Cloudy freshwater aquarium

Factual Questions
1

So I just added a loach to my aquarium, because I have had a problem with nuisance snails, and I wanted a fish that eats them. I had some assassin snails, but I can’t seem to care for them-- they get they nuisance snails almost eliminated, then they die-- maybe from starvation, even though there are shrimp pellets and bloodworms in the tank (I guess the fish are too quick to get them).

Anyway, so I got the loach. Now my water is a little cloudy. This happens every time I add a fish, and no one can seem to tell me why. I did a 20% water change before I added the fish, and I checked all the levels: ammonia was “safe” (a better test usually tells me that I have mostly ammonium, and little free ammonia), nitrites were totally absent, and the pH was around neutral. The alkalinity was a little bit low, but still safe, and the KH was high, but typical for this tank, and I have not lost a fish since the initial set-up.

It’s a 20 gallon freshwater tank with live plants. It has an Aqueon charcoal/fiber filter that was recently replaced (yes, I ran water through it before putting it in the tank). I use bottled spring water diluted with just a little distilled water (to reduce KH and pH), not tap water when I change it. I add 1/4 tsp of prime at water changes. I also added 1 tsp of stress coat when I added the new fish.

I netted the fish out of the bag-- I didn’t put any of the water from the fish store into the aquarium. The fish came from a specialty store from which I have purchased fish before, and is has a very good reputation. I’ve never had problems with fish from this store.

It seems like this clouding with a new fish is a normal thing, but Google-fu can’t seem to find a reason.

Does anyone know?

Would it be a good idea to do a small water change, or will that put more stress on the fish, which are probably a little stressed from having a new companion.

I did give them a little more food than usual last night, because I didn’t want the new fish to get pushed out of feeding (even though I’m hoping he’ll concentrate on the snails for a while). But it wasn’t that much, and the fish ate all of it.

2

Are you sure the loach hasn’t caused an increase in ammonia since being added?

If it’s not a bacterial bloom caused by ammonia, in this case perhaps the cloudiness is the result of the loach digging around in the substrate?

3

All my tests show the ammonia is low and hasn’t changed, but I suppose the filter change could have caused a bacterial bloom, it just wasn’t immediate.

Digging in the substrate, I hadn’t thought of. I vacuum pretty well, but I try not to vacuum up the good bacteria, so I usually leave an unvacuumed spot.

4

Loaches root about in the substrate and keep the water cloudy.
I have soil in a thirty with a gravel top. They can go through layers of gravel and sand to muck about. I now have them in a 55 with pool filter sand and the water stays clear.
Have you tried one of the siphons that vacuums the gravel?

5

This is what I use. This is one small loach (about 1.5") that I just got, and the substrate was recently vacuumed. It works on gravity. Are you talking about the battery operated ones? I tried one, and the gravity one seems to work better.

I am thinking of going to a 29 or 30 gallon tank, and using sand (better for the corys). I’ve never had a loach before, and never considered one, until this snail problem, but the little guy is fun to watch. If I had a bigger tank, I might think about getting another loach. My 20 gallon is at capacity, or maybe even a little over, but I don’t mind extra water changes.

6

You have more room to screw up with a larger tank, and I believe that the fish are less stressed.
I’ve never used a battery vac.
Play sand takes a very, very long time to wash. Swimming pool filter sand only takes a long time to wash.
You can float lettuce, and overnight it will fill up with snails. My Wife has half a dozen loaches in the fifty, and snails rarely reach the bottom when we put them in. :slight_smile:

7

Let us know how it goes, ok?
These guys have a nice forum with lots of guys to answer my questions.

8

What is the best way to wash the sand? and I was going to buy it from an aquarium shop. I love the corys, and I’ve heard it’s the best thing for them.

What do you feed the loaches when there aren’t any snails? I have bloodworms and shrimp pellets, also, the little guy was pecking at the decorations, so I guess he likes the slime that probably has minute food particles. I only wash one decoration at a time, since I’ve been told that they harbor the “good” bacteria, and I’m not having a problem with algae.

9

I buy pool filter sand at a swimming pool store. It is more expensive than Play Sand at Walmart, but easier to clean. You just put either type of sand in a bucket, stick a hose in and swish it around. And wait, and wait, and wait.
I think pool filter sand looks better, it is larger than Play Sand, and looks like tiny pebbles. It is more yellow and orange than Play Sand, which is gray. I have had corydoras with various substrates, but I use mostly pool filter sand now.
Loaches will eat regular fish food. My Wife has pandagara (sp) that need vegetable matter and some fresh water gobies (whose name I have forgotten) in the tank with them, and some of my surplus male killifish are there as well. I feed frozen adult brine shrimp, some flake that has a lot of algae, and sometimes baby brine shrimp, when I have extra, and they swarm to eat it. :slight_smile:

10

So far, the clouding seems to be clearing up on its own. I changed a gallon and a half, because I had a pH spike. I used tap water, which I don 't like to do, because it always has a little ammonium (the not-harmful form, but it screws up the simple test for the harmful kind). The ammonium and pH were both low in the tap water, and I do keep a water conditioner, even though I usually use bottled water.

The water is still slightly cloudy, but it’s much better, and the parameters are all good, so I’m going with bacterial bloom complicated by the loach stirring up sediment. The guy at the fish store recommended some SeaChem Stability (starter bacteria the will help clear up the bloom), and I think it helped.

I haven’t seem the loach for a few hours, but he has disappeared before, so I’m trying not to worry. He’s very small. And wiggly. Once I found him hanging out on a plant leaf.

11

I use wetwebmedia.com when I need to know something about my tank. I have saltwater, but they have tons of info on fresh as well.

12

Thanks for the link!