# Water Is SOOO Cloudy



## austinspeer810 (Dec 1, 2012)

Hello everyone!!!

So here is my issue that I am running into. I have a 10 gallon tank with orange rocks, some fake plants, two aquarium buildings, an Aqueon QuietFlow 20 filter. I have a pictus catfish, a molly, a hatchet fish, a platy, and an algae eater. I cleaned the gravel before I did anything else. I used an algae killer liquid because at first I thought the water was green tinted and then it was actually cloudy water. I used Top Fin water clarifier twice (one time and used it again 24 hours later). I also did a water change (25-30 percent) and that was clear for a day. What do I do?!?!


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## VerdantGrotto (Nov 22, 2012)

I had the same issue when i set up my 10 gallon a year ago. I added the same products but with disastrous results. Please be careful with the Chems. My best suggestion to you is to do a 25% water change every other day and just give it time. Also rinse your Filter out frequently (but not the Blue portion because this is where your beneficial bacteria is living)


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## jentralala (Oct 5, 2012)

I hate to be the one to say this but your tank is not at all big enough for those fish. A Pictus Cat will get quite large and need a 55 gallon tank minimum. A molly and a Platy are about all you can have in there and even they will be cramped in your tank. They can get up to 6"! A hatchetfish is a shoaling fish and needs at least 5 others of it's species, if I remember correctly, and a much bigger tank than you have. If by 'algae eater' you mean pleco, they also get very large, over 2 feet. I really suggest researching your fish before you buy them. Please refer to the Tropical Fish Profiles at the top of this page. For the sake of those fish, please. You are submitting them to pretty bad conditions. 

How long has your tank been set up? It sounds like a bacterial bloom from a cycling tank.
In such a small tank, by the by, your fish are poisoning themselves with their own waste. Please upgrade to a much larger tank or return those fish.


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## austinspeer810 (Dec 1, 2012)

well would just using the Top Fin water conditioner be fine? I have algae killer solution as well as a algae eater fish. Would the algae eater fish be enough for my tank to keep it algae free?


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## austinspeer810 (Dec 1, 2012)

*Water Change*

So I have been having THE WORST luck with my aquarium with keeping it very clear. Always seemed to cloud up. So my solution was to take all of the fish out of the tank which was about 4-5. I used the current water that they were swimming in since it was the right temperature. I removed EVERYTHING (10 gallons of water/plants/rocks/aquarium decorations). I then put very hot water in the tank so it would clean out the remaining stuff. I cleaned the rocks,plants, and decorations as well. I went to walmart and purhcased 10 gallons of drinking water and came back and put everything back in the tank besides the fish and put my filter with a new cartridge and the heater in the tank so it would get back to the temperature the fish were used to. I REALLY hope this works like I am hoping it does. I will let you know what it turns out like.


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## jentralala (Oct 5, 2012)

I would not worry about adding 'algae killer' (which, if you read the bottle, says not to add to a tank less than 3 months old that is fully established.) I would hazard a guess that you have no algae in your tank. Also, what you may not know is that molly's eat algae, when it appears. It is cruel to keep an 'algae eater' without plentiful algae in the tank...the fish will starve to death. A little bit of algae is not going to hurt anything in the tank. I would suggest switching from plastic plants to live, as these will 'suck up' the extra nutrients in the water that are causing the algae to appear.


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## marshallsea (Apr 30, 2012)

austinspeer810 said:


> So I have been having THE WORST luck with my aquarium with keeping it very clear. Always seemed to cloud up. So my solution was to take all of the fish out of the tank which was about 4-5. I used the current water that they were swimming in since it was the right temperature. I removed EVERYTHING (10 gallons of water/plants/rocks/aquarium decorations). I then put very hot water in the tank so it would clean out the remaining stuff. I cleaned the rocks,plants, and decorations as well. I went to walmart and purhcased 10 gallons of drinking water and came back and put everything back in the tank besides the fish and put my filter with a new cartridge and the heater in the tank so it would get back to the temperature the fish were used to. I REALLY hope this works like I am hoping it does. I will let you know what it turns out like.


Removing and cleaning everything is the wrong thing to do. You most likely took your cycle back to day 1. Water cloudiness can indicate progress in your cycle, which you removed. If you don't understand the nitrogen cycle, you should read up on it. Cloudiness is there for a reason and will most always fix itself.


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## jentralala (Oct 5, 2012)

+1


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

First, austinspeer, welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping forum.:-D

Second, I came across your two threads which really are about the same issue so I merged the later thread into this one. It is best to keep only one thread going on a specific topic; this way all members see what other members have posted, and you will get a better response that will be unified.

Now to the issue. And the first thing is never, never use these various chemicals to solve problems like algae, cloudy water, etc. The cause for the problem has to be identified, and then appropriate action taken to resolve it, if that is what is needed. Any of these chemicals (which may or may not work to begin with) do have detrimental effects on the fish. I won't go into all that now, as I want to get to the problems in order to help you and your fish.

Cloudy water is common in new tanks. You haven't indicated how long this tank has been set up, but this is one probable. Tearing the tank down and "cleaning" as you describe is going to drastically affect the biological system and this too is almost certain to cause cloudiness. Neither of these types is related to algae. Whitish cloudiness is most often due to a sudden increase in various bacteria in the water. This will naturally clear on its own, if other things are balanced; it looks unsightly, but it has to be left alone.

No indication is given of water changes, but these should be regular, once a week is normal, changing 1/3 to 1/2 the tank volume. Use a good water conditioner, nothing else. Also no indication of tap water parameters (GH, KH, pH) but I will assume the tank and tap are close in these.

To the fish, which is going to be a big problem. At this point, I will point you to our profiles section, under the second tab from the left in the blue bar across the top of the page. If the name is used in a post exactly as it appears in the profile (common or scientific) it will shade and you can click that name for the pop-up profile. Data on water parameters, minimum tank size, number of fish for shoaling species, compatibility, etc is in the profiles.

Shoaling fish must be in a group. Silver Hatchetfish is one of these, please read the profile. Pictus Catfish is another; it grows to five inches and should be in a group, requiring a much larger tank if it is to be healthy and live a normal lifespan. Check the profile.

Obviously there is insufficient room in a 10g for all these fish to be properly housed, so you need to decide which will go (returned to the store, given to other aquarists, or a much larger tank). That is your decision.

Byron.


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