This was being discussed in another thread but I think it was getting buried. My water parameters are off and it was determined that I (newbie) was not removing decor/plants and vacuuming under them and that could be causing the poor water quality. So I removed the fake plants and the one large fake driftwood and really churned up the substrate, by hand as recommended, and it was truly gross. Foul. I vacuumed still turning the substrate as I went and I changed 30% water. I refilled with clean dechlorinated water, like usual, and turned on the heater and filters.
I have two Penguin 150's with two filter pads in each *plus* a media bag (peat moss in one filter and charcoal in the other). I did remove the oldest filter pad in each filter, gently rinsed the newest filter pad in old tank water and made it the primary filter pad, and added a new "2nd" filter pad. Like I always do when it's time to change the filter anyway.
It is 24 hours now and my tank isn't yet clear. It is almost clear but I can see gunk, fine particles, somewhat evenly floating and jostling about in the tank. Very fine particles. The filters are normal and running. Prior to this cleaning my tank was so clear it was hard to tell that it had water in it. I know, it was still dirty, but it looked good! How do I get my clear tank back and what did I screw up with this cleaning procedure?
Chances are whether its a particulate cloud or bacterial cloud it will go away in 48-72 hours, tops. You're overfiltering your water so we know that's not the problem. You're extremely zealous on vacuuming other than the above described situation, and water changes for that matter. It's more than normal for a lot of decaying stuff to surface if you're disturbing gravel that hasn't been disturbed in a long time, perhaps even since it was put in the tank. The only difference is wondering whether or not the resulting ''cloud'' is bacteria feeding on the decomposing stuff now in the water column, or just decomposing stuff. I'm willing to bet its a combination of the two. I see no reason to change your water sooner than normal because of clarity or lack thereof unless your params are off again.
You probably didn't screw anything up. :)
If it'd make you more comfy you can probably just turn your filters off for 45 minutes tops if you have some slight aeration, and allow all the crap to settle like some of the forum members do, then re-vaccuum the settled sediment laying on the surface of the gravel.
My biggest word of advice: Go natural. lol
Water params are so much easier to manage with some live plants and driftwood. The wood in my tank acts as a buffer and has gradually brought my PH down from 7.4 to 6.7, where it remains from water changes. This would help your high PH problem to some degree probably, many plants are TERRIFIC at counteracting nitrates, ask PK. I went from changing my water every 4 days to getting by at around just over 2 weeks with my tank ''overstocked'', and nitrates still always remain below 20ppm
I'm only saying this cause there are few members of this forum that I've seen struggle with water params as much as you, (believe me i'm not picking on you, I was there) and it'd be nice to know you're not standing in front of your tank every day pulling your hair saying why god why lol
I like the idea of a planted tank and I may do that one day but I'm only 3 months into the hobby, except for a few Bettas I've had. I've never had a real fish tank before. I'm also terrible with plants in general. LOL But I can see trying it down the road. Thanks for your input. I'll be patient a little longer and see what happens.
Patience is key in my opinion... this gunk will clear up, even if its a bacterial bloom. As for live plants, I personally would also love to have live plants, but i think its important to be able to master controlling an artificial tank before diving into yet another parameter like live plants, which require more care, more knowledge, and more money. Plus when things go wrong in an artificial tank, you can just yank everything out to help work on your problem as you've done... if this was a live plant tank, you'd have a bit more difficult time. Tmercier is dead on that live plants help stabilize a tank, but my opinion is that its yet one more part of the tank to keep stable, and thats overwhelming for a newbie.
Let the filters do their work for now. Have you tested your water today? This is important time to test it... and post your results
Sponge was right, it was a bacterial bloom and it was crystal clear in 72 hours. It certainly wasn't my filters, the pads are changed every 2 weeks. Also, I just changed from a 28 gallon to a 36 gallon and obviously the gravel was greatly disturbed in this process. The same little strange particles appeared...but again were gone in 72 hours.
I did something dumb and now my tank is cloudy. I let yeast/sugar/ water get into the tank, about 1/2 gallon by accident, and now I have what looks like a bacterial bloom.
