Andi

Wayne - yes, physical symptoms - small fungus patches, little white spots... The tank is 100L, and had a total of 10 small fish in it, the loach was one of the bigger ones. No sign of overfeeding problems, but no, I did not 'seed' the tank to begin with, as I did not know the importance. I do now... I've never had a tank from scratch before, and did not know about the problems they can have. Please let me clarify also, the fish have not been exposed to the cloudy water, I am just extremely puzzled by its appearance. Yes, treated the tank for disease, used nothing harmful to the loach, as I am aware they are sensitive. I am certain it was not poisoned. But an infection which produced no visible symptoms seems likely. Will take the advice offered by Fatman, and not replace my loach until I am sure the tank has had a chance to cycle for a while. Will try again with the tapwater, as the consensus seems to be that it will be fine as long as the pH etc is monitored closely.

Well, I've just come home and discovered my SO has cleared out the tank in my absence. Will try again with the ordinary tapwater, and see what happens. The whiteness problem was non-existent with that, whatever else may have been going on... Thanks for your input!

BTW, the reason I thought the filtration may have been at fault was that, not having had this type of undergravel filter before, I wasn't sure about its setup. The instructions were not particularly helpful either. The water depth was at a point where the endcaps were only partially submerged. Turns out they should have been completely immersed (duh!). So we've now cut the uplifter down to keep it at the correct level. Not sure the whiteness is caused by a bacterial/protazoan bloom, because it worsened dramatically after adding the power filter. I'm now tending to think it is some sort of chemical reaction between the rainwater and oxygen in the tank? Definitely not adding more fish until the water is sorted.

Hi Andrew Thanks for your post. The clown loach had no sign of whitespot, though it could have had a gill infection? The reason I totally changed the water source is that I wasn't convinced the local water was healthy either - the Woodville water has been very poor for drinking etc lately. I had consulted the Council's water guy about it before I ever put fish in the tank, and he said it would be safe. But after the problems with dead fish, I was less than convinced, and the rainwater was the only alternative to hand. I'll almost certainly switch back again. I thought the cloudiness in the water was coming out of the white gravel in the substrate of the tank, although on first setting up the tank it was slightly cloudy, then this cleared. I've only had the white water problem with the rainwater. The pH adjustment was a kit recommended by Wet Pets that 'automatically adjusts the water pH to 7.0'. And yes, the bacteria was a starter culture. Thanks for the local contact, as well.

I have just set up a new tropical community tank, and have some serious problems with it. The tank has only been set up about 3 weeks, and everything in it is new. But I lost several fish in short order last week, apparently to fungus and whitespot, but then when my clown loach died within the space of a day, and there was nothing obviously wrong with it, I decided the water in the tank was (at least partly) at fault. So, I removed the remaining fish to a large bucket, and changed the water source from tap water to rainwater. The water went a milky-white colour, and I have no idea why. I thought the filtration might have been at fault, as I have a new system with an airstone inside the uplifter, which is quite unlike the undergravel filters which were common when I last had fish - about 5 years ago. So I consulted Tracey at Wet Pets in Palmerston North, and have added a power filter to the tank, and adjusted the pH, after I refilling the tank with a combination of Wet Pets' own tank water and the rainwater. I also added a bacterial agent, as Tracey suggested the water was low in helpful bacteria. Everything looked mostly ok until I turned on the power filter. The water went steadily milkier over the next few hours, and has stayed that way! I dare not put my remaining fish into this water, so they are still living in a covered bucket with a heater and airstone... I have no idea of the cause of this cloudiness in the water. Am seriously thinking of reverting to tapwater. But I've never had tropical fish in this area before, so am still uncertain about the tapwater and my dead fish! Has anyone had this happen before, and if so, what was the cause? I think I must have been very lucky with fish in the past, I've never had these sorts of problems before, especially over such a short space of time. And there are too many variables for me to be able to nail down the specific cause at the moment. Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks