Water suddenly became "milky" advise needed!

[MiamiCuse]

Hi I did a 50% water change today at noon.

Last water change was a week ago.

I did not do anything different. The only thing I did extra was I pulled off the top of the tubes from my UGF and inserted the hose for the water change all the way down there in an attempt to remove the junk from down there.

Then I feed the fish and left for a few hours. I just came back and the water is really murky almost milky. I have never seen this before.

The fish did not seen to be stressed, or at least there is none that I could observe.

I am going to do a water test now and then need to decide if I should change the water again.

Not sure what to do.

[Drip Loop]

Ive read that rapid changes in aquarium water can stress the beneficial bacteria in your tank and cause them to cloud up. I would do nothing for awhile and observe.

If I were to guess, the water you added must have been different than the water you had in there. Could be wrong, just a hypothesis.

[Drumachine09]

Bacterial bloom. Just keep doing small waterchanges every day until your bloom dies down.



In the mean time, you need a better filter. UGFs just won't cut it.

[Drip Loop]

Oooh, I didnt catch that. Yea, UGF are very outdated imo.

[MiamiCuse]

should I change that water now or hold off?

I just did a water test:

ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate around 5ppm
ph 7.9

I am surprised at the nitrate being 5ppm I think I tested it twoi days ago and it was less than 5ppm and I have plenty of plants in there. How can I have more nitrate after a 50% water change?

Should I do anything? Will the fish be ok?

My tank was fully cycled weeks ago!

[Drumachine09]

Test daily. If your ammonia or nitrites pop up, do a waterchange.


The problem is with your filter. You need a decent HOB or cannister, depending on the size, and bioload of your tank.

[Drip Loop]

nitrate in that concentration is acceptable. If you have any plants in the tank (which I doubt you do considering you have a UGF) they would eat the nitrates up. However in your case, those readings all seem fine. I wouldnt do anything. (except to replace your filter)

[MiamiCuse]

Should I move the fish in that tank to another tank while I wait for this to "settle"?

I have plenty of plants, some planted in the gravel some floating and a bunch of java moss just hugging into rocks and stones.

[Halelorf]

They will be fine with those nitrates. Just keep a eye on your ammonia and nitrite.

[Drip Loop]

The root structures will eventually cause issues with the undergravel filter.

In regards to the milky water. I wouldnt worry about the fish. Just monitor them for any stress. Doing more of a water change again most likely wont help matters. If you have a photo it wouldnt hurt to link it.

[MiamiCuse]

is it because of my sticking the hose down the UGF tube, resulting in emptying out the good bacteria down there and encouraged the bad bacteria to bloom?

or is the bloom containing both good and bad bacteria?

I assume the milky water means the bacteria is in the water?

Should I increase or decrease my aeration?

[hannah.maxfield@hotmail.c]

Don't fret

water turns milky normally in the first few days but will clear in a round 4 days

i've found a site to show u....check out:

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Lady Hobbs]

Water will clear up by tomorrow probably. You just removed a bit of the bacteria is all and will be fine.

[pinsonpa]

MiamiCuse,

Your UGF may be the culprit here and if it's not, theres a good chance it will cause problems soon enough. I know you've already heard this a thousand times (and not just in this thread) but IMO you really should start planning ahead now to upgrade your filter in the near future. I recall you doing some research on HOB (hang on back) filters not too long ago...what did you find out? The world isn't going to come to an end if you don't upgrade your filter, however, I can all but guarantee that it will make your life a lot easier with regards to your aquarium.

You still have a 10 gallon, right? For about $35 you could get an Aquaclear filter (example, not an endorsement) that would make a big difference in your tank. If you did it now you could leave the UGF in and just throw the new one on the back and you'll probably clear up the water in an hour or two. Then when you do take out your UGF, your new filter will already have plenty of bacteria in the filter medium.

I know you aren't crazy about having to change out your UGF (cause it's not the most fun thing to do in the world) but you could probably do it all in 45 minutes (remove half your water, take out your fish and plants, take out the UGF, replace the gravel, replant your plants, add in some fresh water with some conditioner, turn on your new HOB filter.)

I have a Penguin 125 Bio Wheel and while I haven't had any problems with it I've heard plenty of horror stories (bio wheels suddenly not spinning, etc.). When I upgrade I plan to buy one rated for a much bigger tank so when I upgrade to a 30g tank I'll already have a filter big enough to handle the job.

No pressure Miami, I'm just thinking out loud:c3:

[Lady Hobbs]

Good idea! I used my UGF for about a month and couldn't stand them. Out they come.

[MiamiCuse]

Water will clear up by tomorrow probably. You just removed a bit of the bacteria is all and will be fine.

Well it cleared up this morning, so it was only cloudy for about 12 hours. Does it mean anything?

A bloom does it mean I have more bacteria then before the water change?

[MiamiCuse]

pinsonpa:

I still have the 10 gallon, and also a 25 gallon now, next to each other. I have UGF in both.

I know UGF is not desirable. I am still looking. I assume if I remove the UGF and start a new filter I will need to cycle my tanks all over again?

I really don't like the ones that hang on the back side of the tank. I am taking a look at canisters and have a hard time figuring out the difference between a cheap one and an expensive one. I saw this one on eBay:

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Not sure if it's any good, I need to do more investigation obviously.

I assume I can run two tanks to one canister filter? I will have to run some PVC pipes to both tanks and then to a Y connector into the canister and back out the same way?

[Lady Hobbs]

You can gently slide the UGF's out without much problem and without losing your bacteria. I don't believe you'd want this filter. It doesn't even give the brand name and I can't find what kind it is or even how much the shipping charges are. You have to watch these places on ebay as they can really add on shipping charges.

I would just get a couple Aqua Clears. They do a good job, are easy to get to, give good filteration on tanks your size and good water flow. I'd save the canisters for larger tanks.

[Taurus]

Keep it simple! An Aquaclear 20 for your 10 gallon tank and an Aquaclear 50 for your 25 gallon tank should be sufficient. There should be enough beneficial bacteria in your tank at this point so that when you do remove your under gravel filter, the filter media in your Aquaclears should populate with the bacteria.

[MiamiCuse]

Well, I don't know, I just hate to have that giant gadget hanging on the back of each tank, and I do plan to have a larger tank again, so my reasoning is why not get a large capacity canister and run all the tanks through it instead of one per tank, and I can hide the canister under some cabinet that would be hidden away.

I am doing the aeration this way, I got an air pump for 60 gallons and are pumping both tanks.

Is there any reason why a canister filter for multiple tanks would be undesirable?

I can think of...

(1) more plumbing to set up.
(2) if I have bad water in one tank it will be spread to all tanks.

[wezel815]

just reading this now, i have both a ugf hooked up to a powerhead and hob more than sufficient for my tank size with a couple small plants. now i have like 1/4 inch of gravel over the filter. do i ever need to remove and clean the ugf considering i got a powerhead to it? and how often

[pinsonpa]

MiamiCuse,

I don't know much about the canister filters. As Lady Hobbs said, those are typically for bigger tanks (and therefore out of my league). As for having one canister filter connected to multiple tanks...The two downsides you mentioned are pretty big ones in my opinion.

1. If you have a problem in one tank it will spread to the others

2. The plumbing (I personally would rather have and HOB filter on the back of my tank than a bunch of PVC pipe coming down in from the top). I put a black background on the back of my tank and the HOB filter is really hard to see (and would be even harder to see if it was clean). I've attached a picture of it.

I've never owned a canister filter so I don't know if it's even possible to have one set up to filter several tanks. Additional problems I can think of would be if your only filter goes down, you're up %#@$ creek without a paddle. It leaves you without a working tank to house the other fish in an emergency. If you were out of town when it happened, well I don't even what to think about it.

Maybe some canister filter owners will chime in with some thoughts on how feasible it would be to to it (or if you should). My theory is pure speculation.

[skinni]

im no expert by anymeans but i have considered this concept... i wont go into a long explination but i have just about decided to just purchase multiple canister filters rather then one really large one. I have a Rena Filstar XP2 on my 55 gallon and i love it. if i could get my hands on an XP1 for cheap i would def run that on my 18 gallon and remove my hang on whisper filter