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Dirty-Cloudy Water Causes

The water in my aquarium is cloudy, what can I do?
Q. I have just set my new aquarium up and the water is not clear.
Q. My water has gone a ‘tea’ colour.
Q. Why is my water green?
Q. I seem to have alot of white floating pieces in my

The water in my aquarium is cloudy, what can I do?
Q. I have just set my new aquarium up and the water is not clear.
Q. My water has gone a ‘tea’ colour.
Q. Why is my water green?
Q. I seem to have alot of white floating pieces in my
Dirty Water
Dirty, cloudy or even misty water is something most fishkeepers suffer from at one time or another. This fact sheet is written only as a general guide line. If in doubt, take a bagful of your water to your local aquatic retailer and he/she should be able to help you as they will be able to see the problem at first hand.

Q. I have just set my new aquarium up and the water is not clear.
When a new aquarium is set up, the water takes a few days to clear. At first, the water is fairly ‘cloudy’ and after a few days it will become crystal clear, although this may take anything upto 2 weeks.

Q. My water has gone a ‘tea’ colour.
If your water has gone the colour of ‘tea’, i.e. it has got a brown tint to it, then you may have recently added either peat to your filter or added some mopani/bog wood to your aquarium for decoration. If you have added peat to your filter so that you can soften your water, you should really add some activated carbon to your filter as this will remove the tannins from the water that are added by the peat.
If bogwood or a piece of mopani wood has been added recently, these should really be soaked thoroughly so that most of the tannins are removed. The best way to remove tannins in the bogwood is to place the wood in a bucket and fill it with water. When the water turns brown, empty the water and re-fill it with fresh water. This will need to be repeated several times with a large piece of bogwood it may take several months to remove most of the tannins.

Q. Why is my water green?
Green water occurs when there is too much light and sufficient nutrients in the water. If you have your lighting on for approximately 16 hours a day, this is far too much and you should restrict it to approximately 10 or 11 hours a day. If your aquarium receives direct sunlight, then this may well be a major contribution to your green water. Either moving the aquarium out of direct sunlight or ensuring that sunlight cannot land directly on your aquarium should help get rid of the green water. Cutting down on the food that you give your fish will also help. If you feed your fish once a day, only feed them what they will consume in two minutes as this will also help get rid of green water by restricting the nutrients.
Essentially green water is a form of algae and algae requires light and food. By restricting the lighting and controlling the amount of excess food that is going to waste in your aquarium, you should slowly see the green in the water decrease.

Q. I seem to have alot of white floating pieces in my aquarium.
It may be possible that you live in a soft water area, and you have placed some ornaments or gravel that are alkaline based, the little specks that you see are a result of a water reaction. When soft acidic water comes into contact with ‘hard’ alkaline substance the two elements react with each other and a by-product of the reaction is the little white specks that you can see. The little white specks are calcium and the only way to remedy this situation would be to remove the object(s) that are reacting with the water. In the worst scenario, this could mean removing all of the gravel in your aquarium and replacing it with gravel that is lime and calcium free.
The fact sheet is meant as a guideline only and your retailer is best placed to give specific definitions of ‘dirty’ water as, when you take a bag of water to him, he can examine and if necessary, test it.

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Dirty-Cloudy Water Causes

The water in my aquarium is cloudy, what can I do?Q. I have just set my new aquarium up and the water is not clear. Q. My water has gone a ‘tea’ colour.Q. Why is my water green?Q. I seem to have alot of white floating pieces in my

The water in my aquarium is cloudy, what can I do?Q. I have just set my new aquarium up and the water is not clear. Q. My water has gone a ‘tea’ colour.Q. Why is my water green?Q. I seem to have alot of white floating pieces in my

The water in my aquarium is cloudy, what can I do?
Q. I have just set my new aquarium up and the water is not clear.
Q. My water has gone a ‘tea’ colour.
Q. Why is my water green?
Q. I seem to have alot of white floating pieces in my

The water in my aquarium is cloudy, what can I do?
Q. I have just set my new aquarium up and the water is not clear.
Q. My water has gone a ‘tea’ colour.
Q. Why is my water green?
Q. I seem to have alot of white floating pieces in my