Be wary of any product that promises to clear up all fungal diseases or water problems. If
you do not have a good quality product made specifically for one disease, you could
severely damage or kill your fish.
Cloudy water? You're not alone. First thing that you have to remember is that every tank will have
a cycle. During this cycle you may notice a slight cloudiness that last any where from 2-5 days. This
is especially true if you have just started your tank.
If the cloudiness appears immediately or within the first hour, try testing your waters pH and
ammonia levels (you can buy a kit for this at any pet store). If one or both turns up high you have
two choices-treat the water and test again in 24 hours or use bottled water. If your levels are fine,
your gravel may still be dirty. Empty your tank, rewash the gravel until the water runs clear and set
your tank up. Many times, your tank will become cloudy a week or more after you have first set
it up. This most likely is your 'good' bacteria establishing it's colony. Over time this will clear up.
If you have a persistent problem or have an established tank that becomes cloudy, there isn't one
answer that I can give you that will be the 'cure-all', however, given certain conditions, you can usually
narrow it down to a few causes.
If Your Water is Green:
In a word....algae. There are several causes for a sudden out break of algae. For each of the
following solutions you'll want to do a partial water change. Take about 1/3 of the water out and
replace it with clean water. Remember, try not to do more than 1/3 every 24 hours; chlorine and
other substances in the fresh water could become toxic if too much water is added. The most common
is too much light. Your aquarium needs between 10 and 12 hours of light. This is easily fixed by
putting your lights on a timer. Another cause of too much light is sunlight; make sure you tank is not
get hit by direct sunlight. If you've tried both of these solutions and after a few weeks you still have
a green tank, you may not be getting enough biological filtration. Is your bottom feeder big enough to
eat left over decaying food? Do you feed too much or low quality food? Do you need to vacuum
your gravel? Correction of these are simple and fairly inexpensive . You've done it all and a few
weeks later, you still have an algae problem. It's time to test your water again. Test your water at
the tap. You could have a high phosphate level. High phosphate levels are usually caused by over
feeding, low quality foods, or other decaying matter (such as, live plants, too much excrement, and
veggie left-overs). But, if this is not a problem in your tank, it could be from the water source itself.
Run your water for 10 sec., and take a small sample in a clean jar and take it to your local pet store.
Places like Petco and PetSmart will test your water for free. If it turns out that you have high
phosphate levels in your water you may need to use bottled water. Hint-buying distilled water from
the grocery store in 1 or 5 gallon quantities is a lot cheaper and the same water as they sell in pet
stores. AVOID products that promise to clear your tank of algae. These are chemicals that are made
to "eat" organic material and will devastate your bacteria colony and if they run out of things to eat,
the enzymes will start working on the slime on your fish resulting in burning or eating of the flesh of
your fish. These products are only for ponds and large algae INFESTED areas.