Oddly dirty tank

[meezussd]

This is probably a silly issue but I'm having problems keeping my cory tank clean. I have a mini might filter in the tank and all it seems to do is catch the sinking food. This is one of my first times using sinking food so I'm not sure if I'm overfeeding, the filter has gone bad, or what the issue is. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

[bekateen]

Hi meezussd,

What do you mean the tank is dirty? I can imagine the filter sucking in the food, but that shouldn't make the rest of the tank dirty.

If the fundamental problem is that the filter is sucking in "good" food, you can do what I do and temporarily stop the filter when you add food. Wait for the food to sink, then after it settles, restart the filter.

If the tank is in fact dirty, you have other problems.

Cheers, Eric

[meezussd]

Eric,
Here is a picture of part of my tank with the filter, this is what I mean by dirty. I have to change the water (parts of it) like everyday or it gets like this.

[bekateen]

Hi meezussd,

Yes, that is a dirty tank.

I understand that you are not posting a fish health question, but if you can provide more info about your tank, that would be helpful. Please read this post (http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 248#p26564) and answer as much as you can here. Especially helpful will be info like tank size (gallons), age of tank, how many fish in it, how often fed, what kind of substrate, etc.

Usually cloudy water is caused by a mixture of factors such as overfeeding (which leads to bacterial growth), poop-filled gravel (again where bacteria grow), poor circulation and oxygenation due to undersized, insufficient, or clogged filters or a lack of other sources of water current (airstones or recirculating pumps). In such cases, simple water changes aren't going to address the fundamental underlying problems (listed above), so the water changes don't fix the original symptom/complaint (cloudy water).

Regards, Eric

[meezussd]

Eric,
Thanks for the reply but I think I figured it out. I cleaned the tank, took out the filter and fed them. Typically the next day the tank would already be dirty as the picture before but it was like this. So I'm assuming there is an issue with the filter not filtering or backfiring idk, I'm out to get a new one tomorrow.

[Jobro]

If the water is all white, milky, this could be a bacteria problem as well.

Your Corys would love to have sand instead of those fancy stones