Clouded or dark water

[dano]

My water was pretty clear for a while, and now both tanks are pretty cloudy or dark enough that I cant see my fish. The plants are fine, and so are the fish. PH is running 7.0 Do you think it's because I have a low water level, or not enough plants to process the water?  Any imput would be greatly appreciated thanks.

Dano.

[TCLynx]

I agree, what are your water tests telling you? What does it smell like? What color? How much filtration and what type? How many fish and how big are they and the fish tanks. What is your pumping flow rate like? Have you gone stirring up the grow beds much lately? Are the fish tanks protected from sunlight? What is your supplemental aeration like?

What is the pH at dawn or before? What is the pH late afternoon? (if it swings from low before dawn to high late in the afternoon, then I would suspect algae.)

[Adam Shivers]

I honestly haven't yet tested ph but my water was pretty cloudy a few days into the project and rather soon after my sprouts came up got rather clear. ( at one point if I looked through the long way on my aquarium I lost visibility before the other end of the tank but now I can see through just fine) it is only a little merky right now. however, at the same time this was clearing my fish seemed to be quite lethargic acting congregating in corners and what not. I had a couple goldfish die in the beginning but was hoping I was over the weak ones being weeded out by now and one more died. I've had them just over two weeks. I assumed the water was clearing because the plants were now germinated and using the nutrients up. how possible is this and could it be linked to the lethargy? or do I just have one + and one - that aren't linked other than they are happening at the same time?

TCLynx said:

I agree, what are your water tests telling you? What does it smell like? What color? How much filtration and what type? How many fish and how big are they and the fish tanks. What is your pumping flow rate like? Have you gone stirring up the grow beds much lately? Are the fish tanks protected from sunlight? What is your supplemental aeration like?

What is the pH at dawn or before? What is the pH late afternoon? (if it swings from low before dawn to high late in the afternoon, then I would suspect algae.)

[TCLynx]

need far more information than water is cloudy and fish died to know what is wrong.

How long is system running?

Size tank?

Size grow beds?  What type system?  F&D, constant flood, trickle through, NFT, raft?

Water tests,

Ammonia?

Nitrite?

Nitrate?

pH?

temperatures?

How's the aeration?

how much are you pumping?

 

 

[Adam Shivers]

How long is system running? just a little over two weeks

Size tank? 55 gal

Size grow beds?  Maybe you can see in pics what size compared to tank.

What type system?  F&D, constant flood, trickle through, NFT, raft? Flood and Drain

Water tests, no tests

Ammonia? IDK

Nitrite? IDK

Nitrate? IDK

pH? IDK

temperatures? around 70 degrees f - room temp

How's the aeration? great I have it running through some aluminum mesh and bubbles are abundant

how much are you pumping? I just have a small fountain pump flooding

TCLynx said:

need far more information than water is cloudy and fish died to know what is wrong.

How long is system running?

Size tank?

Size grow beds?  What type system?  F&D, constant flood, trickle through, NFT, raft?

Water tests,

Ammonia?

Nitrite?

Nitrate?

pH?

temperatures?

How's the aeration?

how much are you pumping?

 

 

[Chi Ma]

Just guessing from the limited info. You might be having a bacterial or algae bloom. It's a common thing with newly set up aquariums. If it bothers you, you can do a 50% water change every couple of days or just wait it out while it balances itself out.

[TCLynx]

Now I'm fairly certain your system isn't cycled up yet Adam.  That usually takes 3-6 weeks but hard to confirm anything without some water test readings.

 

cloudy water is usually either due to the media dust still being present from set up, stirring things up in the bed, or as Chi says bacteria bloom.

 

As to why fish are dieing, well I'd say get yourself a test kit.  Ammonia can be quite toxic to fish and how toxic it is depends on pH and temperature.  Nitrite is also really toxic to fish but that can sometimes be mitigated a little bit by adding 1 ppt of salt to the system and extra aeration.  pH getting way too low can stall out cycling and cause ammonia to climb again in a system that was previously cycled.  These are the reasons most of us use a freshwater master test kit for keeping track of the water chemistry.

[Adam Shivers]

Thank you both I will take this into consideration. Where do I get this test kit? do I have to go to a grow store, or pet sore or is it just at wally world or something?

TCLynx said:

Now I'm fairly certain your system isn't cycled up yet Adam.  That usually takes 3-6 weeks but hard to confirm anything without some water test readings.

 

cloudy water is usually either due to the media dust still being present from set up, stirring things up in the bed, or as Chi says bacteria bloom.

 

As to why fish are dieing, well I'd say get yourself a test kit.  Ammonia can be quite toxic to fish and how toxic it is depends on pH and temperature.  Nitrite is also really toxic to fish but that can sometimes be mitigated a little bit by adding 1 ppt of salt to the system and extra aeration.  pH getting way too low can stall out cycling and cause ammonia to climb again in a system that was previously cycled.  These are the reasons most of us use a freshwater master test kit for keeping track of the water chemistry.

[TCLynx]

A good pet store will have a freshwater master test kit but sometimes a little more $$ but local.

You could also get them online.  Sylvia sells them http://theaquaponicsource.com/proddetail.php?prod=ATSPW001

And Sylvia is selling them at a good price, (price where I used to get mine has gone up.)

[Adam Shivers]

Thank you... I knew I recognized the fish and leaf logo on this site!

TCLynx said:

A good pet store will have a freshwater master test kit but sometimes a little more $$ but local.

You could also get them online.  Sylvia sells them http://theaquaponicsource.com/proddetail.php?prod=ATSPW001

And Sylvia is selling them at a good price, (price where I used to get mine has gone up.)