Cloudy water after cleaning canister filter?

[pedzola]

Wasn't sure to put this in loach or freshwater forum, but since its an issue w/my loach tank I thought this was appropriate...


Ok, so heres the deal: I cleaned out my eheim 2028 on Saturday. Changed the mechanical media and took out a phosphate pad that was in there. Cleaned all the gunk out and lightly rinsed the bio media.

The following day, Sunday, all is well, and I do a regular 25% water change.

This morning (Monday), I go look at the tank and it's all cloudy!


CLOUDY. Like a bacteria bloom.


My UV sterilizer is running like usual... I dunno what it could be. I opened up the sterilizer and it was clean... nothing blocking the UV from hitting the water. So the only other thing I can think is maybe the increased flow from the clean filter is keeping the water from spending enough time in the sterilizer, so it's not as effective?


What else could this be? Should I put carbon in my filter or go out and buy another phosphate pad?

I'm baffled.


- Chris

[angelfish83]

Cleaned all the gunk out and lightly rinsed the bio media.

What did you rinse it in?

If it was tap water there's your answer, if it was tank water you overdid it.
If you've got another tank, transfer media out of there into this tank, otherwise dont feed for two days then start to feed lightly and it'll work itself out. monitor your ammonia and nitrite.

You know you never rinse or change all the media right? Half is moderately insane, usually a third is recommended.

[pedzola]

Hmmmm....

I never CHANGE the media... I didn't think there was anything wrong w/rinsing it though. I have always been under the impression that the beneficial bacteria sticks to the media and the gunk is just rotting stuff that you gotta clean out once in a while.


I have always cleaned my filter like this.

Now you got me scared! I'm gonna go check ammonia and stuff like that. And I just fed the buggers too... ;(

In any case - how would an ammonia/nitrite spike cause cloudy water?

None of the fish are acting in any way abnormally so I am doubtful this is the problem.... but I'm gonna go check anyway.

[adampetherick]

Hmmmm....

I never CHANGE the media... I didn't think there was anything wrong w/rinsing it though. I have always been under the impression that the beneficial bacteria sticks to the media and the gunk is just rotting stuff that you gotta clean out once in a while.


I have always cleaned my filter like this.

Now you got me scared! I'm gonna go check ammonia and stuff like that. And I just fed the buggers too... ;(

In any case - how would an ammonia/nitrite spike cause cloudy water?

None of the fish are acting in any way abnormally so I am doubtful this is the problem.... but I'm gonna go check anyway.

it might just be where you cleaned the gunk there were some loose bits, When i last cleaned mine I put the in/out hoses the wrong way round and got a load of crap come out the intake end.

[mikev]

Hmmmm....

I never CHANGE the media... I didn't think there was anything wrong w/rinsing it though.

If you rinsed it using the tap water which contains chlorine, you killed a lot of bacteria. If the cloudy water is indeed caused by the bacteria coming back to life, having the UV running may make things worse.

So, if you discover ammonia or nitrites, turn off the UV until the spike is over.

The other possibility for cloudy water is that you simply did not rinse well enough and some junk from the filter got dumped back into the tank. This is not a problem, filter will suck it back in.

hth.

[angelfish83]

Most of the bacteria is actually on the upper layers of the gunk. its on whatever layer has the most contact with water, and if thats not where it is it will try to migrate there. That's why you rinse the media in tank water, to reduce gunk (killing most of the bacteria by washing them away to be flushed to oblivion) and let the bacteria start anew (of course SOME were left) on the clean(er) biomedia. If you let the gunk build up too much, you reduce the viable surface area and make it difficult for the bacteria to maintain a foothold. Also many of them are blasted off with the gunk back into your tank etc etc...

Long story short, bacteria are on whats in contact with the water.

[pedzola]

Thanks guys.

Lucky for me I've got...

0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite

And modest nitrates of around 10 as usual.

And yes, some gunk did get spit back into the tank, I know.... but the tank was not cloudy at that point... that stuff settles and gets filtered out pretty quick.

It was a day later that i noticed the tank had become very cloudy.

We'll see if it clears up tomorrow. *shrug*

[pedzola]

Oh yah and our well water has no chlorine or etc. It's very good water. I do not use water conditioner on every change.

Only when I do the filter im paranoid I might have washed away *too much* bacteria... and I put in some Prime.