After cleaning for fish tank, you may notice that the water is a little bit dirty. To see how you can get rid of the murkiness, you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Aquarium Blueprints.
1. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you turn on your filter after you clean the tank.
When cleaning the tank and/or doing a water change, you may have kicked up organic wastes that are sitting at the substrate or other surfaces.
So, if you have a filter running in your tank, then it should be able to trap all the free-floating debris from the water column. If you want to speed up this process, then you can try increasing the water flow rate of your filter.
2. If you don’t have a filter installed in your aquarium, then you need to wait for a much longer period. Eventually, the water borne debris should eventually drop down to the substrate.
Of course, if you have fish that likes to swim around near the substrate, then the debris may get kicked into the water column again. If you think that you fish is causing the muddy water, then you should consider getting a filter for your tank.
3. If you have a filter running for a day and the water still appears to be cloudy, then you may want to consider adding or changing your filter media.
If you are using sponges, make sure that they have super fine spores so that they can trap the smallest of the free-floating debris.
You can also try adding activated carbon as its microscopic pores should help make your water crystal clear. Keep in mind that carbon needs to be replaced occasionally. So, if you have carbon in your filter for a long time and you are getting cloudy water after cleaning your fish tank, then you should swap out our exiting carbon for a new batch.
4. There is a possibility that the cloudy water is related to a bacterial bloom. This usually occurs when there is an excess of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
In this case, we recommend that you clean your tank and filter more thoroughly. During this process, look for and remove any dead fish and/or plants that may have been causing the spike in ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels.
5. You can also use a product such as Seachem Clarity to help remove the cloudy water in your fish tank. To find out how to do so, you can follow these steps.
