Cloudiness in 29 gal

[AnotherHumanPerson]

Over the past two weeks, my tank has had cloudy water. Early on, I figured that it was due to a bacterial bloom, and left it to it’s own, doing small water changes every few days.

However, the water has grown more cloudy to the point that I can’t see the back of the aquarium. I dosed some beneficial bacteria this morning. Is there anything else I can do to help with this?

Before anyone asks, ammonia is at 0. I don’t remember my nitrates and nitrites but I can check once I get home in a few hours.

[lefty o]

how long has the tank been up and running?

[AnotherHumanPerson]

On 7/29/2022 at 7:20 PM, lefty o said:

how long has the tank been up and running?

The tank has been up since last year, but I lowered the water level down to about an inch and rescaped the tank around the end of march.

[lefty o]

hmm even the big drain in march should have no affect now. i would start thinking has anything changed, amount of food, hours of lighting, filtration changes. even tap water chemistry could have changed slightly triggering it.  unless you can nail down something that changed, i would give it a week or more without changing water to let the tank try and get the bloom under control on its own. small daily water changes may not harm it, but could also keep resetting whatever is going on.

[AnotherHumanPerson]

On 7/29/2022 at 7:34 PM, lefty o said:

hmm even the big drain in march should have no affect now. i would start thinking has anything changed, amount of food, hours of lighting, filtration changes. even tap water chemistry could have changed slightly triggering it.  unless you can nail down something that changed, i would give it a week or more without changing water to let the tank try and get the bloom under control on its own. small daily water changes may not harm it, but could also keep resetting whatever is going on.

Yeah pretty much everything has gone unchanged. I added a few assassin snails recently, but I don’t think they would make a great enough change for a 29 gal.

[nabokovfan87]

Can you please record a video and send some photos?

The focus for me is going to be around your filtration, how is it setup and what is it?

[Scot]

I suspect the huge water change and rescaping provided the bacteria some nutrient.

On 7/29/2022 at 9:34 PM, lefty o said:

hmm even the big drain in march should have no affect now. i would start thinking has anything changed, amount of food, hours of lighting, filtration changes. even tap water chemistry could have changed slightly triggering it.  unless you can nail down something that changed, i would give it a week or more without changing water to let the tank try and get the bloom under control on its own. small daily water changes may not harm it, but could also keep resetting whatever is going on.

 Agree, stop feeding the bacteria. Water changes provide fresh nutrients. Water is not sterile unless you use sterile water...Generally you don't want to.