danedodger
Member
The thing to remember about your bacteria is you have to figure out where it is!
Just like the good old freshwater running with an undergravel filter your main bacteria is going to be in the gravel which is why when you're running an undergravel you never want to take the gravel out to wash it.
Cloudy water can come from a number of places but the first one I always check when people bring a water sample for me to test at work is the ammonia levels as that usually turns out to be the culprit with our customers. They get their tank, put in a few fish, the water turns cloudy so they go and change out the water, whattaya know the cloudy comes back...they simply don't understand that the tank is still cycling and think they've done something wrong. Test your water and see if that yields any clues for you.
As for the algea, it's good to see SOME of the GOOD types. If there's too much and/or the wrong kinds something is out of whack. Figure out where it's coming from then fix that for a long term solution. It may be one or a combination of too much light (i.e., leaving the lights on too long, putting your tank by a window, etc.), phosphates in the water (which tap water will do), nitrates too high, and/or the nutrient levels too high. So check how much light the tank is getting, do your water changes with the RO/DI water to help take those phosphates back down, make sure that you don't have something rotting away in any of the water and/or filters, and that you're feeding properly.
If you're feeding frozen foods you can cut back on the nutrient levels by thawing your food, put it in a coffee filter, squeeze the top of the filter closed making a little "food bag", and rinsing it thoroughly before feeding to get rid of the "pack water" which is nothing more than water chock full of nutrients to feed to that algea! Fish should eat ALL of whatever you're feeding, none floating to the bottom and rotting there, within about 1-3 minutes. If any is falling on the bottom and staying there or it takes them longer than that to finish it all off cut back at the next feeding.
Cloudy water can come from a number of places but the first one I always check when people bring a water sample for me to test at work is the ammonia levels as that usually turns out to be the culprit with our customers. They get their tank, put in a few fish, the water turns cloudy so they go and change out the water, whattaya know the cloudy comes back...they simply don't understand that the tank is still cycling and think they've done something wrong. Test your water and see if that yields any clues for you.
As for the algea, it's good to see SOME of the GOOD types. If there's too much and/or the wrong kinds something is out of whack. Figure out where it's coming from then fix that for a long term solution. It may be one or a combination of too much light (i.e., leaving the lights on too long, putting your tank by a window, etc.), phosphates in the water (which tap water will do), nitrates too high, and/or the nutrient levels too high. So check how much light the tank is getting, do your water changes with the RO/DI water to help take those phosphates back down, make sure that you don't have something rotting away in any of the water and/or filters, and that you're feeding properly.
If you're feeding frozen foods you can cut back on the nutrient levels by thawing your food, put it in a coffee filter, squeeze the top of the filter closed making a little "food bag", and rinsing it thoroughly before feeding to get rid of the "pack water" which is nothing more than water chock full of nutrients to feed to that algea! Fish should eat ALL of whatever you're feeding, none floating to the bottom and rotting there, within about 1-3 minutes. If any is falling on the bottom and staying there or it takes them longer than that to finish it all off cut back at the next feeding.
