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Cloudy Water & Dead fish... SOMETHINGS WRONG!

3K views 17 replies 9 participants last post by  livingword26 
#1 ·
Hey guys,
So I've had some cloudy water in my tank, and not having a c02 system yet and dosing extra ferts I figured it was just a suspended algae bloom. Now I'm beggining to think its a bacterial bloom!?!? :icon_frow I noticed my rasboras were acting a little funny and were actually schooling tight... then I just found a dead one on my filter. A few others look pretty washed out so I need to do something. How would I go about treating this and how would the treatment effect my inverts (only a snail and 2 shrimp so i can move them). I'll post a pic in a sec
 
#5 ·
Wow I would start doing massive daily water changes and if that doesnt help clear this up start dosing mellafix or general cure and continue the changes, I have no idea what that is but as the others have said water changes do wonders i had a similar problem and assumed algae and did 80% ish water changes and in a week it cleared up and guppies stopped dying, oddly enough a ram and neons survived but 5 guppies died
 
#15 ·
It wasn't a flame.

Bacterial bloom does not equal bacterial infection. They're completely unrelated, actually. Melafix is actually pretty potent stuff so dosing it for no reason isn't needed.

A bacterial bloom is related to the nitrogen cycle. The tank is not cycled and water changes are the key.

Stop feeding for several days, too. They'll be fine(better actually) if you do.

I'd do 80% water changes up to 3 times a day, but you need to test to know where things are.
 
#9 ·
Okay I am no expert by any means, but I had a bacterial bloom and read everything I could on how to get rid of it. If that is what it is I don't think that water changes can fix it. The bacteria in the water column multiply so fast that you would need to be doing water changes hourly just to keep it in check. If my info is incorrect, please let me know. After a month of bloom with no success I put a new bulb in my UV and it was clear in 3 days. And I love doing water changes. I do them every few days.
 
#10 ·
well I did a 50% WC so we'll see how it goes. Looks like my water tub I usually use for water changes was full of murky water as well... So i went out and got some new R/O water. I'm prob going to dig up my test kits tomorrow to see what the problem is.
 
#13 ·
It is a very new tank, and I kind of jumped into a largish bioload which is why I think the ammonia would be high. About 4/5 weeks old... The only things I am dosing are flourish excel and flourish comprehensive supplement (ferts).

I feed my fish about 3 times a day but only in small amounts (trying to resemble the wild). They usually eat it all within 30 secs to a min but lately I put a little bit more in, so that could have caused a little spike as well.
 
#17 ·
You have to know for sure what the ammonia, nitrite and nitrates are. If you cannot get a test kits immediately, then you need do large water changes until you get them.
 
#18 ·
RO water is not good for planted tanks. I believe it removes some of the minerals that plants need. If your tank is 100% RO water, you cannot change it all over at once, it may shock your fish, but you can begin mixing a small percent of tap water in with the RO for the water change. Gradually increasing the amount of tap water per change.
 
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