The Puffer Forum

Hi,

I have had my brackish tank set up for a month or so now, fishless cycled, now I had a problem with the live plants, they looked ok-ish but the roots were STINKING! I put the white-ish murky water down to that. So last week I stripped out every live plant, did a 75% water change and replaced them with silk which look a lot better and smell even better!
A week later and 2 x 25% water changes, still just as murky my levels are

Salinity - 1.004
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - <20
Nitrite - 0
PH - 7.5
KH - 120
GH - 180

My filter is a hang on Aquavital, which I have stuffed with filter floss and even added extra carbon but still no good.

The 8's and BBG's are perfectly happy but I just can't get this water right my snail breeding tank looks cleaner!!!
Any ideas or tips please?

Has your water been murky from the start?
What substrate are you using?
Are you dosing your water wih anything?
Could anything be leaching from your decorations?
what are you feeding your fish?
Do you make sure that the salt has disolved before adding the water to the aquarium during water changes?

Your plants shouldn't die off unless there are toxic levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, metals or hydrogen sulfide in your substrate but if your tank's only been up and running for a month then hydrogen sulfide should not be an issue.

Not murky from the start no, I got the plants from the LFS and TBH, even the ones I put in my DP tank are ropey and there are no problems in there

There's aragonite on the floor, and the new decs were really thoroughly rinsed before they went in

I feed frozen bloodworm, prawn, mussels and the odd snail (not all at once lol), but I remove any leftovers after an hour or so and the bloodworms are always rinsed after thawing and the only thing I dose the tank with is tapsafe on water changes, and I always mix the salt up in the new water on changes

Is the water cloudy? Im sure i read somewhere that cloudy water is just a bacterial bloom. I had that in my tank last week and it cleared up after a few days. Maybe do a search for cloudy water on the forums.

Have you been vacuuming the substrate? Maybe when you are doing your water changes, the debris in the substrate is being disturbed and causing cloudy water?

I hope that's all it is

i'd recommend you do 20% daily water changes until it disappears. Hopefully its just a bacterial bloom and it'll disappear soon. Try vacuum the gravel with your water change too

thanks I have another theory after reading through many posts
I have been putting the salt in the mixing bucket then the water, should it be the water THEN the salt??

Pandora wrote:thanks I have another theory after reading through many posts
I have been putting the salt in the mixing bucket then the water, should it be the water THEN the salt??

It doesn't matter if you add the salt first or second as long as it's dissolved into the water, I personally put the salt in first, add 1 litre of boiling water and mix until most of the salt is dissolved, then I add an extra 9 litres (cold) and start to stir and aereate until all of the salt is gone.

I agree with Indie that it may be a bacterial bloom which means that the problem must be excessive nutrients?

The reason that i asked about decorations was that i was concerned about porous rocks like limestone in the water?

I read about the salt in the marine tank section so thought that may be it

No rocks in there at all so it can't be that, and the Nitrate level is <20 only silk plants

How well did you rinse the substrate before adding? CC/aragonite can be really dusty.

Also, check out this thread: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/sh ... p?t=168848

I had a cloudy water outbreak in our 55g puffer tank 9 months after set up after adding some aged brackish water I had that I wanted to get rid of. It stayed cloudy even after routine Weekly water changes until I changed out the filter pads in the HOB filter. It cleared up within 2 hours.

Ok thanks did another water change last night, still murky, but I'll try changing the pad in the filter and see what happens then, good thread PP

I agree with the bacterial bloom. I have a coil denitrator I made myself and whenever I add some sugar water to feed it, the water gets really cloudy with the bacteria bloom. It clears up in about 3 days. Even though it's cloudy the denitrator keeps it at 0 nitrates.

Pandora wrote:thanks I have another theory after reading through many posts
I have been putting the salt in the mixing bucket then the water, should it be the water THEN the salt??

I did this once and seven days later my water was still cloudy. Now I always put the water first and the salt second. This could be part of your problem. It could also be a bacteria bloom, substrate, etc. I would do my water changes but I would add water then salt and see if that helps also.

Thanks to everyone for the help, I have done many water changes and vacced the substrate well, and now add the salt to the water (in the bucket) and YAY!!! Beautiful clear water it's been good for a few weeks now so I hope it's sorted out

Thank you