Cloudy Tank

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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PUFFERBABIES08
Puffer Fry
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Cloudy Tank

Post by PUFFERBABIES08 »

OUr tank has gotten all of a sudden really cloudy. (Salt water tank)WE change the water and add salt but it gets cloudy once again.
My husband recently bought a new filter for our freshwater tank and moved it's old filter to the puffer tank. The filter was changed and the ammonia rocks were also changed and rinced. We change the water on average once a week in varying percentages.

It's a 26 gallon tank.

Ammonia 0
pH 7.5-8.0
Kh 120-180
general hardness 180
salinity: 1.014

Inhabitants: 1 spotted puffer, one sandsifting starfish, a few hermit crabs, 4-5 ghost shrimp (that have apparently become our puffers friend because he doesn't eat them. But he does eat other stuff). a couple of snails. There are no plants in our tank. We have three live rock in the tank.

We feed the fish every 2-3 days an alternating diet of dried shrimp, blood worms, mysis shrimp, and krill.

Help! WE don't know what to do!! We've had this tank over a year!
:shock:
Marie

Mommy to my puffer babies Brat and Spoodle.
RIP Lady - (Jumped the tank. Found on the floor expired)

[img]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/ ... Pacman.jpg[/img
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by Pufferpunk »

[welcome]
Your SG isn't SW, it's high BW & way too low to support true SW life, like that starfish, hermits or live rock. Inverts are VERY sensitive to inproper parameters. Please also post your nitrite & nitrate.

Also remove the ammo rocks, they are preventing the ammonia that needs to feed your biological fitration. It's messing with the cycle.

Is the pH 7.5 or 8? That's a HUGE fluctuation. Same with the KH--which is it 120 or 180? Aim for 180.

If that puffer is an adult, then that tank is too small for him. He will eventually eat the hermits.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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PUFFERBABIES08
Puffer Fry
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 8:48 am
My Puffers: 1 Spotted puffer in our 26 gal tank and one tiny spotted puffer in a 5 gallon tank.
Location: Kissimmee, Florida
Contact:
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Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by PUFFERBABIES08 »

No3- 0.2
No2- 2.5
Marie

Mommy to my puffer babies Brat and Spoodle.
RIP Lady - (Jumped the tank. Found on the floor expired)

[img]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/ ... Pacman.jpg[/img
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PUFFERBABIES08
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Posts: 6
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 8:48 am
My Puffers: 1 Spotted puffer in our 26 gal tank and one tiny spotted puffer in a 5 gallon tank.
Location: Kissimmee, Florida
Contact:
Contact PUFFERBABIES08

Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by PUFFERBABIES08 »

You suggest removing ammonia rocks. is that forever or just until the tank cycles? OUr starfish is doing fine.
Marie

Mommy to my puffer babies Brat and Spoodle.
RIP Lady - (Jumped the tank. Found on the floor expired)

[img]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/ ... Pacman.jpg[/img
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Pufferpunk
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Posts: 32976
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Greenville, SC
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Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by Pufferpunk »

That's forever. Your tank won't cycle with them & won't need them once it's cycled. The starfish is fine--for now... Inverts need SW, not BW. Your liverock will continue to die off too.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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PUFFERBABIES08
Puffer Fry
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 8:48 am
My Puffers: 1 Spotted puffer in our 26 gal tank and one tiny spotted puffer in a 5 gallon tank.
Location: Kissimmee, Florida
Contact:
Contact PUFFERBABIES08

Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by PUFFERBABIES08 »

myhusband just said we don't have live rock. I was mistaken.
Marie

Mommy to my puffer babies Brat and Spoodle.
RIP Lady - (Jumped the tank. Found on the floor expired)

[img]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/ ... Pacman.jpg[/img
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PUFFERBABIES08
Puffer Fry
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 8:48 am
My Puffers: 1 Spotted puffer in our 26 gal tank and one tiny spotted puffer in a 5 gallon tank.
Location: Kissimmee, Florida
Contact:
Contact PUFFERBABIES08

Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by PUFFERBABIES08 »

What should the pH be?
Marie

Mommy to my puffer babies Brat and Spoodle.
RIP Lady - (Jumped the tank. Found on the floor expired)

[img]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f174/ ... Pacman.jpg[/img
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ladyonyx
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Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by ladyonyx »

Whether the pH is 7.5, 8.0 or in between isn't nearly as important as the pH being stable. A stable pH reading anywhere in that range should be just fine
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Jivenjune
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Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by Jivenjune »

Likely, the ammo chips are causing your cloudiness--this is especially true if what you are seeing is a white, milky type of of cloudiness. The ammo-chips need to be rinsed thoroughly before being used, and I really mean thoroughly. In one of those smaller boxes of ammo-chips that you can buy for roughly five dollars, you'll need to rinse the chips roughly 15-20 times thoroughly. For whatever reason, these rocks are loaded with some type of residue that just soils water with a milky stain.

I've used them in an 80 gallon cichlid tank only to find myself having major regrets. It consequently led me to do large water changes until I could isolate the problem; my cichlids suffered because of my own carelessness.

I would recommend not using the product. It's supposedly an alternative method of biological filtration, but it's much easier and likely more safer to just let your tank cycle properly and do weekly water changes as needed.
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pufferfreak
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Re: Cloudy Tank

Post by pufferfreak »

Ammo rocks are only for FW an in my SW tank the ph is 8.2. Also have you had the SW animals for over a year too?
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