cloudy water

[bluejenn]

I hope someone can help me. I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank. I have approximately 6 fish in the tank. It has been set up and running for approximately 5 months. I only have the light on for 2 to 3 hours in the evening. The tank just started to get cloudy and has gotten worse every day. I took a sample of water to the store that i purchased my tank from and they tested the water. everything was in the normal range. I have vacuumed the gravel once a month and taken a fourth of the water out and replaced it once a month. I only feed the fish about every 4th day. I have not lost any fish since the first month. I have tetras, barbs, and 2 swords. Can any one help me?

[Shaner]

Hello, welcome to badmans
we can help you but we need some info:

you say approxamently 6 fish, is it more or less, or 6. When the store said fine, did they give you any numbers in parts per million or ppm?

Are you adding anything to the tank, fish, chemicals or otherwise?

Also we here strongly encourage weekly water changes of at least 50%, have you been following your current tank maintence for the last 5 months?

any more info will help alot

 

[bluejenn]

There are 6 fish. I am not using any chemicals in the tank. I have been doing the monthly water change since the tank was started. I can not remember what all of the numbers were to all of the tests, but i do remember that the ph was a 7. The girl at the fish store added the chemicals to the vials of water and showed me how she compared them to the cards to find out what the levels were. She told me that the ammonia, nitrogen, and Ph were where they should be.

[Shaner]

alrighty then, here is what you need to do, start with small water changes every day, say 10-15%, do that for a few days in a row, then up them to 25% every day for a few more days in a row and then move to 50% once a week, you cant just change all your water out at one time because you will end up shocking the fish stress them out and possibly kill them, you will need to do small changes to start, then get on a good weekly plan.

Also get your self a API Freshwater Master Test Kit, and start testing your water daily so you know what is going on during this process.

Think of it like this, you live in a tiolet bowl, would you like the water flushed once a month or a couple of times a week?

This should take care of your cloudy water as long as there are no other issues, but with out certain test results we wont know for sure, the kit cost about 25 -30 bucks in the stores, well worth it.

Get the kit test the water, post the results and let us know 

Remember Fresh water Fish love Freshwater