How Can I Make My Fish Tank Not Cloudy?

A properly maintained aquarium is a healthy aquarium. Keeping the water properly conditioned and at the right temperature, the filters cleaned and replaced regularly, and the fish fed the right amount of food can lead to years of enjoyment out of your fish tank. However, subtle changes, such as to the water's composition, can cause the water in the tank to turn cloudy, almost pea-soup like. There are a number of corrective measures you can take to fix the problem and get your fish tank to no longer be cloudy.

Things You'll Need

  • Additional aquarium (optional)
  • Aquarium testing kit
  • Commercial algaecide (optional)
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Instructions

    • 1

      Leave the tank alone if the aquarium is a fairly new one. Allow the water to clear up naturally in a few days, given the growth of nitrifying bacteria, which is actually beneficial to your aquarium and should be gone by the time you need to make your next water change.

    • 2

      Look to see if your fish are eating all of the food that you give them. Limit the amount of food you feed your fish (such as the amount that they can consume in 60 seconds) for a few days to see if the cloudiness goes away.

    • 3

      Set up another aquarium if your current aquarium is at capacity for the amount of fish that it is supposed to hold; the cloudiness could be coming from an overabundance of fish waste in the water, which is being produced faster than your filtration system can handle. Eliminate the cloudiness problem by allowing for at least 10 percent less fish in an aquarium than the tank's manufacturer calls for.

    • 4

      Use an aquarium testing kit find out the levels of phosphate in your fish tank--anything above 3 parts per million could be the cause of your water cloudiness problem. Use aluminum sulfate when conditioning your tap water to use for your tank to lower the phosphate amount. Consider using more filtered water when replacing the water in your tank.

    • 5

      Keep the lid on the aquarium closed as often as possible to eliminate the amount of algae bloom that could develop in your tank. Use a commercial algaecide (unless you have live plants in the tank, which will die), if the cloudiness has a green tint to it. Do a 50 percent turnover during your next water change, which should get rid of most of the algae bloom in your water as well.