Cloudy Water Issue..

I've had the tank setup for 16 days now. The only inhatitants are a male
and female betta. This pm (when I turned on the hood lamps) I noticed the
water was very cloudy. I have 4 plastic water lillies, a plastic am.sword
and a bunch of silk phillidendrum, 60# of pea gravel and a driftwood (real)
about 26 inches long. I'm cautious on over-feeding. The tank was setup
using Hagen's Cycle.

Is it possible the silk plants are bleeding off anything? I'm stumped
here....Any thoughts? Better still any solutions? I don't have the vortex
diatom unit ordered yet. Thanks for your attention....ED

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 01:24:51 GMT, "MEAlston"
wrote:

I've had the tank setup for 16 days now. The only inhatitants are a male
and female betta. This pm (when I turned on the hood lamps) I noticed the
water was very cloudy. I have 4 plastic water lillies, a plastic am.sword
and a bunch of silk phillidendrum, 60# of pea gravel and a driftwood (real)
about 26 inches long. I'm cautious on over-feeding. The tank was setup
using Hagen's Cycle.

Is it possible the silk plants are bleeding off anything? I'm stumped
here....Any thoughts? Better still any solutions? I don't have the vortex
diatom unit ordered yet. Thanks for your attention....ED



My guess, either algae or bacteria, in either case it will probably
clear on its own in a week or so if left alone, do lots of water
changes and you can keep it going for a long time.

I used diatom filters many years ago, I prefer the HOT magnum with the
micron filter. It seems to clean the water just as well, and is much
more convenient, unless they've changed the Vortex since I had mine.

Thank for the tip...can you point me in a direction towards this HOT magnum
filter?

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 01:50:03 GMT, "MEAlston"
wrote:

Thank for the tip...can you point me in a direction towards this HOT magnum
filter?



A bit about it he

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx

or the short version

http://tinyurl.com/n2czb

WalMart has a similar item, identical as best I can tell, just a
different name.

Of course other people sell it as well, this is just from a site I had
bookmarked.

I found the Magnum Canister filters @ AquariumGuys..Thanks again.

MEAlston wrote,
I've had the tank setup for 16 days now....
This pm (when I turned on the hood lamps) I noticed the
water was very cloudy. .....

A cloudy milky white color would be a bacterial bloom - your tank is
cycling. Cycling (nitrogen cycle) is the biological process that turns
fish waste and uneaten foods (ammonia) into nitrite and nitrite into
nitrAte. ((Nitrosomonas bacteria eat oxidize ammonia (uneaten foods and
fish waste) with the by product, nitrite. Nitrobacter bacteria consume
nitrite - end product is nitrAte, which is removed by weekly water
changes)). What your seeing is the population explosion of the
bacterias - harmless and will go away as soon as the bacteria colonies
"catch-up" to the food within the tank.

The tank was setup
using Hagen's Cycle....

Waste of money - tank would have cycled without the use of Cycle just
as fast as with it!

I don't have the vortex
diatom unit ordered yet.......

If the water is turnning a cloudy green in color, it's an algae bloom -
your seeing the algae spores. Green water is due to very high plant
nutrients within the water and too much light or direct sunlite. It can
be filtered out with a diatom filter or micron cartridge filter, or
killed with an ultraviolet sterilizer......... Frank

my fish bowl appear to be cycling! i just got home from work and
noticed the fish bowl is VERY cloudy so did a water test:

ammonia 0.25
nitrate 0.25
nitrite 5

think it's because I washed everything out in hot water yesterday...but
didn't think it was cycled in the first place. Going to do a 50% water
change now to bring the ammonia and nitrate down and more tomorrow if
nesscary.

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 01:24:51 GMT, "MEAlston"
wrote:

I've had the tank setup for 16 days now. The only inhatitants are a male
and female betta. This pm (when I turned on the hood lamps) I noticed the
water was very cloudy. I have 4 plastic water lillies, a plastic am.sword
and a bunch of silk phillidendrum, 60# of pea gravel and a driftwood (real)
about 26 inches long. I'm cautious on over-feeding. The tank was setup
using Hagen's Cycle.

Is it possible the silk plants are bleeding off anything? I'm stumped
here....Any thoughts? Better still any solutions? I don't have the vortex
diatom unit ordered yet. Thanks for your attention....ED


It will go away once your filters have caught up with the cycling
process. I stupidly changed a filter ina 10 and 6g tank without using
the old part. Went cloudy for about 10 days. Then presto!!

LArry

Yeah....I unplug the filter while I feed the betta pair. After 5 minutes, I
turn it back on and you can witness the filter just spew this cloud of
whatever as the filtered water spills into the tank. I did a water change
today ('round 6 gallons) I've done this twice this week now. I here to
leave it alone...and then I hear to change about 10 gallons weekly. I've
been teatering on the edge now since the setup.

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:18:28 -0400, Larry wrote:

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 01:24:51 GMT, "MEAlston"
wrote:

I've had the tank setup for 16 days now. The only inhatitants are a male
and female betta. This pm (when I turned on the hood lamps) I noticed the
water was very cloudy. I have 4 plastic water lillies, a plastic am.sword
and a bunch of silk phillidendrum, 60# of pea gravel and a driftwood (real)
about 26 inches long. I'm cautious on over-feeding. The tank was setup
using Hagen's Cycle.

Is it possible the silk plants are bleeding off anything? I'm stumped
here....Any thoughts? Better still any solutions? I don't have the vortex
diatom unit ordered yet. Thanks for your attention....ED


It will go away once your filters have caught up with the cycling
process. I stupidly changed a filter ina 10 and 6g tank without using
the old part. Went cloudy for about 10 days. Then presto!!

LArry

At 16 days with only two small fish I would be thinking more about
bacteria bloom than silk plants. Where are you at in your cycling?
Like what are your ammonia/nitrate/nitrate readings?

-- Mister Gardener

Everything Aquaria & Tropical Fish at The Krib:
http://www.thekrib.com/