# Cloudy Water Issue With My 90 Gallon Mbuna Set-Up



## redbaron1963 (Feb 15, 2009)

I am hoping someone may have some advise on my issue. I have a 90 gallon african cichlid set-up. I had it going for about a little over two months with no issues. I have 15 cichlids (still on juvenile size) and 4 smaller sized bristlenose plecos. I noticed about two weeks ago the water looking slightly cloudy. I decided to do a major water change (about 50%). I believe I probably destroyed some nitrifying bacteria because I poured water right into the filter box. It was a stupid move and I didn't realize what I had done until it was too late. The water got progressively cloudier in the next day or two. I checked all of the water levels (Chlorine, Ammonia, Nitrites, etc.) and found that all levels were fine. In fact the fish seem very healthy and are eating well. The water has gotten a bit worse in that it is extremely hazy and now has a slight green tinge to it. An employee at a nearby reputable fish sales store(they specifically sell aquarium fish only) advised me that it was not an algae bloom and gave me a chemical that would possibly speed up some new nitrifying bacteria in my tank. He also told me NOT to do any water changes for a while and just let the tank cycle itself on it's own. It has been over two weeks and I am concerned because there has been no improvement whatsoever. Am I not being patient enough or should I possibly do some small water changes? Any help would be appreciated.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

Do water changes to clear it up. Do a 25% w/c every other day and the tank should clear up.

If you are concerned about the bio-filter, get a piece of media(sponge, foam, floss) from an established filter and stick it in your filter.

I can't get into these products. They don't work as they claim and it is just a waste of $5.99.


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## redbaron1963 (Feb 15, 2009)

You don't think that 25% water changes every other day might not be too much do to the fact that the nitrifying bacteria need to get established again? I was thinking of doing about a 10% water change and then monitoring the situation. My other question would be should I cut back on the lighting duration? Right now I have my lighting on for approximately 12 hours per day.


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## cevvin (May 2, 2008)

Green water is simply solved by reduced light and water changes, cut it back a couple hours and change some water. And changing water doesn't effect your bacteria, the bacteria lives in your filter media, not the water.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

As long as you use a dechlorinator you will not compromise your bio-filter.
Just don't touch it or disturb it in any way.

Fall back on the lights. Twelve hours is way too much. That is where your green is coming from.
You don't need it on for long periods of time unless you have plants. The fish could care less if they are on for 10 minutes or 10 hours.


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## redbaron1963 (Feb 15, 2009)

Good advice from all. I appreciate it. I will make a partial water change and cut back on the lighting. I will update and post the results in a couple of days. Thanks again.


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## redbaron1963 (Feb 15, 2009)

It has been about a week since my original post and I have noticed that the water is still very cloudy on the tank. I did cut the lighting back from about 12 hours to only 6 hours a day. I also have done three different water changes in the same period. All three changes were approximately 20%. I have to admit that the green in the water has diminished somewhat and I can now see about half way from the front to back of the tank. The top layer of water seems to just show a more white cloudy appearance where as the bottom two thirds of the water have a somewhat green tinge. Should I cut back on the frequency of the changes. I also forgot to add that I cut back the feeding of the fish from twice a day to once a day. My water levels for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph are all in range and the fish appear to be healthy. I am just concerned that even though there has been slight improvement, it seems like a long period of time ( approximately 3 weeks) that the water has been cloudy. Any more updated advice would be appreciated.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

any preferences on water treatment.. i have used jungle, api, and tetra brand..!?!?!


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## walleye (Aug 20, 2007)

Is there drift wood in the tank? Wood in the tank will leach tanin out and turn your water a tint of brown. Have you tried to use charcoal in any filters to clean the water up? Do you have a pic of the tank?


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## JJSTROKES (Dec 5, 2005)

Despite what the store employee told I believe that the green tint is algae. Thus it is an algae bloom. Cutting back on the feeding and light will help. I don't think that the driftwood would do anything but change your waters ph. I had this problem many years ago with one of my tanks. The solution was: *I had to black out the tank*. I took Black trash bags and taped them together. Then I put them over my tank. (If the tank is small enough to fit in a big bag so be it, but for bigger tanks tape the bags together.) Cover the tank for about three or more days, No light at all. It resolved my problem. Prior to doing that I tried chemicals, water changes, and more nothing happened. Cover the tank. Then Let me know.

[/b]
Jay


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## webgirl74 (Jan 30, 2009)

What kind of filter do you have, and since your tank is failry new, did you cycle the tank at all when you first set it up? When I cycled my 55 gallon several years ago, it was quite cloudy for the first few weeks during the cycling process. I had a few tiger barbs in the tank to get the good bacteria going and then started adding cichlids after about 4-5 weeks cycling time. By that time the water had cleared and the water parameters had levelled out. A quality filter makes a big difference too. You need to have adequate circulation through the filter to keep the water quality in check.


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## redbaron1963 (Feb 15, 2009)

Sorry that it took long for me to put up an updated posts. I saw some newer replies and this where I stand as of tonight. As of yesterday I am finally seeing a bit of a change in the water. It is starting to clear a little though I will admit it is still a bit cloudy and some slight green tint to water is apparent. I did my last water change approximately 12 days ago and then I decided to leave it alone since most of the water changes did not seem to make a big difference. I am wondering now if the fact that it has been about 5 weeks since I first noticed the water problem and made a water change that ruined the biological filtration by dumping fresh water into the filter, that now after 5 weeks maybe the nitrifying bacteria have been established and they are now possibly starting to assist in the water clearing up. To the one post that suggested covering the tank with garbage bags, I will consider doing that, but I just want to give it about a week to see if the water starts to clear up more on it's own. If not I will definately try your advice. To the most recent reply about whether or not I had established the filter, I did back in November-2008 when I had set up the tank. I added the fish slowly and everything was fine for some time. I do believe the water change I carried out into the filter is what started the problem and I now think the biological filtration was ruined and had to reestablish itself. Also the question of the type of filtration, it is somewhat not easy to explain other than to say it is an inside the tank (mounted to the glass wall) power filter that uses two motors. It has different levels inside for different filtration media to perform chemical, mechanical and biological filtration. It was originally used when I had a salt water set up. It's a great filter and most people I know that have used it, highly recommend it. It is designed by a local salt water aquarium/fish retailer that lives nearby. My levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, hardness, ph are all in level and the fish still appear to be healthy though I haven't seen two of my four bristlnose plecos in some time. Hopefully they are hiding somewhere. Any more advice is always appreciated. Thanks again to all of those who posted replies. I will update again as soon as possible to inform on my progress with my tank.


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## cindylou (Oct 22, 2008)

When you don't see something for a long time I would suggest looking for it..A decaying dead fish will really mess up the water..I only will let it go for 1 day when I can't find a fish then I start removing things 1 at a time until I find it dead or alive..I lost a pleco in my cichlid tank by surprise 1 day no warning..And my fresh water community I lost a neon tetra it was almost buried in a plant..I hope your pleco's are just hiding.. :fish: :fish:


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## cindylou (Oct 22, 2008)

And I would stick to water changes..I do 50% every 7 to 10 days..Substrate cleaning I do in different sections of the tank..(To much at once isn't good) I don't change filter media very often either. I have learned (from this forum) rinsing filter media in tank water works great and saves money too. I have 2 HOB on each tank and only rinse one or the other at a time..Never both at the same time..Hope some of this info helps.. :thumb:


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## anafranil (Feb 8, 2009)

If you can afford it use a uv sterilizer,it will make your water crystal clear in a week


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## jpmuns2006 (Dec 28, 2008)

We had the exact same problem with one of our tanks a couple of months ago. Trust me when I tell you that frequent water changes will not hurt the fish. We could not figure out what the heck it was. We decided to do about 30% water changes every other day for about 2 weeks and the water cleared way up! But we had to be really dilligent about it. It might freak you out a little but try it


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## redbaron1963 (Feb 15, 2009)

Cindy Lou, I do intend to go back to large water changes however, the strange thing is that the water has cleared a little bit since I stopped trying to clear the cloudiness with three water changes within a week. It has been 16 days since my last water change. A subject I work with had told me to leave it alone for a little bit to let the nitrogen cycle get established again since I had probably destroyed it earlier. I may try a water change tomorrow just to see what the results are, probably about a 30 to 35% water change. Thanks for the advice. By the way I have now seen at least three of the four plecos and it is possible the fourth one is hiding further back in the tank where it is hard to see.

Anafranil, Thanks for the advice about the uv sterilizer. I had already thought about that. I have one already from when my tank was a salt water set-up. The problem is that the uv sterilizer was hooked up through a protein skimmer and that pumpmotor is not working right to force the water through and I realized that if I attempt to change the pump motor, I will have to disturb all of the biological filtration that I have been patiently waiteing for to establish which might set me backwards again. I may definately try that down the line when everything is running smooth with the nitrifying bacteria and filtration.

JJSTROKES, I am still waiting another few days to see if things clear up a little and then if they do not, I will take your advice on blacking out the tank for a few days.

Once again I appreciate all the advice given for my post. It's nice to know there are web site forums such as this to help people out such as myself. This always keeps me from being pessimistic about people not helping each other out. People prove every day that they are considerate and helpful to others


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## Lister (Feb 18, 2009)

This doesn't sound like an algae bloom so much as it sounds like a bacteria bloom. Water changes will do nothing to help this other than stress your fish and sometimes even make it worse. The best thing to counter a bacteria bloom is a UV sterilizer, like anafranil said. You may be able to find off the shelf products to help with this too.


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## redbaron1963 (Feb 15, 2009)

Final Update on my cloudy water issue.

My problems have finally cleared up (literally,LOL). I actually received a great piece of advice on a different web-site (believe it or not, it was a writing forum website). A woman had told me that she had the same exact type of milky and green tint cloudiness with her tank and found that there was a lack of aeration. She increased aeration and the problem was solved. I took this advice as well as cut my lighting back some more. I also added some fresh carbon into the filter box. The large pump I attached with two large spray-bars for aeration made a huge difference within a couple of days. I then did a 40% water change and now the water looks perfectly clear. I never needed added aeration when I had a salt-water setup but I guess with cichlids, it is a different story. Needless to say after two months I am relieved I have ended this issue. I will keep up on the water changes and keep my lighting to a minimum to avoid another algae bloom issue. Thanks again to all who gave their advice to this issue I had.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

I would guess that your salt water setup wasn't as heavily stocked as your cichlid setup.


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## redbaron1963 (Feb 15, 2009)

Actually, my salt-water setup was pretty heavily stocked. I wonder if having four bristlenose plecos might be overdoing it a bit on the wasteload capacity? I might give away two of them to hopefully help stabilize it a bit better.


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