Cloudy water after water change

"Victor M. Martinez" wrote in message
...
I've been meaning to post here about the cloudiness that sets on my
large
tank after I make water changes and fertilize the plants. The small
tank
doesn't get it, just the big one. Yesterday I changed about 30% of the
water and fertilized with Fluorish, Fluorish Iron, Fluorish Excel,
plus I
added some Freshwater Trace. Like clockwork, the water started turning
cloudy about an hour after the water change. This morning it's cloudy,
but
it should start clearing this afternoon. I also cleaned the filter
(Eheim), rinsing all the media in it.
One interesting aside is that everytime I make a water change, some of
the
usually shy clown loaches come out and hang out all over the tank.

Anybody else get cloudiness after water changes?

Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv



I thought I remembered this.....and I tripped over a possibility. It
really has to do with your dissolved C02 levels in your tank and how it
behaves with CaCO3 (Calcium Carbonate). To make a long guess
short.......If your dosing right after a water change...if your CO2
level drops CaCO3 will/could come out of solution and manifest itself as
milky white pooh until it can dissolved back into solution....which can
be a little while. Does your change water contain elevated amounts of
dissolved CO2? Mine does here in MN....

Or can you think of anything that would alter the CO2 level dissolved in
your tank when this happens?

Or even some other chemical reactions could occur that could cause CaCO3
to come out of solution temporarily, but I am no Science wizard.......

"Racf" wrote in message
...

I thought I remembered this.....and I tripped over a possibility. It
really has to do with your dissolved C02 levels in your tank and how it
behaves with CaCO3 (Calcium Carbonate). To make a long guess
short.......If your dosing right after a water change...if your CO2
level drops CaCO3 will/could come out of solution and manifest itself as
milky white pooh until it can dissolved back into solution....which can
be a little while. Does your change water contain elevated amounts of
dissolved CO2? Mine does here in MN....

That's a very interesting train of thought.

My tank has quite high disolved CO2 (around 25ppm due to injection) whereas
the tap water is very low (around 3ppm).

I normally balance alkalinity between new/tank water, but the disolved CO2
will be quite different. Not enough to cause much of a hiccup with the pH
due to the dilution and effect of the CO2 controller, but possibly enough to
give rise to a chemical reaction causing the tank to cloud for a while.

Thanks for the post. Experimentation to follow :-)


Graham.

Racf wrote:
be a little while. Does your change water contain elevated amounts of
dissolved CO2? Mine does here in MN....

Hmmm... it might, but I'm not sure.

Or even some other chemical reactions could occur that could cause CaCO3
to come out of solution temporarily, but I am no Science wizard.......

Actually... a change in pH would. That's probably it! Thanks!

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

"Graham Broadbridge" graham at peachy dot org wrote in message
u...
"Racf" wrote in message
...

I thought I remembered this.....and I tripped over a possibility.
It
really has to do with your dissolved C02 levels in your tank and how
it
behaves with CaCO3 (Calcium Carbonate). To make a long guess
short.......If your dosing right after a water change...if your CO2
level drops CaCO3 will/could come out of solution and manifest
itself as
milky white pooh until it can dissolved back into solution....which
can
be a little while. Does your change water contain elevated amounts
of
dissolved CO2? Mine does here in MN....

That's a very interesting train of thought.

My tank has quite high disolved CO2 (around 25ppm due to injection)
whereas
the tap water is very low (around 3ppm).

I normally balance alkalinity between new/tank water, but the disolved
CO2
will be quite different. Not enough to cause much of a hiccup with
the pH
due to the dilution and effect of the CO2 controller, but possibly
enough to
give rise to a chemical reaction causing the tank to cloud for a
while.

Thanks for the post. Experimentation to follow :-)


Graham.




There are some interesting articles in the APD archives...You can google
into it very quickly.