I’m honestly a bit baffled...

[Mspringer]

At this point I have dealt with an ammonia spike to .5 and some seriously milky cloudy looking water in the last week and I’m not sure I can explain why. Today I noticed that the glass seemed to be developing a calcium type looking build up on it that I had to scrape off. I haven’t had any of this previously.

So a few weeks ago I had a very stable 38 gallon main tank. I moved one of two AC50s to the right side of the tank rather than them both being on the left and things got even better. After that I began looking into what it was going to take to get some additional plant growth in the tank. I was already dosing seachem flourish twice weekly but started also dosing excel daily per the directions. I got some additional plants and put 6 total root tabs in the tank. At one point I decided to rearrange the plants and at the same time moved a couple of the root tabs. I have done three water changes in the last 2 weeks and when cleaning the filters I noticed one of the older pieces of poly fill was almost dissenigrstinf so I squeezed it out good into the old media and then discarded it. The following time I changed water I did the same but with a piece of media from the other filter that was falling appart. I noticed after the second water change that the water never cleared up. Then a day later I noted an ammonia spike. I dosed with prime and it immediately came back down. The water never cleared up so a day later I did a water change of 50%(previous WCs mentioned were only about 25-30%). It has now been two more days and the water is still cloudy and I noticed what appeared to be calcium build up in the glass that I’ve never had before. Water parameters as of last night still looked good no ammonia, no nitrite 5-10 nitrate.

Did a cloudy release of nutrients from the tabs when I pulled them out of the substrate and relocated them cause this instability/cloudiness/ammonia spike? Did the discard of filter media cause it? I thought the discarding of media could explain the spike and the cloudiness because often the water becomes cloudy as the bacterial colony establishes but then tidsybehen I noticed the calcium build up I began to question if it was some how related to the root tabs.

As I said I’m a little baffled at this point. Fish still seem healthy no losses other than one of 3 otos.

Also keep in mind these filters and the tank have been established for well over a year at this point.

[Mspringer]

It won’t let me edit, that should say dissenigrated.

[Mspringer]

And when I say I squeezed it out I mean into the other media that would remain, and then discarded the piece that was falling appart.

[Mspringer]

And in the third to last paragraph that should say today I noticed...not sure where the other gibberish came from.

[Mspringer]

And in the third to last paragraph that should say today I noticed...not sure where the other gibberish came from.

Acrially “today when I noticed”

[Slaphppy7]

Are you posting through your phone?

My guess is the ferts are throwing the chemical balance in the tank out-of-whack...stable all of this time, then you start adding chemicals...more than a coincidence, I bet

[Rocksor]

Find the ingredients on the root tabs. I'm pretty sure the calcium/mineral build up is from something you introduced to the tank recently (excel, root tabs, etc.)

The cloudiness is the result of removing part of your heterotrophic bacteria colony in the old media, digging up the substrate as you move things around, as well as a combination of adding the new items that introduced more nutrients into your tank. Simply squeezing the old media won't remove all the bacteria in there.

[Mspringer]

I have added flourish and excel for some time now just got excel again recently so I hadn’t added it in a bit but it is something that had been added previously.

Just looked at the root tabs and site enough they have like 14% calcium that’s a huge amount compared to flourish which is .14%. My guess is moving root tabs is a big no-go. Note to self...once a root tab is in don’t move it. There was quite a cloud of nutrients that came off the tabs when I moved them I think that’s what did it.

I’m going to change some water again today I think and keep a close eye on the parameters. If the water doesn’t clear up within another week and/or I continue to get calcium build up I think I will remove or completely discontinue the use of the tabs.

[Mspringer]

Find the ingredients on the root tabs. I'm pretty sure the calcium/mineral build up is from something you introduced to the tank recently (excel, root tabs, etc.)

The cloudiness is the result of removing part of your heterotrophic bacteria colony in the old media, digging up the substrate as you move things around, as well as a combination of adding the new items that introduced more nutrients into your tank. Simply squeezing the old media won't remove all the bacteria in there.

Specifically to the point of squeezing the media I didn’t expect it to move all of the bacteria but figured it couldn’t hurt and it’s one the the things I’ve done previously when I removed media without issue. I know you never really know where the bacteria is hiding but you’d like to think most of it hangs out in your ceramic bio media...

I think I removed some from each of them too close in time to one another and maybe two much at one time. I felt comfortable with it at the time because I had done it before but obviously didn’t pan out in this case.

I am used to some cloudiness in the water after a water change and vacuuming gravel or moving decor due to the debris that’s kicked up but that typically only lasts a few hours. I believe I’m coming up on a week for sure several days now with the cloudiness in this case.

[Mspringer]

Are you posting through your phone?

My guess is the ferts are throwing the chemical balance in the tank out-of-whack...stable all of this time, then you start adding chemicals...more than a coincidence, I bet

I agree. Thought I was doing a good thing for the tank trying to get some more love plants going but I think I did too much at once. Especially discarding some media at the same time. Too many variables.