What Brings about a Cloudy Fish Tank and What Can Be Done About It?

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One question that often confounds, even experienced, aquarists is what causes a cloudy fish tank? The answer is not entirely straight forward as, depending on what colour it turns and when, there may be a number of reasons for it happening.

Let's look at a new tank and move forward through the tanks life cycle.

When a tank is first set up the water may well seem cloudy straight away. This is simply caused by microscopic air bubbles being trapped in the water and should disappear after a few hours.

A new tank is still going through the nitrogen cycle so is not able to cope with with the waste produced by your fish. As the nitrogen cycle starts up you may find the water turning milky. This is usually a sign that the bacterial stage of the nitrogen cycle is underway. Bacteria start to multiply so quickly that they can make teh water appear cloudy. Although this does not look nice, it will pass as the nitrogen cycle gets established and settles down. Partial water changes of 10-15% will help to reduce this. Be careful not to over-feed any fish that you have as this can add to the problem.

If the tank is brand new and you have not yet added fish or started to cycle the tank, it may be that an ornament is reacting with the water and causing cloudiness. Are all your ornaments designed for aquariums and were they all rinsed thoroughly before you set up the tank. If one of your ornaments is dissolving, then it needs to be removed and a large water change also needs to be done to maintain water quality.

If you have added bogwood to the tank, this may leech a yellowy brown stain into the water. This will settle down with time and water changes and is harmless. The wood is simply leaking tannin to the water. Giving the wood a good scrub in clean water can prevent this. As the wood ages and starts to grow its own covering the tannin problems will stop. Your normal water changes will gradually get rid of this dis-colouration.

There are a few things that you can do to help keep all forms of cloudiness at bay.

Avoid over-feeding your fish. Feed enough so that the fish can eat it all in about two minutes. More than this and you will end up with excess waste which can add to cloudiness problems by causing a bacterial bloom.

Keep your gravel clean. vacuum the gravel when you do water changes. Use bottom feeding fish, shrimps and snails to clean up leftover food

Do not have too many fish. Stick to the inch to a gallon rule but be sensible about it. An inch of Neon Tetra creates less waste than an inch of Guppy. Also remember the snail population. This can quickly expand and they create waste in exactly the same way as fish. An occasional cull may be needed.

Rather than doing large water changes stick to frequent smaller water changes. Change half of your water in one go and you can upset the natural balance of the tank leading to a bacterial bloom as the cycle re-establishes itself.

Most causes of cloudy water can be solved with time and a good maintenance routine. Regular water changes will solve most water quality problems

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

If you found this article interesting and would likemore useful tips on freshwater fish keeping and cloudy fish tanks check out our site www.aquariumhintsandtips.com

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