[lcurry]

Hi:
I havent posted in a long time. I guess that is a good thing. I have a ? about cloudy water though. I set up a new 75 gal tank in early February. I used the water and filter media from my old 40 gal tank and everything went off without a hitch. Water parameters have been fine. I have had the grey cloudy water syndrome for the last 2 weeks or so. I checked the water parameters and everything was normal (nitrites, ammonia, ph is 7.0) I thought I might be having a bllom but havent been able to figure out why. I went to local FS and asked. They said possible calcium? anyway gave me a product by Fritz called water clear. Didnt work. I thought maybe the BIo-chem sorb pads could be causing it, took them out last night, still no change. I have been cleaning the tank once every 3 weeks. The fish dont seem to be worried or affected by it. I have 1 Gold Sevrum, 1 Geophagus, 1 nicgaruense, 1 Blue Acara, 1 Barcardi, and one fresh water crawfish. I have a theory though: Our water table has risen lately and the aquafers in our area have filled to places that have not seen water in several years (live in Florida) the city water here has been affected at times with a yellow tinge (tanic acid) they treat with chlorine but at times, water has remained tinged. Do you think that could be the reason and if so, what should I do? should I change the Bio-chem sorbs? 1 pad is about 1 month old, the other a little older. Should I put the existing pads back into the tank? Also, I did not test for NitrAtes because I figured the tank wasn't really old enough to have that type of problem.....Thanks for your help

It's too bad that ignorance doesn't hurt

[Iammatt]

Sounds like you have a bacteria bloom. Being as how you never mentioned what type of filters you are using, I would just try adding a good flocculant such as Accurel F to glom all the bacteria together so they settle out of the water column

[lcurry]

I have a Aquaclear 500 with Bio-chem sorb pads and regular sponge. It does sound like a bacteria bloom, just wondering how the wwater parameters are staying normal. The test kits are Doc Well fish, not the strips and they are brand new. Any ideas?

It's too bad that ignorance doesn't hurt

[SHUEZQ]

I don't know where High Springs is, but I am in Tampa and have not seen any cloudy water trouble from my tap. I would check the nitrates if the tank has been up since February--that's more than long enough. I don't think adding/removing things from the filter will help. If anything, your removal of these items has killed off any beneficial bacteria growing on them. I do get a bloom once in a while in one of the tanks--I have used B-Clear from Hagen (red cap) with great results. However, since I removed the undergravel filter from my tank the cycle seems much more stable.

NO ONE CONFUSES ME--I DO IT MYSELF!

[lcurry]

My water parameters are perfect. Nitrites=0, Ammonia=0 Nitrates=10ppm although when this first happened, the nitrates were 40ppm. this has been happening for over 2 weeks now. I did add a fluidized filter as well last week. All I can say is I have no idea! I do not believe anything has been killed off as the water parameters are all within the normal range. Anyone have ideas? I tried Fritz water clarifier with no results but maybe there is another better product?

It's too bad that ignorance doesn't hurt