# need help. tank becoming dirty?? PICS UP



## discusdude (Jan 29, 2012)

my tank has become like a dirty tank. it has gone a yellowish color, and hard to see through. l am running a fluval 404 and a fluval 4+ internal. the tank is 39gal with a bare bottom and 10 discus and 1 pleco. l did a 75% water change yesterday (looked great for a few hours, then turned back) today l cleaned the 404. still no change. l fed the pleco some cuke 2 days ago, would that do it. a different tank was fed more cuke with no side effects. l took out the drift wood just in case. if you have any ideas, please help. pm me asap
RAY


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Post a picture up. What's yellowish? The water? The glass? How many discus? How many Pleco? How often do you feed? Are the fish looking sick?


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

I would get rid of the pleco. It is overcrowded as it is.


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## discusdude (Jan 29, 2012)

it's not the glass, it's the water. 10 discus about a toonie size and 1 pleco about 3.5". the fish seem to be doin good. l feed 3-5 times a day, and not more than they will eat. please see pics (that is if l can post them) on the original post. ppm is at 7.2 PH is at 6.5. its all good???????


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## discusdude (Jan 29, 2012)

sorry don't know how to post pics. l would call the water murky.


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Is this a new setup? How old is the setup? Maybe a bacterial bloom if it's murky?


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

discus need a 75 gallon min 
i feed my 20 gallon comunity tank 2 times a day
and only my sw fish get food 4 or 5 times a day 
i agree with charles (I would get rid of the pleco. It is overcrowded as it is)


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## ovathedge (Aug 9, 2010)

Sounds like you have to recycle you're tank its sounds like you killed the bacteria I wouldn't have changed the water and the filter should have waited awhile before you cleaned the filter. Buy some polyester quilting from Walmart and use it in your filter it works great for catching fine partials


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## discusdude (Jan 29, 2012)

set up is about 6 weeks. l only changed the 404 media not the ceramic o things, they got rinsed in the tank water. the fluval 
4+ hasn't been changed. how do l deal with a bacterial bloom??


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## discuspaul (Jul 2, 2010)

Apart from your tank being newly set up, which could present a number of problems with your water conditions, not to mention your cycling, or lack thereof, which could be suspect, we do need to know a few more things before being able to give you some meaningful advice.
In particular, how often/frequently are you doing wcs, and of what quantity ? What media are you running in your filters, and what is your cleansing/rinsing routine for the filters and media, and for your tank itself ?
Your discus are very young, and need particular attention and TLC or they'll suffer - they may be already, just given the condition of your tank water. What is your testing showing re: ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates - and pH ?
Fill us in some more, and we'll try to be of more help.
What are feeding and how often ? Cukes are not a good food to be feeding young growing discus.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Driftwood can turn water brown -- did it get better after you took it out? 

If it's just a bacterial bloom it will likely fix itself. (A green algae bloom takes more work). I'd recommend buying some Seachem Stability and adding some capsful every day for 7 days, as per the instructions. That should help introduce beneficial bacteria into your aquarium. Do you have any charcoal in your filter? Charcoal might help. 

Good luck. I wish you could post photos! Please let us know what works in the end. Also... check around for a dead fish. Probably not a problem if you have a bare-bottom tank, but if you have a lot of hiding places, search for the pleco. A rotting pleco can cause a major bacterial bloom like nothing else!


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## discusdude (Jan 29, 2012)

OK Paul here we go,

l do water canges 3 x a week 2x50% and 1x80% l clean my filters on odd days( 1xweek ) when l don't do wcs. l rince the ceramic ring things in the tank water( not in the tank ofcourse ) and replace wool on bottom level and sometimes on 2 bottom levels. not useing charcole at this point. had it in there last week. my wcs only get Nutrafin water conditioner, and water that is the proper temp (85-86) tank gets a wipe down every week. around the top edges more often. my ph is 6.5-7 and l only have a PPM meter, it says 7.2. l feed the discus only bloodworm (frozen) and the cuke is for the pleco, the discus don't eat it.
any thoughts??


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## Matt & Larissa (Sep 1, 2011)

Keeping in mind that this is a discus tank, with no substrate, with a pleco, it'll be tough to stay on top of keeping it clean. If you want to keep the current set up, I'd suggest daily wc's of at least 50%. You've seen my tank Ray. 84 gallon, tons of filtration- 2 eheims (2226 & 2073), a UV sterilizer and a planted substrate. And Im doing 3 changes a week and barely keeping up. 

We miss our pleco (red eyed Panaque) but noticed a big difference reducing the bioload when we took him out of the tank. If you can bump up to at least a 55g it would help too. But until then, wc's daily will stay on top of it. Good luck!


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## bonsai dave (Apr 21, 2010)

Your tank is cycling again. It take 6 weeks or more to completely cycle a tank. You don't have enough beneficial bacteria in your filters . You shouldn't have clean your media so soon. Your filter never go a chance to build up the bacteria that it needed to complete the cycling process and it didn't help when with all the water changes you did. You should have waited until your tank was a little older to add more fish to your tank . Here is a good read on the nitrogen cycle. The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

OK Ray. Sounds like that is enough info for you already.

Just my humble opinion. 3-5 times blood worm a day for 10 discus in a 39g is a lot of bioload for the 404. For 39g with 10 discus with that kind of feeding, I would say 80% to 90% daily WC daily.


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## bonsai dave (Apr 21, 2010)

Doing a lot of water changes is great when you have a cured filter but when you have killed the beneficial bacteria in your filter and your tank has not completely cycled lg water changes are not going to solve your problem. You need to cut back on feeding you don't need to feed 10 times a day to grow out discus. Discus have small stomach and graze for food all day long you can cut back feeding to 5 times a day they will still grow .


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Mmmm. Not sure Bonsai ? I thought the 10-20% with the bioload is enough to allow the media to re-establish itself. In the long run the 404 still won't cut it with the feeding scheme. Sound like Ray is pushing for fast growth, then we are into large WC again ??


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## bonsai dave (Apr 21, 2010)

His tank is only 6 weeks old. It tanks 6 weeks or more for a tank to cycle properly . If he is doing a grow out tank then daily water changes is a must not 3 times a week.


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## ct22 (Feb 5, 2012)

theres 5 things i can say one being overfeeding decaying plants, DOC decomposed animal and p,ant compounds, tannin which comes from tree bark, and ammona build up test make shure the ammoina isnt too high if thats good io wouldnt worry about it if it bugs you i would think about taking your wood out and if you have plants amke shure they arnt breaking down if they are take them down most people think its bad to have dirty water but crystal clear water to me anyway dosent seem that healthy dosent seem like theres any good bacteria in the water but if you dont like it id just take the wood out put it another tank and keep rinsing the wood untill it clear could take awhile or just buy some wood thats ben in a tank. my tank has all rock rock caves no plants cuz cichlids dig em up and my water is crystal clear just from weekly water changes


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## ct22 (Feb 5, 2012)

i dont think your problem has to do with your cycle or water changes people do water changes for discus to grow better your worried about yellow water sounds like its your wood to me or ammoia


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## discuspaul (Jul 2, 2010)

DiscusDude - you've had a lot of advice here already, so I won't add anything more except to say that you should get yourself a test kit to monitor your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, so you can determine if a problem exists in that area in your newly-setup tank. You mentioned a yellowish color of the water, but it's rather hard to tell without pics as to what it may be due to.
Your DW may not be 'aged' properly & releasing tannins - I see you have removed it for now and that's a good start.
You appear to be overfeeding your discus, cut that back, as has been pointed out, and you should also be varying their diet quite a bit by alternating a number of other foods. 
First thing though, is to determine if your cycling phase is indeed complete by testing & go from there.
All the best to you & keep us informed of developments.


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Doing massive water changes on a new tank will make the cycle last longer but who cares? I started my discus grow out with uncycled sponges knowing that I would be doing 90% changes daily. No beneficial bacteria in the tank, true. But also no build up of ammonia or nitrites since the water is changed daily. The yellow water could be the wood.

Forgot to add. For baby discus you need to be doing way more water changes.


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## discusdude (Jan 29, 2012)

thanks every one for the info. for now l will be getting my water checked at the pet store. the problem l have is that l am color blind and can't use the color chart. l have to go digital, my ph pen is digital as well as my ppm pen. there aren't any dead fish in the tank and never have been. the discus are doing great, not shy and all eating well. too many conflicting opinions, l'm confused.
wish l could post pics, can anyone help me with that?
thanks again everyone. RAY


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## ovathedge (Aug 9, 2010)

Use photobucket and copy and paste the photos every easy that way


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## discusdude (Jan 29, 2012)

l got my photos onto photobucket. where do l paste? l don't see an option. l'm feeling like a fool


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## Kimrocks (Aug 30, 2011)

Test

- Check out this Youtube Video - Hope this helps.


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

If you hover the mouse over the picture it will show 4 options. Click on the one that says 'copy image copy'. Then paste it in your post


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## discusdude (Jan 29, 2012)

pics posted with a bump. l have been doing daily wc of about 80% now the water is crystal clear.
thanks to all.


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