Troubleshooting

Cloudy Water | Green Water | Redecorating | Invertebrates

Cloudy Water

Cloudy Water is probably the first thing that new and old fish keepers notice. The tank takes on a not so clear look. Sometimes it only looks like a few bits floating in it, other times the water might as well be milk. There are a few accepted reasons for this.

The first question is of course how long has your tank been set up. If less than 3 months your tank is probably still cycling. Check the ammonia level, most likely it is kind of high. Do partial water changes every few days for at least 2 weeks, testing every few days. Also reread on Cycling.

If your tank is mature, yet it is cloudy, did you change a large portion of water while vacuuming or replace the filter cartridges? Changing too much water, or more precisely vacuuming the gravel too much can sometimes give you cloudy water. It means you disturbed the bacteria that processes your fishes waste. The same thing happens when you change a filter cartridge at the same time.

The second question is do you have large fish in a small tank? As to the large fish theory. This mainly works with Plecos, Oscars, Pacu, Goldfish, Koi, Kissing Gouramis, or other fish known to grow in excess of 8 inches. A fish that size puts out a lot of waste. It may just be it puts out so much waste the tank can't handle it all and you end up with low level ammonia at all times, or just a cloudy tank from all the waste. Larger filters often do not fish this problem beacuse the actual problem is that the water volume is insufficient to maintain the fish. Generally the only solution in this case is to rehome the fish or get a larger tank.

Green Water

There are several levels of this, as well as causes. Water can be a green that's nice and faint, or it can be so opaque green the fish can not be seen. There's one upside to this though, generally algae blooms do not hurt the fish, and that is all green water is, an algae bloom. Algae blooms happen in nature any time the conditions are good, meaning enough food and enough light. Algae feed on several things in the tank.

The green water algae most noteably appears after someone dumps too much food in the tank, or a fish mysteriously disappears to rot under that castle. The annoying thing is it can happen a few weeks after such a thing happens as well, if water changes were not done to remove the food or the fish was not found. The algae only grows because it is getting the two things it needs, food and light. If you cut off either one generally the algae subsides.

As to cutting off the food, try first doing a few partial water changes, vacuuming the gravel each time to make sure your nitrates are nice an low. If the green weater persists, test your replacement water, if possible test it for phosphates, which are heavily implicated in causing green water. Also, some water conditioners still use phosphates, so check that as well. Phosphates in tap water can be a seasonal thing, as agricultural runoff generally has a lot of plant fertilizers, which of course causes great algae blooms, not just in tanks though, ponds and oceans are also as negatively affected by fertilizers and other food dumped into them.

if your water does turn out to have phosphates in it, invest in a phosphate pillow. it sits in a filter and sucks the phosphates out as the water is filtered. It shoud clear up the green water by starving it.

Another cause of green water is sunlight. If your tank gets any sunlight, that is probably why it is green. One proposed solution to green water is turning the tank lights out and wrapping the tank in a towel for a week. Feed lightly, and algae that was caused mainly by light will probably die off. To keep the algae dead, do not leave the light on more than 10 hrs a day, and block off the back and sides of the tank with black paper or background sheets.

One last way to combat green water is chemically. The reason it isn't the most recommended is that it is a TEMPORARY fix. The water will still have the conditions to grow the algae so you will just have to keep treating it. Also, some algae destroyers can harm sensitive fish, plants, and most kill snails or other invertebrates.

Redecorating

Everyone gets bored with decor eventually, or if you just feel you've outgrown the bubbling treasure chest and day-glo gravel this section is for you. Here's the best piece of advice on changing around a tank. Don't be in a hurry. The fish are not going to appreciate the change as much as you are.

If all you are replacing is decor, meaning anything but gravel, just change it a few pieces at a time and you'll be fine. I wouldn't pull all of it at once, but maybe half at a shot should be fine.

If you are replacing gravel it is going to be harder. Gravel has a tendency to be a heavy home of your bacteria. Since it houses your bacteria you don't want to just dump it no matter how ugly it is. The best way to change it would be in thirds. Drain about a third of the water while siphoning out the gravel with your gravel vacuum with teh big end removes so all you have is a tube. Replace the missing gravel with well washed new gravel. You want to avoid clouding the tank or burying any fish obvioulsy. I'd give it 2 weeks between each gravel removal. You'll probably end up with a little of the old gravel left, but the fish will thank you, especially if you can avoid letting the tank clouding up.

Invertebrates

There are quite a few kinds of freshwater invertebrates available in various aquarium shops. Some are good fish tank mates, and others are going to cause problems, either by eating their tankmates or going on walks at inconvenient times.

Sadly the ones that often don't do great in tanks are also the more often seen. Most noteably Red Claw Crabs and Fiddler Crabs do not do well in tanks. Both would do much better with access to land. They need to periodically inhale air to do best. They do nicely in a ten gallon with about 2 inches of filtered water on one side and a sandy bank with branches and such on teh toerh end. of course that tank needs a securely fitting screen cover, as crabs are very good at climbing. These guys are also very good at catching fish. They like to do it at night, when the fish are sleeping near the bottom.

Another one often seen that does not do well with fish are crayfish. Like the crabs they can go on walks, but they are worse in their efforts to eat fish. They get larger than the crabs, and are much better at hunting fish. They also would do well in their own tank, at least 10 gallons, though they don't need land, but would appreciate at least one cave. Don' forget the filter and tight fitting cover.

On to the animals that do better with fish. Now keep in mind that in general any animal will eat any other animal that happens to fit in its mouth. Ghost Shrimp, Amano Shrimp, Bumblebee and Bamboo Shrimp are generally considered fish safe. The first three rarely get more than 2 inches log, while the Bamboo Shrimp can get to almost 5. The Bamboo is only safe at full size because it does not have claws like other shrimp, they have been modified into filter feeding fans. The other three are safe because they have very small claws, but can still snag fry. The Amano is actually considered a good algae eater as well as being somewhat interesting to look at and larger than the other "dwarf" shrimp.

One other class of invertebrates is commonly kept in tanks, and those are snails. There are also several types of snails, each with its own positives or negatives. One group is commonly referred to as Apple Snails. This group includes the Apple Snail, Mystery Snail, Inca and Striped Ramshorn. These all get between 1 and 3 inches wide in shell size, eat live plants and fish food, and can only reproduce with 2 snails. One will not normally create a plague. Several will lay eggs above the waterline.

The other snails are generally considered nuisance snails, they include the Red Ramshorn, the Malaysian Trumpet, and the Common Pond Snail. Of these, all three can reach plague proportions, but only really if you overfeed the tank. Generally the snails won't reproduce like mad if there isn't enough food to do so. These are also often snails you won't find for sale they normally are gotten off of plants. Of the plague snails I've found Malaysian Trumpet to be the most useful. They will eat fish eggs, but they are invalueable in sand substrate tanks keeping it stirred up adn clean. As long as I don't look in the tank at night I can pretend there aren't too many in there.

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