Ismart120 Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Hi there, I'm having a problem with my parents fish tank - its a 180 litre running a fluval 204 and an aqua one filter of some sort, but it keeps becoming cloudy over night randomly, which takes about 3-5 days to clear properly, even after water changes. On top of this, it smells like something is rotting in the water, but I cant really find anything (and it doesn't seem to change with underfeeding either), and the fluval flow is greatly reducing after about a week to a fortnight, nearly no flow coming through,but its not being jammed up with anything, and the large sword plant has had a few of its largest leaves 'melt' in the last day as well as two tetras die with no marks or apparent reasons (one even as I was cleaning out some water tonight - just watched it stop and float to the bottom. I mean, really???) I'm completely lost as to what might be causing it - the inhabitants have been in a similar sized tank with the aqua one filter for ages (a year or two?) without any deaths and the fluval has worked well for about 3 months, eveything has just turned to custard in the day (and one before a while back, just not as badly) Any help would be good, even if its just some theories I can test or look into (sorry about the wall of text too) Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Check that they are not overfeeding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrazyGeoff Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Hi, Remove any carbon or such like from the fluval, and replace with bio chem zorb, or another product that does not leak whatever it has removed from the water, back into the water, once it is "full", if that made sense. Sounds more like an algae bloom. I get the same simptoms sometimes after feeding Zucchini. I can feed massive amounts of food and no problems. One bit of Zucchuini and "cloudy city" the next day. How often are water changes being done? and how heavy is the fish stocking? Remember that the zucchini (once it hits the water) is really just decaying plant material, so I would also suspect that there may be some decomposing plants in the tank somewhere that are not helping. As to the fluval slowing down, I have experienced something similar on occasion. What I found was the round part (with the holes in it that leads back to the out hose) in the cover that sits on top of the media trays was actually getting blocked by material in the top media tray. Turning the filter off to investigate, would show nothing because as soon as the filter was turned off, the material that was causing the blockage would settle back into the tray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishplants Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Hi there, I'm having a problem with my parents fish tank - its a 180 litre running a fluval 204 and an aqua one filter of some sort, but it keeps becoming cloudy over night randomly, which takes about 3-5 days to clear properly, even after water changes. On top of this, it smells like something is rotting in the water, but I cant really find anything (and it doesn't seem to change with underfeeding either), and the fluval flow is greatly reducing after about a week to a fortnight, nearly no flow coming through,but its not being jammed up with anything, and the large sword plant has had a few of its largest leaves 'melt' in the last day as well as two tetras die with no marks or apparent reasons (one even as I was cleaning out some water tonight - just watched it stop and float to the bottom. I mean, really???) I'm completely lost as to what might be causing it - the inhabitants have been in a similar sized tank with the aqua one filter for ages (a year or two?) without any deaths and the fluval has worked well for about 3 months, eveything has just turned to custard in the day (and one before a while back, just not as badly) Any help would be good, even if its just some theories I can test or look into (sorry about the wall of text too) Thanks Regards the reduced Fluval flow, have a look at the hoses between filter and tank - especially the intake hose. The ribs on the fluval hoses are very good at holding all manner of food/algae/plant material. I normally remove from the tank and filter and blast them with the garden hose stuck in one end. You will be amazed at the crap that comes out! The reduction in internal diameter due to detritus will cause a massive reduction in flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ismart120 Posted June 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 thanks for the replies Yeah, I took the carbon out last time this happened but only replaced it with a few bio balls (the only thing I had spare) - I'll try to pick some zorb of some sort after exams. As for zuccini, you may be on the right track - it happened shortly after I put some in last time but I haven't put one in lately? Any ideas on whether the melting plant leaves would do this (bear in mind they only started dying off about 36 hours ago) and if so, what would be causing the leaves to die in the first place? Water changes are happening about 10% every week or 10 days (aftershocks and water supply limited to be honest), but the tank is heavily stocked (black skirt tetra school approx 7, 3 pearl gourami, 2 opaline, 2 kissings, 3 hoplos, corys and a large pleco) - whats got me confused is that I've upped the filtration and kept the feeding the same as it has been for months and months but its only started recently? Will try to blast the hoses out and adjust the media in the ffluval to see if I get any results there too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLB Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Have you been treating your water with anything to remove the chlorine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ismart120 Posted June 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 Yep - I've been using the nutrafin aquaplus stuff, using it on all the tanks I'm doing water changes for. How come? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLB Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 I was wondering if your biological filtration had been killed off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ismart120 Posted June 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 ah right - I have to admit, whenever I clean out the filter, there never seems to be much happening in there? Its more to do with getting the flow back up and running - I run ehiems on all my other tanks, no problems with those at all in terms of function. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarras Posted June 18, 2011 Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 I have had trouble with my water turning cloudy also, and the problem was solved by putting in more airation. I simply put an extra airation pump in and problem went away over night! Up to then, I was changing large quanties of water every three or four days. I have a 60 litre tropical tank. - Taras Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted June 18, 2011 Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 What colour is the cloudiness? If it's white it will be a bacterial bloom, if green its algal. From what your describing I suspect it's a bacterial bloom. The first thing I would be looking at is why the filter is playing up, with a Fluval I'd be checking the shaft to make sure it's not broken or damaged. Then check the impeller, the next most common fault is the lug's on the impeller wearing or breaking so that even though the magnetic bit is spinning the impeller doesn't spin or only pumps slowly. Also bio-noodles become clogged over time so if your filters are old the noodles might have a very low surface area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ismart120 Posted June 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 White - so bacterial. Its gone now - noticed that one of the aftershocks last monday had ripped the air stone out and the aqua one filter had stopped, maybe thrown about too much (wasn't even trying but a quick clean and reassemble and it was going again. Its come right since I've put that back in and started the aqua one filter back up. Going to check the impeller in the fluval soon too - last time I had a quick look and it seemed ok though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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