Hm....cloudy water?

[Chrona]

My 10 gallon fairly heavily planted tank recently started getting pretty cloudy. I haven't added anything and it currently holds 3 cardinal tetras, 1 tiny angelfish, 1 guppy and a small siamese algae eater, along with 4x 2 week old guppy fry in a seperated corner, and I am running a Whisper 10 with the biofoam stuff and the carbon removed. I do a weekly 50% water change in 25% increments (add in 25% water, wait 30 min and add in the rest). Ammonia and nitrite is at 0, nitrates at a little less than 5, and virtually no phosphates. My pH is at about 6.5 now and my hardness when I last checked was something like 4 dGH

To try to clear up the water, I've put the carbon back in for a few days, bought Seachem's Purigen when that didn't work, used Tetra's Water Clarifier (which works great in my other tank) every 48 hours as recommended, and still nothing. I don't think it's algae because I tried leaving the light off for a full 24 hours, and the tank gets virtually no light, and it was just as cloudy in the morning. And of course, several gravel vacuumings. The fish and the plants are all doing great, so this is really just for aesthetic purposes, but I just can't figure it out :/

The only thing I can think of is when I added Melafix a week and a half ago. The tank still kinda smells like the tea smell that the stuff has, but I've changed at least 75% of the water since then, as well as put in the carbon for a few days, which is supposed to remove the medications.

Any ideas?

[deckard_wa]

My thought reading your post was a bacterial bloom. Have you done anything recently that could have upset your nitrogen cycle? Changed filter media or washed it in tap water? Anything that could have killed some of your BB?

Or it could just be residue from the Melafix. I put some anti-fungus meds in my O tank as a precaution a few weeks ago and it took 2 or 3 water changes to clear.

[Cichlid_Man]

I feel it is the melafix.

What is your water temp.
Melafix will cloud your water especially if it is on the warm side, but can cloud the water even if temps are normal. 72-78.

Continue water changes. Do 25% changes every other day and change your filter media.
If you can add filter floss to your filter do that also, but be sure not to totally change everything in the filter at one time.
I don't know how your filter is set up, but in my canister filter I use bio max and filter floss and I NEVER change the bio max. Bacteria grows and stays there.
STOP the water clarifiers, they are no good.

[Chrona]

Temp is at 76 degrees. As for bacterial bloom, I haven't noticed any spikes in readings recently, so I don't think it is that. I haven't changed the filter setup in a while, because the filter floss rarely gets clogged, the biofoam just always stays in there, and 100ml of Purigen is supposed to treat 100 gallons for 6 months, hehe.

I'll try doing some more water changes. I thought carbon is supposed to remove all meds? Sheesh, thats the last time I'm using Melafix :rolleyes:

Thanks guys