by Chandra Janean

Created on: May 12, 2008

Cloudy aquarium water can occur for a variety of reasons, so it is best to look at the overall conditions of your tank and then assess the most likely culprit for causing the cloudiness. I have had freshwater aquariums for many years, and recently had the longest bout with trying to figure out why my water quality had gone down the tubes. The most likely causes of cloudy water are overcrowding of fish in your tank, and not performing regular partial water changes with vacuuming to remove the debris. There are also different types of cloudiness that can occur such as a milky color or a turbid greenish color.

When my tank became visibly cloudy the first thing I did was perform a 75% water change with vacuuming, but within one day, the cloudiness returned as if I never cleaned it at all. I knew that overcrowding was not the issue because the general rule of thumb is an inch of fish per gallon of water. I only have 3 fish in a 29 gallon aquarium because I don't want to have a tank requiring a lot of maintenance. I then performed another 1/3 water change a week later and changed out external filter media including carbon and sponges, within hours this time there was a return of cloudy water. I use a water additive with Chlorine, Chloramine and Ammonia remover because our municipal tap water is treated with Chloramine, a synthetic Chlorine and Ammonia combination used to treat local water, and toxic to fish. I also add a handful of aquarium salt that puts electrolytes in the water to make these water changes less stressful to the fish. After all of my efforts there was no visible difference in water quality which was quite puzzling.

I put a pinch of food into a container that I then let my daughter feed to the fish so that she doesn't put too much food in by accident, so I was quite sure that overfeeding was not the cause. I did question whether the batch of food I had recently purchased may have been behind it, because the cloudiness appeared shortly after feeding the new food. I stopped using the food, but the cloudiness persisted. I then removed all decorations including the live plants from the tank thinking that there may be a bacterial infection related to this cloudiness, but there was no improvement, and no symptoms of bacterial infection in my fish. At this point I was becoming frustrated with the problem which I had never faced in my aquarium with such persistence. I finally purchased a water clarity product which I try not to use because they don't address the root of the problem, and are more of a quick fix than a solution. Even this did not clear my water, and I had performed another partial water change.

It appeared as if I did not have a strong stream of aeration, and so I bought a new bubble wand to attach to my air pump. Ah Hah....here I found my problem, but I was not sure about it at first. I purchased a new air pump and within one day my water was crystal clear. The motor had slowed on my air pump, and it was not oxygenating the water sufficiently. I had almost given up on the tank and was concerned that my fish would soon die if I didn't get the water quality straightened out. Through trial and error I was able to find the problem and fix it, but it took close to 8 weeks before this happened. My advice is to check your aeration first and perform a partial water change!

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