Hi everyone,
my tank has experienced cloudy water for the last 2-3 weeks, despite weekly water changes and there are many possibilities for it. I was wondering what is the most likely reason, and/or how can each one be fixed?

I have a 45 gallon tank with 5 goldfish, a Aquaclear 200 with two sponges, and a Filstar XP350 with the works, as far as media goes.

The first reason I thought was because I changed the filter from an Aquaclear 500 to the two filters I mentioned. I actually cut the sponge of the Aquaclear 500 to fit into the Aquaclear 200, in an effort to keep the good bacteria in there. But, I had been prepared for a re-cycle. I added the new filters around Feb. 3rd and despite adding Cycle and keeping the seeded sponge, the water is still cloudy. (It developed a cloudiness a little after changing the filters). Another reason I thought it might be a bacteria bloom is because my nitrates measure at 80, while ammonia measures at .5 and nitrites at 0.

Yet another reason I thought might be the case for cloudy water is because my tap water is very alkaline (my pH is usually 7.8-8) and very hard. However, isn't this suppose to be combated by adding conditioner? I add conditioner after every water change, which I usually do weekly or bi-weekly. I use Tetra AquaSafe, though I heard that this can cause bacteria blooms (so I bought a pack that included AmQuel and NovAqua to use during my next water change, for experimental purposes). However, I don't know how to fix the high pH or hard water, as that is just how my tap water is.

Finally, I thought that the cloudy water may be from the media in the Filstar. It has ceramic rings for bio-media and I was wondering if they were causing the cloudiness. But, if it had been ceramic rings that hadn't been washed properly, it would have caused the fish stress, right? yet the fish haven't shown signs of stress.

Thanks for your help, and sorry for the length of this post.

Jayde

P.S.
I added anacharis plants to the tank yesterday, will this help clear up the cloudy water?

Has your tank fully cycled once?

In my experience, it took over a month before my tank fully cycled. During that time my tank would get very cloudy between the up's and down's of ammon. and nit. peeks. Once it was fully cycled, my tank was crystal clear. (the only time it's clowdy now is when i've been overfeeding ) I however didn't change my filter sponges until the tank was well on it's way... long past the cycled stage. I don't change my sponge very often now, but when cleaning, I clean the sponge in the water removed from the tank. I do however change the carbon bags and ammonia bags once a month.

I do a 20% water change weekly. And purchased plants to help the tank along.... not to mention make the tank pretty.

I also came home from being away for a weekend and found my tank so cloudy that I couldnt even see my fish.... all white! Turns out my brother was overfeeding them and had left the lights on for 3 days straight. I later found out that the lights being on that long was the reason.


Anyway, i hope all works out for you

when you are doing a water change, is the water in the bucket a yellowish milky color? that would be a bacterial bloom and usually happens when the bacterial colonies havent anchored onto the biomedia. or is it more of a green milky color? that is an algal bloom that often coincides with new filter setups. once they "gunk up" a bit, they seem to keep the tankwater a lot more clean. i know it sounds ridiculous but, its rang true in every one of my observations so far.

either way, you should check out my DIY micron filter that is posted in the diy section! im positive that it works and works well! im making my own this weekend. they cost less than 40-50 bucks too. with one of those, youll never have cloudy water again!