Fish Dying Cloudy Water

[bvanfish]

Why can't you check parameters?

I had to leave the house so no way to check. Also during the day had work. I was barley able to do what I did.

 

[eliaslikesfish]

can you post your parameters when you get home? it’s virtually impossible to know what is happening without knowing what’s in your water. i’m taking a wild guess but it is probably something with your water.

 

[Jaden9933]

i had a similar issue with my macro algae tank being extremely cloudy and it was due to a bacterial bloom, caused by live food rapidly decaying over night and ammonia spiking. even after a water change, it clouded up fast, and worse than before. leaving the tank alone for a week, aside running zeolite for ammonia consumption, was what helped my tank. i also left the protein skimmer running with as much oxygen as possible so even though it wasn’t skimming properly, it was oxygenating the water for my puffer fish. i also dosed small amounts of live phytoplankton daily to consume some nutrients. Just don’t add too much so it doesn’t cause more die off and ammonia. by the end of the week, the tank was crystal clear, ammonia was 0, and nitrates were 75. horrible nitrates, but better than ammonia and i feel that not doing water changes helped it stabilize faster, but thats from my limited experience. from there, water changes reduced nitrates and the cloudiness didn’t come back.

long story short, your tank may need that cloudiness to combat the real issue (considering the problem is ammonia).

if it eases your mind at all, both of my anemones survived all of that and only after being in my tank for a week. hopefully you’ll have the same luck!

 

[Brian916]

That looks a lot(!!!) like a bacterial bloom. Something accidently got dumped or dropped in there or something died and you didn't notice.

I once had a party guest dump a vodka soda into my aquarium. They were very drunk and stupid. I only found out later someone saw it happen. Huge bacteria bloom and anoxic water killed a number of critters overnight.

 

[Eddielg]

Are you sure a nem didnt die if the past couple of days. If not taken out immediately it could nuke your tank

 

[bvanfish]

Thank you for the feedback I had the lights out for about 24 hours and got done hunting early so I’m back checking on the tank

Turned the lights back on still cloudy but better. Nems look better too. I had 3 and still do so I don’t think a nem died. Had to have been bacterial. I have no clue what caused it as nothing has changed. But I’ll take it for now.

I think water changes, Fritz, and a huge bag of carbon is helping. Thanks all.

Lost my 2 clowns which I absolutely loved and a few snails it looks like. Hermits and shrimp are alive.

 

[Dom]

Hey Everyone I have a tank going for almost two years - 10 gallon with a few CSB nems and 2 clowns. I came home and the water is extremely cloudy and one fish is dead. The other is labored breathing and doesnt look good. Nems look ticked off and retracted.

I did a 50% water change and things were looking better. Left to get some Fritz and came back water is EXTREMELY cloudy. I put the Fritz in and am letting it mix through.

Do I do another water change?? What the heck is going on I have never had anything like this before. PLEASE HELP!

The white cloudy water is likely a bacterial bloom in the water, which I believe will reduce oxygen levels in the tank.

The thing to do here (if this is the problem) is to do a water change (as you've already done). Also, clean out all of your filter media and rinse sponges in fresh RODI.

 

[Charles Zinn]

Hey Everyone I have a tank going for almost two years - 10 gallon with a few CSB nems and 2 clowns. I came home and the water is extremely cloudy and one fish is dead. The other is labored breathing and doesnt look good. Nems look ticked off and retracted.

I did a 50% water change and things were looking better. Left to get some Fritz and came back water is EXTREMELY cloudy. I put the Fritz in and am letting it mix through.

Do I do another water change?? What the heck is going on I have never had anything like this before. PLEASE HELP!

Nems could be spawning ?

 

[LordGman76]

More than likely, your pH is crashed. there’s a lot of green on your substrate, indicating a high nitrate level possibly high phosphate also. If your substrate is too full of Detritus it can crash your tank.

 

[bvanfish]

Well in case anyone comes and finds this tank is doing fine post all of this. Nems remain to be bullet proof. Coral and inverts all survived. Fish only died.

I just did water changes added Fritz turbo and put in a lot of carbon.

Added more snails and some clowns. Cool thing is my one Chicago nem is like a strawberry red now and the two other Chicago’s are more orange yellow. Pics just don’t capture it.

Fighting some alage etc but with more clean up crew we should be good to go.