Help!!! Sudden water clouding??

[CrimsonMask]

Hey all,
So this weekend I went on a short road trip, was only gone about 72 hours max. When I got back my tank water was brown looking and extremely cloudy, and my male clown was looking kind of drab. I had the system on an auto feeder and it was otherwise self sustaining for the short time I was gone. I did a 25% water change and that seemed to clear it up a little, but this morning it's right back to cloudy and all my fish are acting subdued. I'm extremely worried about losing fish. It's a 20 gallon fish only tank. Please help!

 

[Tahoe61]

I would test for ammonia if you can. Add new charcoal. Looks more like an algae bloom, but hard to say for certain.
Did the auto feeder introduce too much food?
Were the systems lights left on too long?

And add another o2 source if you can.

 

[CrimsonMask]

The auto feeder was set to a pretty minimal amount but it's possible.. lights were left off while I was gone and I have a pretty strict schedule with them when at home. But just did a 50% water change and it looks a lot better, and replaced the filter cartridges and added a new thing of activated carbon. The 50% was somewhat an accident, ended up cleaning a fair amount of water off the floor lol, but all's good and looking much better. Ammonia levels were somewhat up so I treated for that too. Thank you!

 

[eag]

Looks like bacterial bloom. Run an air stone and see if your fish look better

 

[CrimsonMask]

Looks like bacterial bloom. Run an air stone and see if your fish look better

Thank you I will try that!

 

[eag]

I'm about to go to sleep, so will leave a few notes for you first

Bacteria bloom can cause cloudy, milky looking water. They are often brought about by elevated nutrients. How long were you running your auto feeder before you left? Any chance it malfunctioned?

Bacteria multiply very very quickly, so it is no surprise that it will return after a WC. If you have UV, that would probably knock it out. Otherwise you can wait it out and reduce nutrients.

The real problem is that all that bacteria sucks up the oxygen, and livestock can die as a result. Air stone, skimmer etc should be run in this condition.

Now, this is only my understanding, having read about it and dealt with it myself a couple times. I'm also not certain that it's what you're dealing with... Sometimes snail spawning etc can look pretty bad... But I would think that if you had something like that, the WC would have helped.

Good luck, hope your fish are OK

 

[CrimsonMask]

I'm about to go to sleep, so will leave a few notes for you first

Bacteria bloom can cause cloudy, milky looking water. They are often brought about by elevated nutrients. How long were you running your auto feeder before you left? Any chance it malfunctioned?

Bacteria multiply very very quickly, so it is no surprise that it will return after a WC. If you have UV, that would probably knock it out. Otherwise you can wait it out and reduce nutrients.

The real problem is that all that bacteria sucks up the oxygen, and livestock can die as a result. Air stone, skimmer etc should be run in this condition.

Now, this is only my understanding, having read about it and dealt with it myself a couple times. I'm also not certain that it's what you're dealing with... Sometimes snail spawning etc can look pretty bad... But I would think that if you had something like that, the WC would have helped.

Good luck, hope your fish are OK

Thank you very much for your response. I will have an air stone set up before the night is out, and I'll look into getting a UV sterilizer as well. Appreciate the help!

 

[eag]

I will have an air stone set up before the night is out, and I'll look into getting a UV sterilizer as well.

How are your fish doing? I am worried about them.

The two or three times I had bacterial bloom, I just waited it out. Usually a few days or so, less than a week. I don't think UV is strictly required to fix it, but if you did have one laying around it would likely make short work of it.

 

[CrimsonMask]

The water is MUCH clearer now and they seem unbothered by it. Getting more air into the system seemed to help a lot. I appreciate everyone's advice on this matter! But now I have a new problem... my blue hippo tang seems to be coming down with some sort of parasite, his black colors are slightly faded, he has a white fuzz appearance mostly towards his front half, he is scratching on rocks and the sand substrate, and when he did that the sand stuck to his slime coat like crazy. I'm very concerned about this. Any ideas what he might have? I was thinking maybe brooklynella or velvet...