Most of you know that my sister and brother in-law lives with my Mom and I;well I have a question! My sister has a 30 gallon fish tank and cleans it once a week and after she's done cleaning it the water stays cloudy.We've had the water tested at a local pet store and it was ok.She's also put stuff in the water to clear it up. We live out in the country and so we have well water.
Could be a filter issue. What type of filtration is she using in the tank? How long does the tank stay cloudy? Does the water ever clear up after cleaning? When we clean ours it will be cloudy for a while, 1-3 hrs until the water is all run through the filter. We use a filter that has bio material in it but the filtration pad must be changed every month. On the outside koi pond we use an ultra violet light filter that makes the water crystal clear in about 12 hours(I thought the pond guy was selling me a load of bull and I told him I would return it if it did not work and he said he would give me a week with it and still give me my money back if it did not work..... I saw a difference in less that 2 hours and by the next morning the water was beautiful!!!! I had to apologize for not believing him). Is the cloudiness in her tank from the sediment that is stirred up or is the water cloudy all of the time?
DP, what brand filter is this? I have a small pond (no fish - that would be a buffet for cats & raccoons!!) and I generally add a cup of bleach every week to keep the algae down.
Does she draw the water the day before putting it in the tank? Any sediment should settle. If it's clear before it goes in and cloudy once it's added, she's stirring up sediment in the gravel.
Dr. Jacques Cousteau Leaky :headbang:
Mike,
It is actually called a pond clarifier and uses a UV light to kill microscopic things in the water. We have fishes and frogs in our little pond, aka blue heron feeder, so we can't use bleach. I think the brand is Pondlife??? It was the smallest one because we do not have a large pond. It does not kill the string algae but it stops the blooms and keep other cloudy thingies (technical term :grin: ) out of the water. We had such a problem and the filter with biomaterial just did not clear up the water. We tried all of the things that you add and the little hay bale looking things and still cloudy water. Like I said previously, I thought the pond guy was selling me a load of bull but it worked for our little pond. Kinda pricey $90 for the initial setup and $40 for the replacement bulbs but well worth it for us! My AC guy says that you can get one of those UV thing for your AC and it is supposed to be the best thing for allergies. We may try it out this summer.
PS love the pond. Is that a lined pond or is it a concrete base. The water looks soooooo blue. Love the color. Did you do the work yourself? If so, I have some rocks that need to be moved and arranged...... Just kidding we moved the rocks around our pond after we expanded it last year. We keep dry stacking them but it just never looks like we want it to. It may just be a commitment issue or a mortar fear that keeps us from finishing the work.