Ok I'm perplexed beyond belief. I have a 10 gal tank, with a heater and filter.
I regularly test my water and all readings are normal.
I vacuum the gravel, clean the plants and hiding places.
I've tried water clearing stuff from the pet store.
I've done 50% water changes, cleaned everything top to bottom then a few days later the cloudiness is back.
I have one betta and 6 small cories. All fish seem to be doing fine, (other than one cory who looks like he just broke one of his fins...and he is the one the betta chases from time to tome)
Anyone have any suggestions I would appreciate it.
I have gravel that came with the tank (I did clean it when I first setup the tank and I vacuum it weekly)
I have a TopFin 10 filter that came with the tank
I cleaned the filter and replaced the carbon filler 1.5 weeks ago
The tank is about 4 months old
No live plants
Nutrafin Bioclear is the water clearing agent.
Do a lot of water changes, like 25% per day at least. If you can get ahold of a bottle of nitrifying bacteria, it'll help kick-start your "re"-cycle.
When you change out a filter cartridge in the future, "squeeze" the old one over the new cartridge, so that some of the bacterial colony will transfer. Additionally, you can add some of the bottled bacteria I already mentioned, to try to keep your filter "alive" in between media changes. In larger aquariums, I usually prefer a "bio-wheel" power filter which prevents this from happening.
you can also take the old filter, replace it with the new one, and put the old filter BEHIND the new one. It'll eventuallly transfer a good amount of that beneficial bacteria over to it.
It probably is bacteria bloom. I don't have any personal experience with dealing with them, myself.
The most common method, is using a flocculant, such as nutrafin bioclear. The key to dealing with using a flocculant is actually to avoid excess water changes. Instead, if you are sing the floucculant, for 7 days, perform no water changes. The flocculant will cause the bacteria to stick together and turn into larger masses that stick together. It will get sucked up by your power filter.
INSTEAD, every day, rinse your power filter in old tank water, OR treated tap water (tap water treated with conditioner). Rinse that filter, and rinse it, and keep rinsing, but do NOT add fresh tap water to it.
Do that every day, follow the rest of the directions on the flocculant you have (I believe the nutrafin says somethign like, add it to the tank, and in 1-2 hours you might see more of a bloom, then after 7 days, if not cleared up, treat again). It will clear up.
Adding more chemicals to the water, ESPECIALLY when those chemicals instruct the user to abstain from performing water changes, never have seemed to me like a good answer for anything.
Flocculants in water clarifiers are actually sort of like Nitra and Nitrospira. They allow a net for colloids to bond to, by allowing them to bond to eachother, and they become sheets, webs and flakes of bacteria instead of clouds. They then get sucked up directly into the power filter, and you (the owner) clean them out from there. Changing the water daily dillutes the flocculant, and doesn't allow a proper netting, and in turn, they continue spread and disperse stages throughout the aquarium.
It is really a fantastic process that allows [most] water clarifiers to work.
Luckily, I've never had to use one.
Last edited by Tinthalas Tigris; 04-28-2010 at 01:36 AM.
**Meant to add also, how they are sort of like the Nitra and Nitrospira PRIMERS you get in products like "Nitroban" from tetra care. They don't actually have a bacteria in them. Just the flocculation agent.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
