Milky water and activated carbon

[Marine]

Hi !
I am having some very milky water tank for 2 weeks now.
At that time, I did a big wash because I've got an ammonia rise, some poo poo was stuck in the artificial plants and I didn't spot it on time.
Since then, the ammonia is back to normal level but the water is terribly foggy.
I have assumed that the carbon bag in my filter was full so I changed it for some super activated carbon (that was sold to me at the fish shop for treating foggy water)
I rinsed well the bag because a lot of grey was coming out but eventually, the water turned even more foggy to the point that I don't see my axies anymore.

I do change 20% of the water every 2 days to clean the milkyness but it comes back after a couple of hours.
I also been checking daily the water parameters and so far I'm getting stable results such as :
pH 6.8
ammonia : 0.1 ppm
nitrite : 0 ppm
nitrate : 5.0 ppm
Since I have the axies, the pH always been to 6.8 and it's not a problem for them so I'm not trying to rise the level.

I am a bit stuck here between removing the activated carbon bag, cleaning fully the tank, do nothing....
Any ideas?

 

[wolfen]

Hi !
I am having some very milky water tank for 2 weeks now.
At that time, I did a big wash because I've got an ammonia rise, some poo poo was stuck in the artificial plants and I didn't spot it on time.
Since then, the ammonia is back to normal level but the water is terribly foggy.
I have assumed that the carbon bag in my filter was full so I changed it for some super activated carbon (that was sold to me at the fish shop for treating foggy water)
I rinsed well the bag because a lot of grey was coming out but eventually, the water turned even more foggy to the point that I don't see my axies anymore.

I do change 20% of the water every 2 days to clean the milkyness but it comes back after a couple of hours.
I also been checking daily the water parameters and so far I'm getting stable results such as :
pH 6.8
ammonia : 0.1 ppm
nitrite : 0 ppm
nitrate : 5.0 ppm
Since I have the axies, the pH always been to 6.8 and it's not a problem for them so I'm not trying to rise the level.

I am a bit stuck here between removing the activated carbon bag, cleaning fully the tank, do nothing....
Any ideas?

ideal ph is 7.4 - 7.6 for axolotls, the water should be moderate to hard not soft. the ph will also effect filter conditions as the bacteria will have a harder time consuming/converting ammonia at lower ph.
you can raise the ph and also the kh by adding bicarbonate gradually until it is 7.4 - 7.6, having good kh helps buffer the water against ph swings.
is your tank cycled? a little bit of axie poop should not cause a bacteria bloom.
old carbon becomes less effective at absorbing impurities and ends up being part of the bio filtration instead of chemical which is why it is changed monthly. unless there is an issue it won't cause cloudiness if it is old.
cloudiness is caused by.. debris in the water, bacteria bloom, algae bloom.
to remove debris mechanical filtration is used, this is usually the different grades of filter sponge.
for bacteria bloom the bacteria need to be encouraged to grow in the biological filtration, these will out compete any free floating bacteria for food, this is the ceramic media although some does grow in the sponge as well, growing a bacteria colony in the filtration is done whilst cycling.
to remove/prevent algae bloom water changes are done to reduce nitrates, having plants in tank help also reducing lighting helps.
either your filter is to small to do the job required or your tank hasn't been cycled properly.

 

[Marine]

Thank you for your reply.
I believe my tank is cycled since I've nitrate in the tank. Or I am misunderstanding how cycling works.
The KH of the water are at 40 and GH 75 from the readings.
Where I live the water is very soft and adding stone bubble helped a lot to increase the hardness.
I understand what you said about the pH, the thing is from what I read a bit everywhere is that trying to fix a pH that is naturally low will end up hurting the axolotls ( because of pH swing and or accumulation after several mid water change ) while a low pH around 6,8 will not hurt them as much.
I probably misexplained in my message, but I don't believe the bacteria bloom is caused by the lost poop in the plant.
I think I destroyed the cycle of my tank by cleaning it too hard after an ammonia spike (caused by the lost poop).

I will look more into more filtration, at the moment I have an aquaclear 50 on the side and my tank is a 30 gallons.
The axolotls are still pretty small (12 to 15cm ).

 

[wolfen]

Thank you for your reply.
I believe my tank is cycled since I've nitrate in the tank. Or I am misunderstanding how cycling works.
The KH of the water are at 40 and GH 75 from the readings.
Where I live the water is very soft and adding stone bubble helped a lot to increase the hardness.
I understand what you said about the pH, the thing is from what I read a bit everywhere is that trying to fix a pH that is naturally low will end up hurting the axolotls ( because of pH swing and or accumulation after several mid water change ) while a low pH around 6,8 will not hurt them as much.
I probably misexplained in my message, but I don't believe the bacteria bloom is caused by the lost poop in the plant.
I think I destroyed the cycle of my tank by cleaning it too hard after an ammonia spike (caused by the lost poop).

I will look more into more filtration, at the moment I have an aquaclear 50 on the side and my tank is a 30 gallons.
The axolotls are still pretty small (12 to 15cm ).

having nitrates just means that you have bacteria that are converting the waste, the idea of cycling is to build a large enough colony of bacteria to deal with the amount of waste produced by a axolotl or fish or what ever else is kept in the aquarium.
axolotls come from a slightly brackish high mineral environment although they are able to adapt to freshwater and to a degree soft water this can lead to issues such as fungus.
having good kh and gh prevents ph fluctuations.
ph also effects how your bacteria can remove ammonia and if it gets to low can even stall the cycle.
even putting crushed coral in a bag in the aquarium or limestone rock will help bring the ph up and improve the kh/gh.
your kh needs to be at least 3°/54 - 8°/143, gh should be 7°/125 - 14°/251.
for ideal/tolerant water levels for axolotls go to Water Quality Explained: How It Can Affect Your Axolotl's Health - WSAVA 2015 Congress - VIN

 

[Marine]

Thank you for the explanations.
Tomorrow I will buy an extra sponge filter + crushed corals that I will place in the filter compartment.
I also removed the driftwood that was in the tank since it apparently lower the PH.
Let's see how it goes. It's been 2 weeks already and I am truly out of ideas.

 

[Marine]

Hello!
Here are some news about the state of the aquarium.
After removing the driftwood and adding some limestone in the filter's storage, the water is finally cleared and the pH raised to 7.
I added some photos of the monsters.
Thank you wolfen for the help!