# Muddy water!



## GoldieCrazie (Oct 2, 2010)

I re-did my tank the first week of November, now I am having muddy water. I have 2 filters going with only filter floss trying to clear it up, I have to change the floss every 2-3 days (see picture of how caked the floss is with mud). My temple plants are losing leaves, lots of my grassy type plants (bought at petco not sure what they are) are melting away, my parva and baby wendtii's are uprooting quite often. Last week I had to pull out a bunch of near dead plants and did some serious pruning. When I do water changes and vacuum the gravel, I get lots of bubbles tinged with a slight sulfur smell. 
Here are some details of the tank:
36 gallon bowfront
3- 15 watt compact daylight flourescent - all 3 on for 3 hours then only 1 on for another 6 hours, I just realized I haven't been doing the siesta like I used to.
ammonia- 0
ni TRATE- under 20ppm
ni TRITE - .5ppm
hardness - 120ppm
alkalinity - 180ppm
pH - 7.8

2 fancy goldfish 
1 male guppy
8 nerite snails
unknown number of MTS

I included pictures of the subsrate, temple plants with messed up leaves, muddly filter floss, and the whole sad tank.

Any ideas on whats going wrong?


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## Jark (Feb 6, 2010)

I don't know much about goldies but I have heard they dig and uproot thinks a lot. 

Petco plants are not always aquatic. It varies store to store. I have been in some with over 5 different healthy aquatic plant species and others with 5 drowned terrestrial plants. I can't see the grassy plants well in the picture so I don't know what you have.

Your lights seem a little under-kill to me. 3 hours of <2 watts per gallon is very low. that 6 hours of one 15 wat bulb isn't doing much for you. I would extend them all to 10 hours. I wouldn't worry too much about siestas at this point. If you do do one do a 5 or 6 hours on, 4 hours dark, then another 5-6 on. Use all the lights. What sort of fixture do you have for the lights? Can you put higher watt bulbs in there? I would shoot for about 20 more total watts than you have at the least.

With the substrate bubbles, some is normal in a soil based tank. How deep is your soil, gravel, total? If if is too deep it will go anaerobic and produce a lot of that gas you are smelling. This could explain your dirty water as well. If the bubbles get to big, when they burst out of the substrate, they will take a lot of mud with them. You only want your dirt layer to be about one inch and the gravel .5-1 inch. If you use sand you have to keep it even thinner. To release bubbles you already have in the substrate you can poke the substrate with a stick or let it out.

Also when doing water changes you don't want to disturb the substrate. Don't vacuum the gravel like you would in a "normal" fish-tank. Only suck off debris from the surface of the gravel. Try not to disturb the gravel though. If you do it will release more dirt into the water.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

+1 on the longer photoperiod; perhaps 5-4-5 or with only 45 watts maybe just leave them on 14 hours straight. I'd blame the goldfish also for the plants uprooting and the mud, but the tank may just need time to settle in. Kind of depends on the substrate you used. Some of the muck in the filter floss looks more organic, like diatom/algae sludge. Give it time before doing anything drastic. Without a whole lot of plant mass to handle bioload, the others stuff has more room for competition, and the plants you have won't grow well without light until they get acclimated to living in the conditions you're providing IME.


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## GoldieCrazie (Oct 2, 2010)

Thank you Jark and Mudboots for your input. 
My bulbs are 14 watt ho compact flourescent, each bulb is equal to 60 watts. Is that really too little light? I have left all the lights on all day today.

Jark: I made my own fixture and hang it from the ceiling over the tank, I can add one more bulb if needed. The total depth of the dirt and gravel is 2". 1 inch of dirt and 1 inch gravel. 

Mudboots: I don't have any evidence of diatoms or algea on any surfaces in this tank. Could it just be floating in my water?
Should I try adding more plants? I did have to toss 6 last week.


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## Jark (Feb 6, 2010)

The watts per gallon for aquarium refers to watts of fluorescent watts. The 60 watt "equivalent" refers to comparison to incandescent lights which are much less efficient. I would either add another bulb or get higher watt bulbs. I have spiral compact lights over my 55 gallon. I have 4 x 27watt (the 100 watt equivalent) bulbs and it is just right. I do a 5-4-5 light cycle.


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## GoldieCrazie (Oct 2, 2010)

Wow, thank you for that info, Jark. I had no idea it was compared to incandescent! I will add another bulb. Any recommendations for a good timer?


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## Jark (Feb 6, 2010)

If you just have one power cord for all the lights I would just use the cheap ones from the grocery store. I just make sure they can be set with multiple on/off times if you want to do a siesta. I have only used one multiple plug time before. You might check at a hardware store for a timer strip if you have multiple power cords. The ones at the pet stores are over priced.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Bubbles in the substrate _that smell like sulfur_ are not good. You could keep poking the substrate to release these gases. 
Getting the plants growing faster will help, too. They will add more oxygen into the root zone. But they may not have healthy roots now, if the sulfur smelling gas has been going on a while. 
Unfortunately sometimes the only way to deal with this is to throw away the soil that has gone bad. Redo the tank.

Muddy water may well be from Golds digging.

Same comments about the lights. Leave them all on all day.

Timer: I use the "Vacation and Lamp" or "Appliance" timer available in hardware stores. Multiple on/off settings available. The 'Heavy duty' timer simply has 3 holes instead of 2, so if you have a grounded plug on your lights make sure you get the 3-hole timer. 
You can plug in more than one light by getting a splitter or even an extension cord with multiple outlets. 
All the lights are on one schedule with that sort of timer.


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