As an aquarist, you will face cloudy water conditions in your fish tank once in your fish-keeping journey. There can be various reasons behind such cloudy water in your fish tank. So, Why is my guppy water cloudy? Let us find out.
Bacteria bloom is the primary reason for your guppy fish tank being cloudy. Other reasons include algae bloom, dirty filters, and overfeeding guppy fish. Ensure adding a good filtration system with biofilter media and avoid overcrowding your guppy fish tank to prevent and fix such issues.
This article will discuss the reason behind your guppy water being cloudy and how to fix such issues. So, let us get into it.
Contents
My guppy fish tank water is cloudy.
There can be various reasons why your guppy fish tank water is cloudy, of which bacteria bloom is the most common reason.
Your guppy fish tank can also get cloudy because of overfeeding and overstocking guppy fish.
Cloudy water can come with bigger problems.
Keeping a regular check on water quality and ensuring the stabilization of ammonia and nitrite in your guppies tank will help you fix and prevent such issues.
Let us thoroughly discuss why guppy fish water is cloudy and the solution for such an issue.
What are the reasons for guppy fish water being cloudy?
These are the reasons behind your guppy fish water being cloudy:
- Bacteria bloom is the reason behind cloudy water.
- Your filtration system is dirty.
- The substrate has been disturbed by the fish or by you.
Bacteria bloom
Bacteria bloom is the primary reason behind your guppy fish tank being cloudy.
Bacteria bloom is common in newly set up tanks.
Bacteria bloom occurs in a new aquarium during the nitrogen cycle process.
Beneficial bacteria develop in an aquarium to break down ammonia produced during the nitrogen cycle.
Such beneficial bacteria float freely in your aquarium, making the water cloudy.
You will observe white or greyish water after 3-5 days of setting the tank.
These bacteria are not harmful to your guppy fish, and the milkiness will also settle down in 1-2 days.
The other reason for bacteria to bloom in your guppy’s aquarium are:
- Your guppy fish aquarium filter has failed.
- You have added a new biofilter media.
- There has been a sudden growth of nutrients in your guppy fish aquarium.
- Bacteria bloom can occur due to restarting the colony of beneficial bacteria.
Failure of the filter system.
Failure of the filtration system will result in oxygen deficiency in your guppy fish aquarium water.
Guppy fish tank water without oxygen will eliminate the beneficial bacteria, making the water cloudy.
Beneficial bacteria will also die when the filter is shut down for a long period.
New biofilter media.
Adding a new biofilter media by replacing the new one will result in bacteria bloom.
The new biofilter media will rebuild the bacteria as the existing bacteria will get eliminated as soon as you replace the biofilter media with a new one.
The sudden growth of nutrients.
The sudden growth of nutrients will also result in bacteria blooming in your guppy fish aquarium.
Adding a big batch of fish and overfeeding is likely to increase nutrients and result in ammonia and nitrite spike.
Beneficial bacteria multiply to deal with the extra waste produced by the fish, making the water cloudy.
However, the water will get stable in 1-2 days in such a scenario.
But, avoid adding a large number of fish at a time and consider adding them gradually.
Restarting the colony of beneficial bacteria.
The beneficial bacteria present in your aquarium system can get eliminated because of these reasons:
- You have treated your fish with medication like antibiotics.
- You have performed a water change without treating it with the water conditioner.
In both cases, the beneficial bacteria will get eliminated.
The beneficial bacteria will redevelop themselves in both cases, resulting in bacteria blooming, making the water cloudy.
Dirty filter
A dirty filter can also be the reason behind your guppy fish water being cloudy.
The dirty filter will not get able to clean the water as it is supposed to.
Filter helps clean the water, eliminate the ammonia, and keep the water oxygenated.
A dirty filter will not get able to perform all this and will result in making the water cloudy.
Also, all the beneficial bacteria will get eliminated without oxygen, making the water cloudy.
Disturbed substrate
The disturbed substrate is another reason behind your guppy fish water being cloudy.
This happens when there is a presence of bottom-dwelling fish species in your guppy fish tank.
Bottom dwellers search for food in the substrate making a mess, resulting in cloudy water.
It can also happen we try to clean the substrate and end up messing it up and making the water cloudy.
Consider using a gravel siphon to clean the substrate.
Why does my tank have cloudy green water?
Algae bloom is the explainable reason behind this whenever you have cloudy green water in your guppy fish tank.
There can be two reasons behind algae bloom in your guppy fish tank:
- There are excess nutrients present in your guppy fish tank.
- Your guppy fish tank is exposed to too much light.
Excess nutrients
Phosphates and nitrates are the nutrients that result in algae growth.
Decaying matters like fish leftovers, fish waste, dead fish, and water are the source of such nutrients.
Performing a regular water change and cleaning the tank by vacuuming the waste will solve such issues.
Avoid overfeeding your guppy fish to prevent such issues.
Also, consider feeding high-quality nutritional food to your guppies.
Too much light
Exposure to the direct sunlight and keeping the aquarium lights on for a long time will bloom algae.
Avoid keeping your guppy fish tank in a place where there is a source of direct sunlight.
Also, ensure not to keep the aquarium lights on for more than 6 hours a day.
Live aquatic plants need light for their growth, but excess light will result in an algae bloom.
Also read: Does Guppy Need Light?
How to fix a cloudy guppy fish tank?
Knowing the reason behind the cloudy fish tank is necessary.
However, these are something you can take care of to fix a cloudy guppy fish tank:
- Avoid overfeeding your guppy fish.
- Add a good filtration system with biofilter media to your guppies tank.
- Clean your guppy fish tank regularly.
- Avoid overcrowding your fish tank.
Avoid overfeeding
Overfeeding your guppy fish will result in more production of waste and leftovers of guppies.
More waste and leftovers will contaminate the water, resulting in an ammonia spike.
To ensure that you are not overfeeding your guppy fish, provide them food in a quantity that they can finish eating in one to two minutes.
Also, consider feeding your guppy fish high-quality nutritional food.
Also read: How Often Should You Feed Guppies?
Add a filter
Filter helps keep the water clean and keep the water safe from harmful toxins like ammonia and nitrite.
The filter also helps make a movement in the water to keep the water oxygenated.
Consider adding a good filtration system with biofilter media to keep the water clean and safe from harmful toxins like ammonia and nitrite.
Also read: Do Guppies Need Filters?
Clean guppy fish tank regularly.
Cleaning your guppy fish tank regularly will help you fix the cloudy tank.
Use a gravel siphon to siphon out the leftovers and waste of your guppy fish.
Remove all the dead matters from your guppy fish tank.
Keeping your guppy fish tank clean will prevent the tank from the waste buildup.
A clean tank will also prevent algae growth.
Also read: How Often To Change Guppy Water?
Avoid overcrowding your guppy fish tank.
Overcrowding your guppy fish tank will result in these problems:
- Your guppy fish tank will get polluted faster than usual.
- Oxygen will be deficient in your guppy fish tank.
- All of your guppies will not get able to feed on an adequate amount of food.
- Your guppy fish will not get enough space to live comfortably.
- There will be aggression and constant chasing in your guppy fish tank.
Also, an overcrowded tank will make the water cloudy because of the development of excess nutrients, and for dealing with that, the bacteria will multiply, resulting in bacteria bloom.
Consider following the one-inch one-gallon rule to ensure that you are not overcrowding your guppy fish tank.
The one-inch one-gallon rule means one inch of fish per gallon of water.
Guppies are usually 2 inches in size, so you should have 2 gallons of water per guppy fish.
Also, ensure to manage the number of guppies according to the space taken up by the plants and decors in your guppy fish aquarium.
Also read: How Many Guppies In A 20 Gallon Tank?
Conclusion:
Bacteria bloom is the common reason behind cloudy water in your guppy fish tank.
There can be other various reasons like overfeeding, overcrowding, algae bloom, and poor water condition.
Consider adding a good filtration system with biofilter media and avoid overcrowding your guppy fish tank to prevent and fix such issues.
Avoid keeping your guppy fish aquarium where direct sunlight comes and don’t keep the aquarium lights on for more than 6 hours a day to prevent algae bloom.
Reference: AquariumScience, Wikipedia,