clear for 4 years now cloudy for months ?

Hi all,

I always thought I had quite a green (wet) thumb - great clear water - rare
fatalities - great plant growth - hardly a drama in the 1st 4 years or so of
my tanks life...

but yes - got a bit slack in the last 12 months - not changing water as
often as I should...
a few weird pesky stringy weeds started to appear...
my plants were just hanging in there rather than growing healthily...
a few deaths... lost my 2 khuli's, and my last few neons... tank now only
has guppys - still breeding like rabbits though.
quite a number of snails...

so i decided to get it back to its old glory - went on a ruthless snail
cull - went back to regular weekly 20% water changes with 50% gravel
vacuuming. and voila - my tank went from a clear unmaintained junkyard to a
tidy clean CLOUDY exhibition. :-(

I was sticking to the old adage of regular water changes will cure 99% of
all tank problems - so have just been doing this for the last 2 months - but
to no avail - still cloudy.

HELP ????

I'm thinking my snails were eating all the decaying plants and now that they
are gone that is what is clouding the water ?
though there isnt really to much decaying plant material around... ???

I've been feeding the guppies every 2nd day - minimal amount of food.
Should I stop dosing CO2 ?
Should I stop fertilising after water changes ? (iron & potassium)
I bought 2 CAE's 5 days ago - they are going like champions... munch
munch...

HELP AGAIN ???
thanx.
Steve.

"Steve Michie" wrote in message
...

Hi all,

I always thought I had quite a green (wet) thumb - great clear water -
rare fatalities - great plant growth - hardly a drama in the 1st 4 years
or so of my tanks life...

but yes - got a bit slack in the last 12 months - not changing water as
often as I should...
a few weird pesky stringy weeds started to appear...
my plants were just hanging in there rather than growing healthily...
a few deaths... lost my 2 khuli's, and my last few neons... tank now
only has guppys - still breeding like rabbits though.
quite a number of snails...

so i decided to get it back to its old glory - went on a ruthless snail
cull - went back to regular weekly 20% water changes with 50% gravel
vacuuming. and voila - my tank went from a clear unmaintained junkyard to
a tidy clean CLOUDY exhibition. :-(

I was sticking to the old adage of regular water changes will cure 99% of
all tank problems - so have just been doing this for the last 2 months -
but to no avail - still cloudy.

HELP ????

I'm thinking my snails were eating all the decaying plants and now that
they are gone that is what is clouding the water ?
though there isnt really to much decaying plant material around... ???

I've been feeding the guppies every 2nd day - minimal amount of food.
Should I stop dosing CO2 ?
Should I stop fertilising after water changes ? (iron & potassium)
I bought 2 CAE's 5 days ago - they are going like champions... munch
munch...

White cloudy is normally a bacterial bloom. Suggest you ease up on the
gravel vacuuming & reduce the water changes o a 10 maintenance dose & let
everything settle down for a month or so. Ease the CO2 back a bit & reduce
the ferts a bit. Sometimes it pays to leave well alone!

I.

"Iain Miller" wrote in message
...
White cloudy is normally a bacterial bloom. Suggest you ease up on the
gravel vacuuming & reduce the water changes o a 10 maintenance dose & let
everything settle down for a month or so. Ease the CO2 back a bit & reduce
the ferts a bit. Sometimes it pays to leave well alone!


I agree - bacterial bloom for sure.

ok - ease up on vacuuming...
reduce water changes to ??? 10% of volume ? fortnightly ?
maintenance dose ????

Think I might even let this pesky string weed grow - cant make things any
worse... ???

Thanx for ur sugestions.
Stevo.

Algae blooms can look white and cloudy with the tank lighting on in the
early stages. Look through the tank from the side with the tank light off.
If the water has a greenish tint, it's an algae bloom. The fresh water from
the water changes may be providing nutrients for the algae to thrive, along
with the decaying wastes from the period of infrequent maintanence. I
bought a diatom filter for problems like this.

"jim" wrote in message
m...
Algae blooms can look white and cloudy with the tank lighting on in the
early stages. Look through the tank from the side with the tank light
off. If the water has a greenish tint, it's an algae bloom. The fresh
water from the water changes may be providing nutrients for the algae to
thrive, along with the decaying wastes from the period of infrequent
maintanence. I bought a diatom filter for problems like this.

well, my tank has cleared up nicely - 95% clarity - its still not crystal
clear when looking thru the side (4ft of water) but its a massive
improvement on what it was.

for anyone else that has similar probs - the following did the trick for me.

switched off the CO2
added zero fertiliser(s)
reduced lighting to 2 x 4ft tubes for only 1 hour per day for 2 weeks
fed every 2nd day
did ZERO maintenace and ZERO water changes

have had the lighting back to 6 hours per day for the past week - and
everything is still good.
still no CO2 - i will try a 10% water change this weekend
baby steps...

thanx all for ur previous input
cheers.