Cloudy water- possibilities?
 

Hi,

We are aquarium newbiews. We have a 55gal freshwater planted tank w/
co2 from a fermenter, its been running for a couple months. Its stocked
with various tetras and others (we bought cheapies so no huge loss if we
blow it and wipe out everything). Total fish count is pretty near the
1" per gallon general rule. We have a couple foxes a little pleco (not
the ones that get huge), and some japonica shrimp to work on the algae &
waste. We have a suitably sized filter unit (has the little waterfall
on the output side, mech, carbon and bacterial filter pads inside).

A few weeks ago we developed an algae problem from overfeeding, and ran
the aquarium without lights for a couple days early last week in an
attempt to reduce the algae. Over this weekend we visited family for 2
days, came back and the water is quite cloudy. KH hardness is 4ppm,
Nitrates are 10ppm (up from a bit lower), ph is about 7 (where it was),
phosophates approx 0. Rummynose tetras still have red noses though. So
my newbie judgement is the chemistry hasn't gone off the deep end, the
cloudiness is maybe something small & particulate and not a algae bloom.

But almost all the algae growing on the plants is now gone. We were
wondering if the couple days without light killed it, and now its
floating around making the water cloudy.

The wife insists one of the neon tetras disappeared but I've not come
across its remains- if the body was buried and I uncovered it somehow
during the weekly vacuuming, could that make things cloudy? I would've
expected a nitrate problem in that case but I'm a newb at this...

I'm starting daily 10% water changes in an attempt to clear the water.

Thanks,

Greg