria bloom. The cloudiness in the water will begin to disappear as the nitrogen cycle is fully established.Your just in my opinion going to have to stop constantly changing the water and allow the nitrogen cycle to establish in your tank.

So I should not do another water change until when????

I would do a 20% water change in the tank once a week. Remember the cloudiness will go away when the nitrogen cycle fully establishes.

Thanks for the information. How long before the nitrogen cycle is established? What causes this type of bloom?

The time it takes to cycle a tank varies, generally 2-4 weeks and it's finished. Read [link=this link]http://www.fishprofiles.net/faq/begin-cycling.asp" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] about the cycle.

Any damage to your biofiltration, from poweroutages to overcleaning the tank, even adding too many fish @once or overfeeding can cause a bloom.

^_^

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I need to calculate,what creates my own madness...
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A Vortex Diatom Filter will clear your green tank to crystal clear. You will have to correct the cause of the algae bloom. If you use the diatom filter 2 or 3 times a week for a couple of hours each time, your water will stay clear. Later, Ray

Sounds to me like you are doing too many water changes. Is this your first big tank? It is far too tempting to want that crystal clear perfection. But you have to let the tank run it's course and cycle. No more than 25 percent change now every week or 10 days. Eventually weeks down the road you may be able to do more. Are you overfeeding every day perhaps? It really is very easy to do. I did that in the beginning, even though I only fed once a day. But that once a day was way too much. Remember the old three minute rule (if they don't eat it all in three minutes, there's too much). Good luck and keep us posted

I also tend to agree with RasboroMary on the possiblity of overfeeding. You may even want to cut back to feeding them once every other day while the tank cycles.

I have a 46 gallon tank that has been up and running for about two months but I did use some of the water from my old 10 gallon tank. Yes I think I did over feed. Someone at the LSF told me to take a small portion of the water from the tank, put it into a bowl, and put the fish flakes into the bowl then put the food and the water back into the tank. I think I put too much food into the bowl. On top of that about an hour later I put in a half of disc for the bottom feeders, some granules for the middle feeders (which the person at the LSF told me not to use because it will cloud my water, boy I'm hard headed!!!!)and some freeze dried bloodworms for the top feeders. OK I know I did go over board with the feeding but I was going to clean out the tank in a few hours but I never got around to it until the next day and by then the tank was smog city. One of my problems is that I think that the fish are not getting enough to eat because they seem to finish everything before the food can get to the bottom for others to eat. Help I think I am overfeeding and I will never have clear water again!!!!

Last edited by kidsmom at 22-Feb-2005 06:14

Last edited by kidsmom at 22-Feb-2005 06:15