How to clear up cloudy water

[Duke Silver]

I wouldn't change water unless there was a need for it in the water parameters.  What is your lighting schedule like? if its a little green it its probably an algae bloom starting. Getting some floating plants or fast growing stem plants that will feed from the water column should help pull out some of that excess nutrients. Do you have an updated photo of you tank, would be curious to see if there has been any changes since sunday 

[Pacers94]

@Duke Silver I'll take a picture when i get off work. I have it on 5 hours a day at white 100% with the blue light at 0%

[Pacers94]

@Duke Silver The picture was as of about 8pm last night. readings were ph 7.2, ammonia 1ppm, nitrites 0.5, nitrates 10-15 ppm. Camera adds a little bit of an orange tinit so it's less than what the picture shows

[Hobbit]

Since you do have fish in there and your ammonia is up, I vote for the small water changes.

[Duke Silver]

@Pacers94I second Hobbit, I would do a small water change to try to get the ammonia down.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Duke Silver

[Pacers94]

Hey everyone, just wanted to update. The ammonia dropped to 0 around friday night, meanwhile nitrites started to climb. as of last night the nitrites are going down slowly, hopefully nearing the end of this cycle. i did a 10% water change on thursday and last night. The water has cleared up a bit, but still has that tint to the water. When researching the fluval substrate, i've read that it could color the water until it matures and most of the nutrients have come out of the substrate. But fish seem happy and healthy, they've never stopped eating. Added some adult amazon sword plants over the weekend. I'll upload a picture when i get home tonight

[Pacers94]

Hey everyone, just wanted to provide an update and maybe see if @Cory might chime in?! So water parameters are great, ammonia and nitrites at 0, nitrates about 40ppm. the pictures below are the time lapse of how this has gone. The first picture was on 06/27 before any fish (and i did put them in a little premature so that slowed cycling), the cloudiest picture was about a week later and at it's worst. the last picture was as of this morning. I bought a UV sterilizer this past friday 07/23 and have been running it 12 hours at a time. I haven't done anything crazy, only a few 10% water changes every 3-4 days. My question is I clearly want the water clarity in picture 1, will the sterilizer get me there? do i just need to be patient and let it ride out, monitoring water parameters? Any advice is much appreciated.

 

P.S. - the camera adds a little orange to the pictures, so they're not as bad as they appear

[Odd Duck]

I had some *serious* green water while my 100 gallon was developing.  I cut back on food by about 50%.  I had been trying to “feed” the filters up in prep for adding more fish.  Nobody got the slightest bit skinny.  😆 

When decreasing food to a more normal level didn’t clear the pea soup, I finally broke down and got a UV sterilizer.  I ran it 24/7 until it the water was clear.  It took about a week (I got one rated for 75 gallons).  I have not had any issues with green water in the tank since then.  I have it dry and stored for next time I think I need to “feed” a filter.  😉 

[Pacers94]

@Odd Duck thanks man. So it was the UV that got it done? And it stayed away once it went away?

[Odd Duck]

@Pacers94  It improved with less food going in, but I got too impatient.  The UV started making a difference right away and did a great job on it.  It hasn’t reappeared largely because I stopped trying to “feed the filter” to build BB’s and just let the tank do it’s thing and waited for plants to settle in and mature more.