Cloudiness of the water in an aquarium is one of the common problems for both beginners and experienced aquarists. There are many reasons for this problem: from a bacterial outbreak to improper feeding of the inhabitants of the home “reservoir”.
Why does the water in the aquarium become cloudy?
Cloudy water in an aquarium is unsightly and, on top of everything else, very dangerous for the health of the fish. Such a nuisance can happen for several reasons. Improper aquarium care, rotting algae, presence putrefactive bacteria, overpopulation, excessive feeding of fish - these are just the most common causes of cloudy water. This problem may appear due to suspended tiny soil particles that are formed due to careless pouring of fresh water into the aquarium. This is a completely harmless cloudiness; after some time it will disappear by itself when the suspended particles sink to the bottom of the aquarium.
Quite often the water becomes cloudy when you first start the aquarium. This is due to the fact that biological equilibrium has not yet been established in it. In this case, no measures need to be taken. You should wait a little and the water itself will become clear.
Cloudiness aquarium water may be caused by a faulty or poorly designed cleaning system. The aquarium must have a filter. This is especially important when there are a lot of fish in it
Cloudy water in the aquarium: what to do
The water in the aquarium is always alive. Its condition is the result of the interaction of its inhabitants, including algae. That is why it takes time and a competent approach to restore water.
First, you need to identify the exact cause of this problem. If the root of the problem lies in the overpopulation of the “reservoir”, it is urgently necessary to reduce the number of its inhabitants, or improve the cleaning system by purchasing a more powerful filter. It will help maintain biological balance in your home pond. Overcrowding is especially dangerous in aquariums that are not equipped with cleaning and aeration systems. The water in them quickly becomes cloudy, and the fish simply suffocate in it.
If food residues constantly settle on the bottom of the aquarium, its amount should be reduced. Remember: you need to give only as much food as the fish can eat at a time, and not an ounce more! The rule here is: it is better to underfeed than to overfeed. You can also add bottom fish to the aquarium, which will happily eat the leftover food. However, this is only possible if the volume of the aquarium allows it, otherwise you will achieve overcrowding and negate all your efforts to eliminate the problem of cloudy water.
There is one iron rule among aquarists: one liter of water is required for one centimeter of fish. It turns out that only two or three fish can be stocked in a ten-liter aquarium. medium length body
Putrefactive bacteria are another enemy of aquarium cleanliness. They usually appear when there is an excess of food. If reducing the amount of food does not help, you can try not feeding the fish for two or three days. Believe me, such unloading will not bring harm to the inhabitants of the aquarium; rather, it will benefit them. In addition, putrefactive bacteria, deprived of a food source, will simply die.
Cleaning the aquarium is important. You should clean your aquarium wisely. Many novice aquarists, when the water becomes cloudy, resort to drastic measures - replacing it completely. In this case, not only all the water is removed from the aquarium, but also fish, algae and soil. The latter is thoroughly washed, almost sterilized, and sometimes even replaced with a new one. The result is that the water in the aquarium becomes clear. True, not for long: after a month it will become mercilessly cloudy again! In addition, its inhabitants, as a result of such spring cleaning are experiencing enormous stress. For them, this approach is the same as for us a flood, an earthquake and a fire combined.
No need to replace all the water completely! It will be enough to drain several liters of water from the aquarium once a week and replace them with a fresh portion. The soil of the aquarium should be cleaned using a special device - a siphon. Following this simple rule, you can easily keep the water in your aquarium clean for a long time.
The problem of cloudy water may be rapid growth"bad" algae. If food residues constantly accumulate at the bottom of the aquarium or the “pond” receives a lot of light, dangerous algae, which is popularly called “blackbeard,” may begin to grow in it. Getting rid of this scourge is not so easy, but it is possible. Siphoning the soil, frequent water changes, and replanting in the aquarium will help with this. higher plants and snails. The latter love to feast on algae, including the “bad” ones. Over time, the “black beard” will disappear and the water will become clear.
An aquarium in the house is not only an opportunity to be closer to nature, but also a way to escape from pressing problems. In turn, such an artificial reservoir and its inhabitants require a lot of attention. One of the top issues among aquarists is the frequent cloudiness of the water in the tank. There are several reasons why the water in an aquarium quickly becomes cloudy:
- frequency of water changes;
- natural biological processes in water;
- overcrowded reservoir;
- putrefactive bacteria.
To find the answer to the question of why the water in the aquarium turns cloudy and green, it is recommended to carefully analyze the composition of food products for fish. Avoid dry ones completely. The inhabitants of the aquatic world eat dry particles rather poorly, which provokes the appearance of putrefactive bacteria. The remains of the feast can clog the water, remain on long time at the bottom, causing cloudiness in the water.
Solving the problem is quite easy; it is important to follow a few basic rules:
- If you give dry food, then only in minimal portions.
- Snails help deal with leftover food. Therefore, if there is a problem, you should think about purchasing these representatives of the aquatic world.
- Introduce it into your diet. For example, bloodworms can be given in the amount of 3–4 worms per fish.
- Give preference to the coret, a transparent larva that can live in the aquarium for quite a long time without clogging it.
Overcrowding of the tank is also one of the most common reasons why the water in a fish aquarium becomes cloudy. Since the waste products of a large number of individuals become an ideal environment for the generation and reproduction of putrefactive bacteria. Tips for maintaining optimal conditions:
- In a 3-liter tank, the number of individuals should not exceed 3 pieces. Medium size fish for such an aquarium are no more than 5 cm.
- Provide a sufficient number of plants in the aquarium.
- Sometimes the cloudiness goes away on its own. In this case, it is caused by fish burrowing in the sand.
Self-cleaning tank
If the turbidity is caused by waste products or waste, you can observe the water purifying itself. The process is quite clear. When there is an excessive amount of food debris or other particles in the water, other microorganisms take over the work. As a result of their activity, ammonia decomposes into less toxic nitrates and nitrites. Subsequently, these toxins turn into gases and evaporate from the liquid. Thus, natural water purification takes place. If you break the chain, you get the exact opposite result.
Constant biological processesIn a home artificial reservoir, as in a natural one, processes of the birth of some microorganisms and the death of others continuously take place. Residues of food and waste products are the main answer to the question of transparency and purity of water.
Advice from experienced aquaristsIf you had to look for a solution to the problem of why the water in the aquarium becomes cloudy and what to do, you should listen to the recommendations of experienced aquarists.
- Do not change the water completely. When the liquid is completely replaced, the water will become cloudy even faster due to disruption of the vital activity of bacteria and other inhabitants, and the reproduction of single-celled organisms.
- Minimize the amount of food you eat. Sometimes it won’t hurt to stop feeding altogether for 2-3 days. There will be no harm to the fish.
- Remove any remaining dry food and rotting algae in a timely manner.
- Thoroughly and carefully wash all decorative elements, pebbles, and algae.
- Monitor the quality of water purification. The filter should be cleaned systematically. It is also recommended to purchase an additional cleaning device.
Cloudy water in a fish tank is one of the most versatile problems, disturbing both novice amateurs and experienced professionals. They try to find out the reasons by using variants of errors and various trials.
They can be different, ranging from bacterial outbreaks, abundant nutrition, to inconsistent water changes. At the same time as it happens quick fix turbidity pathogens, balance biological in nature comes to normal condition pretty quickly.
There are cases when the death of waterfowl, plants and microorganisms occurs that are invisible to the naked eye.
The first thing you need to do is find out the symptoms of cloudy water, the second thing is to eliminate them.
Possible reasons
Many people wonder why the water in an aquarium becomes cloudy if it has a filter. It may happen that on the first day, a biological constant environment has not yet formed in the container. A “bacterial explosion” is caused by a maximum growth spurt of microscopic organisms that are single-celled and constantly multiply. There is no need to introduce the fish on this day; it is best to do this after 2-3 days.
At the moment the microflora is balanced, the liquid in the container becomes crystalline and clean. There is no need to take serious action; the problems will disappear on their own. If a decision is made to change the water again, it will again become cloudy and unsuitable for waterfowl.
After 4 to 7 days, the water in the aquarium will become completely suitable for living. To speed up the process, you can add a little “living” water from an old aquarium.
The next reason for the cloudiness of the liquid is considered to be poor-quality filtration. To do this, it is necessary to come up with a good supply of oxygen; this must be done quite quickly, before the young individuals have time to get used to their new location.
If you have a low-quality filter, it should be taken into account that it does not allow food debris and pieces of dirt to pass through, thereby provoking the formation of decay products. In this case, the water very quickly begins to smell unpleasant and can cause many diseases.
There are 2 reasons for this problem:
- Mechanical.
- Biological.
Mechanical factors
In this case, the water may become cloudy due to the presence of a huge number of microparticles. They usually arise due to the filling of the container with the products of the vital activity of various microparticles living in the aquarium.
Such reasons include poor-quality care of the container, poor cleaning, extremely rare additions of water and much more.
Biological reasons
Any liquid contains various microorganisms. Most of them actively help the aquarium tank and its inhabitants. Fungi effectively help decompose dead organic matter, and bacteria assist in processing all kinds of poisons. If all sorts of disruptions occur, the biological balance is disrupted and the water begins to change color.
As a rule, it becomes cloudy after starting. After the whitish turbidity settles to the bottom, everything will return to normal. If the color of the liquid in an established aquarium changes, then this is due to the fault of the owner himself (poor quality care, oversight and other reasons).
Also the occurrence of water white may happen after medical procedures. This is explained quite simply: chemicals have next action– disturbance of biological balance.
How to eliminate turbidity in water
- The first thing you need to do is change the water on time and regularly.
- Second, carry out timely cleaning of the aquarium.
- Third, do not overfeed the inhabitants of the aquarium tank.
Important! In a newly started aquarium, there is no need to change the liquid. If such a need arises, this should be done in small quantities.
Another point is that almost all trading companies have drugs that adjust the balance of a biological nature.
There are 2 types in trade:
- Producing neutralization of poisons.
- Developing various useful drugs.
Available various means, helping to neutralize biological equilibrium:
- Snails and fish, which act as orderlies, are excellent in maintaining the biological balance.
- The use of multifunctional filtration will greatly improve the quality of your water.
- Using real herbs will help bring the biological fluid balance back to normal. It will perfectly help reduce the concentration of decay of living organic matter.
It should be remembered that its cloudiness can occur due to for all sorts of reasons. The most harmless of them may lie in the rise of the smallest particles from the bottom; this can occur when the fish actively move or the liquid in the container changes.
However, there are various reasons of a different nature, during which the water in the container becomes very cloudy.
Green liquid
The appearance of a green tint indicates the rapid proliferation of microscopic algae. The main reason This trouble is an overabundance of bright light. Quite often, its oversaturation (even artificial) leads to the appearance of green liquid in the container and the appearance of similar algae.
To eliminate this problem, you need to move the container to another location. If this step does not bring positive result, you should install a good and strong filter, it will help clean the water from all kinds of nitrates and phosphates.
Whitish or gray color
If the water changes to a whitish (gray) color, the cause may be due to clogging of the gravel mass. To eliminate such reasons, the gravel soil should be thoroughly washed before laying. This procedure will help get rid of this type of trouble. If the problem does not go away, you should use the strongest filter to help improve the quality of the liquid as much as possible.
Brown water
This problem can arise when there is excessive placement of wood products in the aquarium. Soaking wooden objects will help get rid of this problem; adding activated carbon to the water is ideal.
Other colors in the aquarium
In some cases, water acquires other, more original colors.
In such a case, there are various options:
- The use causes a change in color medicines, for example, acriflavine. Later certain time It is necessary to filter the liquid especially carefully. Great help here activated carbon.
- Quite often the water is colored by gravel of various colors. If all sorts of shades appear in the liquid, the same activated carbon will help.
- There are often cases when, when feeding large-sized fish, food may simply slip out of their gills; breeding snails, shrimp or catfish will help here.
Other reasons for discoloration in an aquarium tank include:
- Overpopulation.
- Excess algae.
- The soil should be placed in the container after it has been thoroughly processed.
- It is best to install the container large size. In this case, a balance of a biological nature is better established in it.
- The fish do not need to be overfed. If this does happen, it is necessary to take all measures to clean up the uneaten food.
- Don’t forget about the water pump and clean it in a timely manner. In addition, it is necessary to wash the hoses.
- Those who are involved in this matter quite seriously should acquire various equipment: a kit for cleaning the container, various brushes, a siphon for cleaning, and all kinds of tests for analyzing the aquatic environment.
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A real problem for beginners who have just entered the aquarium and are faced with this difficulty.
Therefore, let's begin to understand the problem and ways to solve it in order.
To begin with, we can say that there are two types of turbidity in an aquarium: biological and mechanical, or both combined.
Biological turbidity, an outbreak of protozoa due to their chaotic reproduction.
Newbies will think: “what does this mean”?
I’ll explain it in a simple way, without clever phrases.
You just started an aquarium. You have it fresh and clean with new water, etc.
The water contains the simplest ciliates, amoebas, etc. (remember biology lessons)
So they begin to quickly multiply in fresh water, it turns out that we ourselves, due to their size, do not see them, but we see turbidity. Most often whitish in color.
If we have fish living in our aquarium, or we put a snag, or added fresh water, then this can also provoke such an outbreak, the proliferation of protozoa.
Which in principle is quite logical. Give it something to eat and there will be growth and reproduction.
An important factor is also the presence of light, especially bright light.
Putting together what was written above, we can conclude the following, in order to get rid of such dregs, you just need NOT! replace water with fresh water(This main mistake which aquarists do is a sudden change of water with fresh water). Reduce to the utmost minimum or do not feed the fish at all for a short period of time, remove from the aquarium various props that can decompose, thereby providing additional and nutrients the simplest, and shade the aquarium.
As a rule, if you do what is written above, then within three to four days the dregs will disappear.
Also, cloudiness in the aquarium can be caused by a general lack of maintenance of the environment, dirty water, the presence of uncollected food, dead fish, as well as food such as cabbage leaf or banana peel, milk or dairy products entering the aquarium.
It’s the same panacea, but you first need to get rid of the provoking factor, which provides a breeding ground for the protozoa.
Physical dregs.
Remains of rotted plants, fibers, silt, leftover food, driftwood, etc.
All this is a consequence of improper aquarium maintenance or filtration.
Plants should be checked every day during daily maintenance and any damaged parts should be removed.
In case of overfeeding, the remaining food is removed immediately after the fish is saturated, and the area of soil where the food fell is also removed.
The soil also siphons during aquarium maintenance.
Driftwood is treated to remove rotten parts in the same way when servicing an aquarium.
Therefore, all of the above factors indicate that the aquarist is not careful, rather than about problems in the aquarium environment.
Water filtration was invented to help aquarists. Basically, with the help of filters, in case of minor problems, it is possible to avoid mechanical turbidity in the aquarium. If this does not happen, then you either have not been serviced, or do not have enough power, or the filtration of water in the aquarium is not established at all.
In any case, the presence of mechanical haze is an indicator of your incorrect actions.
Also, cloudiness in the aquarium appears when the aquarium is generally overloaded with fish.
Therefore, do not overload the aquarium, keep an eye on total number fish and the required volume for keeping certain individuals.
This also includes keeping fish in an aquarium that like to poke around in the soil.
These include some types of cichlids.
Fish that are not advisable to keep in an aquarium are goldfish and all subspecies of goldfish. Not only do these fish dig up the soil, raising clouds of silt, but they also have quite specific droppings that promote the reproduction of protozoa.
Therefore, when keeping goldfish, you need very good filtration and the required volume for keeping, as well as balanced feeding.
Water coloring.
The fact is that coloring water is not turbidity.
These are solutes. The water can be stained by some dry and low-quality food, decorations and driftwood.
If the water is stained by driftwood, releasing tannins into it, then this is nothing to worry about, the question is that some types of driftwood, for example, oak, lower the pH, which may not have a very good effect on the inhabitants, but this is a completely different question.
After several water changes in the aquarium, the concentration tannins become smaller, and as a rule the water becomes lighter.
If paints from food or decorations accumulate in the water, then there is nothing good about it; you need to change the food and get rid of the decorations.
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Answers the question:
Our expert in fish breeding and aquarium care
Hello!
Help me figure it out, please. After changing the water in the aquarium, it became cloudy. I tried everything possible: changed the water again, cleaned the walls of the aquarium, washed the filter, but the condition of the water did not improve.
The aquarium is not new, it was launched a few months ago. What can cause the appearance of turbidity and how can it be eliminated?
If the water becomes cloudy after a change, there may be several options for why this happened. Some aquarists immediately begin to panic and use everything available methods to eliminate turbidity. And they make a global mistake. First of all, you need to calm down and pull yourself together. Rash actions will only make the situation worse.
One of the most common reasons is a banal suspension of soil particles. Inaccurate water changes can cause microscopic fractions to rise. They can float chaotically in the water for a long time, thereby causing a cloudy effect. In this case, you don’t need to do anything - soon the soil particles will settle and the water will become clear again. Mud can be raised by the inhabitants of the reservoir, in particular cichlids, veiltails or goldfish.
A common mistake newbies make is refilling water after a recent replacement. You do not allow the environment to settle down; moreover, you start the adaptation process anew. That's why don't rush into action. Observe, and if nothing but turbidity bothers you, give aquatic environment come back to normal.
Another reason for cloudiness is the content in tap water nitrates in large quantities. Therefore, in addition to preparation (settling and filtration), before pouring, you should check the water for “suitability” using special tests that are sold in any pet store.
If the water is not only cloudy, but also greenish, then this indicates the proliferation of algae. The issue may again be an excess of nitrates, as well as an excess of lighting. Try to arrange for the fish fasting days, depriving the algae of their nutritional base. Feed no more than once every 2-3 days and carefully ensure that the food is eaten within 5 minutes.
If the water has white or grayish tint, then most likely the gravel was not washed well. Sometimes this color is obtained by water containing heavy metals. Therefore, it is better to replace 20% of the total volume, and after a week - another 10%.
If there is no improvement, treat the soil with a siphon. Please note that you cannot wash the soil with water - this will remove friendly microorganisms that utilize harmful substances. Take out the filter, wash it thoroughly and add activated carbon. Do not forget about aeration of the tank, which promotes the rapid oxidation of food for bacteria - organic matter.
With bacterial turbidity(when the water has bad smell) helps fight Elodea tubularis. There is no need to root it. For the same purpose, it is recommended to use bicillin-5. Dilute it at a dosage of 5000 units per liter of water. Treat the tank for 3 days.
Biological turbidity eliminated by sterilization (ultraviolet or ozone). Sometimes ericycline (50 mg per liter of water) helps. Among other things, acid phosphates help destroy harmful bacteria. If this measure does not bring results, then you will have to change the soil.
