# Oceanic Biocube 29 Gal cloudy water help!



## Ilya34 (Oct 20, 2012)

Hi there friends! I just joined the site, so I may not put as much information as is needed to help answer my question...if I breech protocol, just holler my way! xD
So for the past four or five months now I've had this Oceanic Biocube that I got as a present from my mom (who didn't happen to notice all of its terrible online reviews...hahaha), and I'm running it as a freshwater aquarium for my one Tiger Oscar fish who is about 5 inches long. He lives in this tanks with a live plant and one plastic aquarium decoration (he ate the Picasimus that he grew up with, so I supposed that other tank mates were out of the question for this guy).
I cycled the tank for two weeks before adding the Oscar and the water was nice and clear and happy. I do use filtered water, and I add 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water for fungus and Ich protection. I then added the guy, and he seemed pretty happy at first.
But then a week or so later (after a 10% water change that I perform weekly) the water clouded for the first time. It clouded a light white color, and I couldn't see the back of the tank. Also, algae started forming. Brown-looking algae. So I shut off all of the lights for two days, used only the blue-tinted light to light the tank, and cleaned the tank 3 times a week. This cleared everything up for a month or two.
Now it's started back again and I'm not sure why! I haven't changed my water change routine, what type of light I use, chemicals, type of water, or anything! Not even the temperature has changed much...
The ammonia levels are zero, and the PH is steady as well.
Not sure where to go from here...nothing seems to help anymore. 
(Thinking of just getting a new tank..)


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## squishylittlefishies (Sep 12, 2012)

This sounds just like a regular bacterial bloom. It is quite common in newly set up aquariums, and is not harmful to the fish. keep doing water changes maybe 10% twice a week and it will go awat eventually. The brown algae is the same idea. pops up in new aquariums. You could try getting a common pleco to fight the algae, and if you get a bigger size the oscar shouldn't bother it. 
So don't worry yourself too much. the reason it is happening now instead of right away is not because you did something wrong, just because the bacteria and algae won't start growing until there are enough 'nutrients' in the tank.
good luck! 
P.S. you did a good job with your question - detailed info


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Ilya, welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping forum. Glad to have you with us.:wave:

I agree with squishylittlefishies except for the last line. A bacterial bloom (which is what this does sound like it is) is caused by too many nutrients, or more correctly, organics. There are a few reasons for organics.

First, organics are natural; all fish food entering the tank ends up as waste organics. So the more fish, or the larger the fish, or the more you feed the fish, the more organics will increase. We deal with these in several ways. Live plants help a lot. Also regular water changes, 1/3 to 1/2 the tank volume every week at minimum. And vacuuming into the substrate during these. Plus not overstocking the tank or overfeeding the fish.

Your first problem is the fish. A five-inch Oscar in a 29g is producing a lot of waste, not just solid that can likely be seen but liquid waste, ammonia and pheromones that cannot, and this is going to get worse. This fish can be expected to grow at the rate of an inch per month if healthy, up to a maximum of 18 inches, although 12 inches is more usual in aquaria. You will need a much larger tank; at least a 4-foot 75g tank just for this one fish. 

At this point, because you are new to the forum, I'm going to mention the fish profiles section, under the second tab fro the left in the blue bar across the top of the page. This species is included, and you will find more info there. The name shades, Oscar, meaning you can click this to see the profile.

A test for nitrates would be helpful, as a rise in nitrates can often mean organics are increasing. But without even knowing this, I would do larger water changes, at least half the tank, and clean the substrate well each time. I assume you have one of the water changing devices that makes this easy.

No mention is made of feeding, but fish do not need that much food, especially a fairly sedate (non-active) fish in such a small (to the fish) tank. 

To the salt mentioned, this is not likely to have any benefit at preventing disease, and it will irritate the fish to the point of death, so I wold stop adding it. You can read more on salt here:
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-articles/salt-freshwater-aquarium-97842/

Please do not add any more fish to this tank, they will only make this much worse. While the bacteria bloom in and of itself is not a problem for fish, the underlying cause may be, and here it is. As I said, a much larger tank must be ready for this fish, and soon. A potentially large fish living in cramped quarters will not develop properly, causing additional problems that will only get worse and shorten its lifespan.

If a 75g is not going to be possible for whatever reason, I would re-home this fish quickly, to another aquarist or a store.

By filtered water, do you mean through a tap filter, or bottled? Is there a reason you do whichever?

Byron.


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## squishylittlefishies (Sep 12, 2012)

Byron said:


> I agree with squishylittlefishies except for the last line. A bacterial bloom (which is what this does sound like it is) is caused by too many nutrients, or more correctly, organics. There are a few reasons for organics.
> 
> First, organics are natural; all fish food entering the tank ends up as waste organics. So the more fish, or the larger the fish, or the more you feed the fish, the more organics will increase.


Oh yes. this is what I was trying to say, sorry for being confusing.I was just trying to explain that there was no fish waste when you started and now there is lots of it and that is why there was the change. It could be from overfeeding, but it happened to me too, and I barely feed my fish much at all! What goes in must come out. It happens.


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