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Cloudy Water


djay

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White and cloudy can be a bacterial bloom. Harmless but unsightly. I avoid doing too many water changes during summer months when the water table is low as I find it sets off a white bloom. That might just be our local water supply though :roll:

Should clear again on its own hopefully.

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As Caryl said--it usually is caused by a bacterial bloom and they only do that when they have enough food. You are probably overfeeding and the uneaten food is feeding the bacteria. You shouldn't need to clean the gravel very often if you only feed what the fish are going to eat in the first few minutes. However I cannot agree that it is harmless as a big enough bloom of aerobic bacteria can deplete the oxygen and the fish will suffer. Cut right back on food, clean excess food from the gravel and do water changes till the water improves. The invoice for 2 cents is in the mail.

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I am confused, NOW there's a surprise :lol: :lol: :lol:

Now, I know I've seen many posts referring to "bacterial bloom", but what is it? :oops: An over "growth" of bacteria? I always thought it was like your tank was going through a mini cycle? :oops: :oops:

alan wrote

You are probably overfeeding and the uneaten food is feeding the bacteria.

So, bacteria that is always there, but getting out of hand because of overfeeding???

What are other causes of "bacterial bloom"?

HELP!

Caper :-?

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  • 2 weeks later...

White water is, as Caryl said, caused by a bacterial bloom.

That means your bacteria that are there all the time converting nasty nitrogen based stuff into nice nitrogen based stuff has had a bit of a population explosion. Over feeding is one possible cause, but it happens occasionally even with a strict feeding regime. Leave it alone, your tank will sort itself out. Keep an eye on the water parameters though, which you're probably doing anyway.

Green water is different. This is free floating micro-algae. It can be killed off relatively easily. Blacking out the tank for a few days totally should kill it off, though I have never had any success with this method, even using the wife's best towels to black out the tank. Personally, I recommend using a UV filter in the tank which kills off the floaty algae bits which cause the water to turn green.

In theory, a UV filter might also help with the white water as it kills off the free floating bacteria causing the water to appear cloudy, but you have to consider whether you want to kill off bacteria in that way. Of course, there should be a population of bacteria in your filter and substrate anyway to work the nitrogen cycle.

UV filters cost anything from $80 upwards. Don't make the mistake of confusing them with UV sterilisers and Clarifiers designed for pond use, there are specific products scaled for aquarium use.

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