FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Ok Me and my wife started a 29 gal. hexagon community tank at the end of June. After getting off to a poor start (too many fish too soon) we "re-started" the tank about a month later. What I mean when I say "re-started" is I basically broke the whole tank down, emptied all the water. Didn't really clean anything just rinsed. After about 3 weeks the tank seemed to have cycled. Water was crystal clear, 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, 7.0 ph and fish were as happy as could be. Now a couple of weeks later the tank has slowly gotten more and more cloudy. During this time I was testing every other day for ammonia and nitrites. Ammonia was never detected and still isn't, the nitrites however, are what seems to be in between 0ppm and .25ppm. It's tough to tell because the color indicated by the test is not on the color chart.If your familiar, it is a Aquarium Pharmaceuticals master test kit. The color of the result is a very faint lilac/purple color, which by looking at the test would seem to be lower than .25ppm. So to correct this I did a 33% water change last night. It has not had much effect on the cloudiness. Can anyone offer some advice as to what might be causing this??Any help is much appreciated..A little side note:The fish don't seem to be affected at all..Thay are carrying on with business as usual.Thanx for your help.Updated:More info...water is 80 degrees constantly, whisper 40 filter and constant running aeration.
Update:Went out and got a Nitrate test kit, which read about 20ppm. Changed filter media and added new carbon, I'll see if this does anything


[span class="edited"][Edited by jessnick42503 2004-09-03 15:11][/span]

[span class="edited"][Edited by jessnick42503 2004-09-04 09:55][/span]

Ok, I'm not an expert so I could be waaaaay off but it may be the filtration. I run a Whisper 40 on my 29g tank but it's a regular tank. I'm assuming that your 29g Hex is much taller then my 29g which would tell me that your filter may not be getting the water that is at the bottom of the tank and could result in bad water conditions down there.

If you can, try to get some extension tubes and get the intake about 2"-3" from the top of the gravel. I believe the instructions on the Whisper says 1"-2" but I like to keep it a little higher for fish safety. Also, I would probably work some 10%-20% water changes about every other day for about 6-8 days.

Hopefully someone with a little more experience will be able to offer better information then my guestimations. Either way, good luck with this.

is it possible i'm keep my water level to high? Could this be causing the problem

I don't know about that, I fill my tank all the way to the black ledge...I've never had any repercussions from it.

There's nothing wrong with filling your tank all the way, in fact this is standard practice. As for your nitrite readings, well, if you're reading nitrites the tank didn't cycle completely. Changing the filter media didn't help at all, since a lot of the bacteria live on it and it's the point of highest waterflow. Unlike what you'd naturally expect, new filter media isn't as useful as old filter media, since it has no bacteria on it.

hmmm what about the aerobic grid..is there just not enough bacteria to compensate for changing the filter media?

[span class="edited"][Edited by jessnick42503 2004-09-05 09:43][/span]

Someone who's more familiar with you filter model can tell you if it is helpful, although at first glance I'd imagine it is. The bacteria basically need surface area to grow on, oxygen and food to live on, and steady water flow, so that the water that they just stripped of oxygen and food is replaced with fresh water. But there was still no reason to change the filter media. As far as I know, filter media should be changed when it cuts off the water flow, except for carbon, which usually needs to be changed on a regular schedule because it only has a certain amount of adsorbing capacity.

Ok a little update..just tested everything and the results are:7.2 ph/0ppm ammonia/0ppm Nitrite/and although its a very hard test to get an accurate reading because all the colors are so close, looks to be 80ppm Nitrate. Now I tested when I first bought it 2 days ago and the reading was about 20ppm So what is my best course of action? Water is still cloudy and it seems nitrates are rising?Water change? and if so how much?Thank you all!

Alright I don't know what's going on....somebody please help. I've changed 20% of the water twice in the past 4 days. Ammonia is still 0ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, and Nitrate at about 10-20ppm. The ph is 7.2, temp. at 79 degrees. Tank has been very cloudy for about a week, with no sign of improvment. Although Nitrate was at about 80ppm at one point. Any ideas as to what is going on here?Anyone?

I'm not extremely knowledgable, but I have a tank similar to yours and had the same problem. I ended up getting a stronger filter because of the shape of the aquarium, and that helped alot. You may also want to check and see if its an algae bloom. Put some water in a white bucket to see if it looks green. The suggestion earlier about extending the length of the intake should help too (sort of like a more powerful filter). I'm not familiar with whispers, how many gallons does it says its for? I use one that says up to 50 even though its only 30.

Hope this helps, just personal experience!

If you have the money, try jumping up to a Whisper 60 instead of your 40. Use 1 or 2 of the tubes from the 40 to extend the intake for the 60 though.

Also do the water in a white bucket thing to see what color the water looks. Keep in mind that algea can be different colors. If ther is some coloration, ask your LFS workers about how to get rid of "X" colored algea. (where X would be green, brown, black, what ever color the water looks.)

What kind of fish do you have in here and how many do you have in there? Mainly I'm looking for what's causing the waste and what kind of clean up crew you have.

Whenever I have an algea bloom happen, I get some Yamato Shrimp...or Ghoast Shrimp from my LFS. They have a relativly short life span but eat algea faster then an ant can eat a grain of sugar. 2 of these shrimp usually clean my 29g in a matter of 1-3 days. They will starve to death if you don't provide enough algea tablets for them to finish off their life span. I have never had one of these last for more then 2 months....either they die fast or I don't take care of them properly.

Hope we can get this water sorted out soon. I'm sure it's frustrating as heck.

the cloudy water is most likely from the bacteria growth in the filter. when you cycle a tank most of the time the water gets cloudy for a while. in time the water will get better

The only problem I have with a whisper 60 is the size. This is a hexagon tank so i'm limited to the space I have on the back wall. It looks like it would take up the whole back wall which wouldn't leave any room for my heater. The two just fit as it is!

Have you try to any Water Conditioning like Cycle? You can buy it on-line or at local fish store (lfs).