Urgent Care :: Cloudy Water(Not New tank Syndrome)

[Linus]

My 15 G has started to become very cloudy. I cleaned the filter Cartridge on Monday. My turtle and Pleco seem to be fine.

I add usually 1.5 Liters of water every other day because it evaporates so fast.

P.S. I'm only using this tank until Monday when my turt and Pleco get transfered to the 60 G.

[TheComputerGremlin]

I had a random bout of cloudy water about two or three months into using my new tank and filter, even though everything had been crystal clear up until then. I would guess mine was just a random bacterial imbalance or something.

If they are going to be moved and you have a filter that can handle that 60 G, I wouldn't worry about the cloudy water for now. I doubt it'll return in the 60 G.

[Linus]

But they'll be fine until then?

[TheComputerGremlin]

Three days? I wouldn't see why not. Keep an eye on their eyes to make sure they aren't swollen, but the most common cause of cloudiness is a bacterial imbalance, which just may mean that their water will get a little messy. After all, 15 gallons is never enough for a turtle, let alone a pleco. I'm going to assume that it is the 3" slider that is living in there, so that turtle needs a minimum of 30 gallons and pleco are very waste-producing fish, so I would guess they need a similar size-to-gallon ratio as turtles.

The only other thing I can think of that causes cloudiness could be an algae overgrowth, but typically that is a green or brownish cloudiness. If you are very concerned, you can always change out the water completely every day (since it's only 15 gallons) until you move them. Just make sure to dechlorinate the water first. Though that only works if the pleco will be fine, I'm not familiar with keeping fish with turtles.