Anyone out there a fish tank expert...

Can anyone help me with a quick question. My 50 gallon fresh water tank is so foggy. Idk why? I change the filters and its a 60 gal filter. I have rocks at the bottom and about 10 fish, they are all fine. Tanks been up for about 1 month and a half. I just cant seem to get this foggy tank to clear up. Last time it was set up 2 years ago no issue with the fog, it was always clear. Any ideas?

 

did you clean all the stuff before you set it up lol?

you can also buy stuff to make your water clear but i have never had any experience with that and im not sure how good it is.

 

ill post some of my tank here in a bit its a 135g salt tank with a shark, jewel eel,few groupers,loin fish

 

Yeah everything was cleaned with hot hot water idk whats wrong with it? I even soaked the stuff a second time? I guess ill give it a shot ill post some pics when I get off work.

 

Hey everyone. Im a bit late looking at this thread.
Dont mix up the debris thats in the substraight. Im not familiar with an electric vac, always used a siphon thats is gravity driven. You'll want to shove the nozzel of the vac or siphon hose into the substraight, start pulling water / debris up into the hose, then stop the suction, pull the hose up a few inches from the substraight and continue the siphon action, this way the debris doesnt get mixed in the water. Repeat continuously, basically do an arrea the size of the siphon opening at a time.... make sense?

 

also to rcvahawaii808..... im assuming your saying your siphoning the substraight? Salt tanks are the opposite from fresh water from what i have always known. I have a 30 g thats been running for 3.5 years and NEVER touch the sand. In salt water its more of a real ecosystem. the turbo snail cleans up after the fish and the little critters living (or will eventually live in the sand) clean up after the snail. Whats the critters names?? something with the suffix "pod" not cepholipod, thats calamari.
I dont think you let it cycle long enough either. I would go straight damsel or chromis for the first few months, with a good clean up crew, and changing water, not stirring up the sand..... Then again its not uncomon for diatoms in the first fewe months of a SW thank. SW is MAD patience. had a 30 g before fthis ont and never ran a protien skimmer. Skimmer on this one and will never go back. Sorry for the long reply, check out reefbuilders.com good people, tons of info. Good luck

 

just took this. I need to clean it more. Waters good, just coraline everywhere, not a bad thing though

 

yeah i know the sand is part of the ecosystem. i am not using a gravel washer...just a tube. i only go to pick up the poop that the snail seems to leave in HUGE piles.

what kind of clean up crew would you suggest? ive got a turbo snail and a coral banded shrimp. i know they dont clean much..hell he rarely comes out from the back of the tank.

side question...how often to coral banded shrimp molt? i thought i killed him yesterday because i siphoned him out..turned out to be his molt..second time in 2weeks.

 

i got ya, not sure how often they malt, seems alot for 2 times in a short period. I had a cleaner shrimp in the past and i thought the same thing. then my puffer ate him. i'd get some assorted hermits, and other snails also, personally i choose "nassarius" snails, they burrow in the sand which helps in my situation because they stir up bits of sand at a time. its cool to have emerald crabs and shrimp, but for good work at a cheap rate, hermits and snails, even more turbos. try for 10 hermits and 5 snails for a 20 gal.

 

I've had plenty of fish in my 16 years beginning at age 2
I currently have a tank with a shark, cichled, sucker fish, and 4 small baby turtles and then I have an Oscar and a sucker in another and then a Red Eared Slider in another that I have had for almost 15 years

 

BTW the slider eats anything I put in the tank with him. I've had catfish, bass, specks, and shiners and they have all been eaten. In the past my bro has put a few baby baby gators in the tank with him. LOL

 

okay just checked my water and everything is good. ph might be around 8.0-8.1. nitrate, ammonia, and nitrite levels are all 0.

here is a pic of the tank so you can get an idea of what im talking about. you can see all the brown stuff on the side walls and it is also like that on the front and the back. you just need to be looking along side it. the other pic is the stringy stuff thats growing.

also ive got some bubbles sitting on the bottom of my tank...im guessing they are gas bubbles but not sure if good or bad gas.





pics fixed

 

cant see the pics but chances are its cycling, keep up with the water changes, cut lighting back a few hours. its probably not from stiring up the sand. probably normal.... then again, by no means am i an expert. patience, salt water is a beautiful headache sometimes

 

sharks hidding

 

yeah rvca, looks somewhat normal for a newer tank. make sure to clean that filter Heres a question, are you using Reverse Osmosis water or tap? dont remember if you stated?

And Texas island, what are you running, must have a sump, but i see a biowheel or some sort of filter inlet hanging on the right. nice grouper

 

never mind, i see the skimmer. i was also running a HOB skimmer and biowheel sans wheel, for circulation. now just HOB skimmer and a bunck of powerheads

 

i am just using water from the bathtub then i use the prime chlorine remover stuff. i also use instant ocean. i used to use water that you can get from the store in the 5g jugs in my freshwater...this is RO water correct? doesnt it lower the pH? my understanding was the SW needs to be around 8.2

 

yea we have a a power head on the one side and thanks that grouper is getting big

 

well, you can get RO water from the fish store, im assuming your talking about distlled water which, RO is pretty close to... You actually want to use RO for salt, the instant ocean will bring the ph to the correct level level i think. and use tap with a water conditioner for fresh, fresh water fish need some of the elements found in tap, and with salt, the water gets its necessary compositioin from the instant ocean or reef crystals. not saying using tapis terrible, but i think it will only get you so far. Like i said, im no expert, i've picked most of this up from trial and error. error gets expensive. Poke around on the reefbuilders site.

 

shark thinks hes hiding