cloudy water

[lunasmile]

Hi, I have a small 37 gallon tank with three 2 in loaches, I did a probably 30% water change yesterday, today I woke up and the water is really cloudy. what can I do now?? any suggestions??.

I have a penguin filter for a 75 gallon tank. and there are also 5 little tiger barbs. ok. thank you.

[sophie]

if it's a white cloud then you've probably (a)damaged your biofilter or (b)stirred up a load of previously undisturbed gunk in the gravel. Either way, your tank is undergoing a mini-cycle and the best thing you can do to help your fish is daily water changes. If you're cleaning filter media always rinse it out in some of the old tank water, never wash it under a tap or in hot water.

if the cloud isn't white, I don;t have any guesses...

[lunasmile]

the water is kind of milky. so I will wait until tonigh to see if maybe I moved the gravel from bottom to much or if a damage the biofilter. the fish look ok, they are on front of the tank, but I do not want to give them any stress, thanks again. victoria.

[sophie]

the water is kind of milky. so I will wait until tonigh to see if maybe I moved the gravel from bottom to much or if a damage the biofilter. the fish look ok, they are on front of the tank, but I do not want to give them any stress, thanks again. victoria.

milky is bacterial bloom, so I would do water changes. It's a mini-cycle so it should be over relatively quickly - your existing bacteria are just mulitplying. However their by-products will be damaging your fish far more than the stress of extra water changes.

If the water change you did has caused a mini-cycle, it would probably be a good idea to look at you "housekeeping". How often do you change water, how much do you change out, how do you clean the filter, how thoroughly do you clean the substrate (and what kind of substrate is it?). As a rule, smaller and more frequent water changes are a better idea. It depends also on your stocking levels...