Cloudy Water

[Jolly Mon]

This weekend I cleaned my tank, changed the filter, vacuumed, etc and the water has been cloudy ever since. Why is it happening and how do I clear it up?

[Laura Ann]

Well, it depends. What kind of substarate do you have? I use crushed coral, and it sometimes makes the water a bit cloudy when I clean or rearrange the tank.

Also, are you adding anything to the water? I know that there is Transclear, which is what I use to clear my water. Real cheap too.

What kind of filter do you have? Can you change the filter speed any? If you can, bump it as high as it can go. This will help get the water clearer. I do this when I clean and vaccum my tank because the substrate makes the water cloudy.

[Georgia Peach]

when you say, cleaned the filter, what did you do?? You may have lost some of your bacteria and your tank may be going through a mini cycle..

[fish_doc]

Usually when someone says a cloudy tank they mean the tank is a milkey color. If this is correct you are most likely dealing with a mini cycle or a bacterial bloom.
In either case do frequent - small/partial water changes and avoid the store bought chemicals that claim to clear this stuff up.

[Scy64]

Same thing happened to me recently. I personally used Water Clear by Jungle, and it worked pretty well. I also did partial water changes often. I finally broke down and did a huge water change (85%), and carefully washed the filter. Now my tank is crystal clear.

[girth vader]

up the flow in your filter, replace the carbon and do a cpl of 30% water changes. should clear up within a week, although if you didnt rinse the substrate well before you set up the tank you may have this problem every time you vac the substrate. Is this a well established tank? did you use flourite as a substrate because that requires a few good rinses before introducing into the tank or you will get this everytime you vac for awhile. either way should clear up as mentioned above.