Ira Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Ever since I went to Christchurch a few weeks ago my 400L tank gets cloudy whenever I do a water change. It's annoying. I bought a bunch of filter wool and I'm going to try cleaning the filters and putting it in, they're a bit overdue anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peety Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Stop going to Christchurch :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 What else is different? Maybe the filter is overly dirty causing a bacterial bloom? Maybe there is something precipitating when the new water is added? Please supply more info, then we may be able to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Yeah stop going to CHCH. You're not bringing CHCH water back with you?? (Definately the problem if you are. Stop mixing different types of water!!??) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 24, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Hehehe, Nope, not bringing back chch water. Neither of the filters was overly dirty. I did notice that the bag of bird grit I'm using to keep the PH up when I was cleaning it makes the water pretty milky so it's a suspect, but...Odd that it would suddenly start making the water cloudy(If you look close you can actually see clouds in the water) and that it would seem to only do it after water changes. Oh, no changes within...Ummm...ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Could also be the new water reacting with the 'bird grit' creating a precipitate. Calcium carbonate doesn't dissolve that well to start with and very readily precipitates out if you give it the slightest exceuse. I'm assuming of course that the 'bird grit' has a high CaCl content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peety Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 I had a similar problem a while back.... it went away. I think (just guessing!!) it was the local water supply. It seemed to get really chlorinated for a while. Just a guess mind.... :-? I hadn't made any changes and didn't alter anything when it went back to normal..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 I try to avoid water changes over summer (well, actually I try to avoid them all the time) when the water table is low as I find I have a major problem with algae blooms at this time of year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 24, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 It could be some of the grit has dissolved enough to change the composition of what's being released. It definitely doesn't have anything to do with low water tables, I'm on tank water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 What is the pH of your tank water. If it is acidic, it will be reacting with the bird grit. Still waiting for more info, like water parameters, new water parameters, what you've changed recently that may cause the problem, what you did in CHCH that could have made your tank react. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 24, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 PH is 7.2ish, don't know the hardness, the new water is rainwater, PH 7 I didn't do anything with it in Christchurch because the tank was here at home. It just sat for 2 weeks without a water change. Other than that, like I said, no changes at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Still think it is a precipitate. If its not hurting the fish and it clears up pretty quickly I wouldn't worry about it. PS. I was being silly about what you did in CHCH. I'm nearly always silly, you should know that by now... although, sometimes it's hard to tell?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajbroome Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Ira said... > If you look close you can actually see clouds in the water This makes me wonder if you're getting 'blooms' of paramecia... Andrew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 Hmmm...Paramecia...No, I'm not going to buy a microscope to check! Don't tempt me! It'll take money away from my marine tank fund.(More like make it go negative) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriber Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 Why don't you see if you can get a student to smuggle some of your water into a lab to have a look at. If you were down in CHCH I would give it a go, you could probably come along for the ride. (had my 1st day of demonstrating today!) Later, Kriber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 I wouldn't have a clue who to ask for a student. But, my father in law has a microscope. The cloudiness is clearing up, though. I'm going to do another waterchange tomorrow, we'll see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 The shell grit at the lower part of the bag will be a lot "dustier" than that at the top of the bag, as everything has settled. Possibly it could be something just as simple as this It pays to rinse the grit off before using anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midas Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 where abouts is your bird grit? Is it in one of your canister filters? Do you turn your canister off then back on again when you do your water change? Or is the cloudyness when it first appears not coming out of the filter but just appearing at random locations? Just trying to see if we can rule out the bird grit as a direct source. I know if I disturb the bags of bird grit I have it tends to send a cloud of calcium carbonate through the water. Could be the water you are using. Have you checked your water in your rainwater tank for cloudiness? Something maybe growing in it (ie bacterial etc bloom) or just contaminating it (some kind of chemical/debris)? Also, a while back when I was in Palmy whenever I did a water change I had some kind of preciptate form. It seemed quite sticky and coagulated and stuck to plants, fish etc. Some of the fish even ate it. Didn't seem to do any harm. Eventually it stopped happening and but I never did find out what was happening. Always thought it was abit odd. I read an article by the editor in the October 2001 edition of Practicle fish keeping some time later and it talked about a similar problem, however that case involved fish deaths. They also did not know what has caused it. Anyone else had a similar experience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 26, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2003 The bird grit is in a fine mesh bag in my 404. The cloudiness seems to be pretty uniform throughout the tank. Neither the tap water, the rainwater tank or my other 3 tanks are getting cloudy. I'm going to do a water change as soon as I can be bothered, maybe after I check my email and all the fish MBs. We'll see if it clouds up again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 27, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 Well...It clouded up again. Was crystal clear like normal until the clouding started to get noticable about 5 hours later. Still there after doing my slave labor today. It's not as cloudy as it was after the previous water change, so maybe it'll stop doing it eventually? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted April 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2003 The tank had stopped getting cloudy after water changes since about my last post. Then yesterday after the water change it decided to get cloudy again. I don't think it's the bird grit because my fry tank's done the same thing. Though, it didn't seem to be related to water changes, just slowly clouded up over the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted April 25, 2003 Report Share Posted April 25, 2003 Sounds a bit like a bacteria bloom Ira... Have you checked for dead fish lurking under ornaments or rocks...? How often are you feeding...? Try a box filter with some activated carbon in... it usually helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted April 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2003 There are no dead fish, I feed them twice a day and I don't have a box filter. Anyway, I doubt the feeding has anything to do with it seeing as it only happens in the big tank after a 50% water change, but not during the week. Probably my rainwater tank is getting a bit icky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted April 26, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2003 Ok, I threw some carbon in the tank yesterday and it's cleared up today. NOt sure if it was because of the carbon though, because it's usually cleared up in a day or two before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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