Cloudy water

PinkyJones

PinkyJones

New Member
Greetings!!! Need a little bit of advice here since I've never had this issue in the 30 years I've had fresh water aquariums. I have a 2.5 gallon Fluval Spec III aquarium for a betta. The tank has been set up for about 4 or 5 months and only recently have I had issues with cloudy water. The water was perfectly clear up until I did a water change about 2 months ago. It was a 25% change where I also changed the carbon filter. From then on it's been very cloudy. I waited about a month and did a 50% water change, took out the carbon filter and added reverse osmosis water, waited a couple of days and it's still cloudy. No new fish. No new plants. No change in environment other than the water change. Only added chemical was Stress Coat, just a couple of drops. My betta is doing fine, just can't see him very well. I have another 2 gallon betta tank with the same conditions with a carbon filter and never had a cloudiness issue. Any advice or suggestions for getting rid of the cloudiness?

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clownie

clownie

Well-Known Member
Have you tried testing ammonia levels? Could be you're creating a mini cycle with the large water changes. Have you done large changes on the other tank too? If ammonia is checking fine then I am going to assume it some form of particulate matter causing it. Then mechanical filtration will remove it.
 
PinkyJones

PinkyJones

New Member
Just tested the ammonia a few minutes ago and it was 0 ppm. My other betta tank I usually do 75% water change about once a month and it's never had this problem. I was hoping if it was a particulate matter causing it the filtration would have removed it by now. All ornaments/rocks in the tank are aquarium safe and boiled before putting in the tank.
 
FishBeast

FishBeast

Well-Known Member
Do you think it's the substrate? I've had fine particles from substrate give me cloudiness before with normal water params. Also could be bacterial bloom.

You could always pick up a 10 gallon tank from Petco ($10!) and cycle it, move the betta to it and break down the Spec, maybe wash the gravel thoroughly, change filter media and start over... at least you'll have a spare tank (assuming you don't already have spare tank/s).
 
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PinkyJones

PinkyJones

New Member
I did a major water change and under the gravel was an enormous amount of green algae. It's clearer since I cleaned it but not 100% clear. I have the light on for lesser time and I'm going to block any sunlight from getting in. It seems to help but not 100%.
 
VickiK

VickiK

Member with a lot to say
PinkyJones said:
Used a water clarifying chemical with no luck. I guess I'm stuck with a cloudy tank.
Click to expand...

OH man...that would drive me nuts. Circle slash on cloudy tanks.

I had a similar issue with a small 10g bowfront and after water changers and cleaning and cleaning, got some water clarifying stuff off Amazon. I believe I dosed too highly and. as a result, killed six of my endlers. Boy did I feel crappy about that. The good news is that the frog, the betta and the pea puffer and a couple other endlers made it though my goof up.

The water, however, has never been clearer.
 
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