http://forum.aqua-fish.net/ A forum devoted to aquarium fish, plants, techniques and fish keeping as a whole. en http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=cloudy-dirty-water#1 Recently, the water in my 20-gal. aquarium has become really cloudy and dirty. Pump and filter are working fine. I only have a big goldfish and a pleco in it. The only changes that occurred are that I had to replace my heater and the new one isn’t maintaining the temperature very well, and I added a bubble bar (didn’t have any aeration before). I’ve changed out the water several times, but it gets bad again. I tested the water and the ammonia and nitrates are very low. I don’t know what else to do. Does the temperature have a lot to do with this? Thanks for any tips or help. Alan original post: March 10, 2007, 4:41 pm anonymous 2008-05-02 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=cloudy-dirty-water#2 The problem is a bubble bar; I’m nearly 100% sure. How about pH level? Here is how you should solve this problem easily: Add a powerful filter there. If your aquarium has capacity of 20 Gallons, use a filter which is designed for 30 Gallon tanks. I went through the same problem long time ago in both of my tanks. And it happend once again when the filter in my larger tank broke down and I replaced it with another which isn’t as powerful as that previous. After 1 month of waiting for reply from the manufacturer, I decided to buy a new filter (my tank’s capacity is 21.39 US Gallons) which is designed for tanks up to 52 US Gallons. I can’t be more thankful to my filter since that moment. The water is crystal-clear no matter that my tank is overpopulated with Plecos. Powerful filters usually have large filtration media which handle wastes and such things very easily. And don’t need as much cleaning as less-powerful filters do. But don’t forget to use many plants in your tank if you use very powerful filter. Otherwise your tank would became a washing-machine . jan 2008-05-02 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=cloudy-dirty-water#3 I agree with Jan. There was a lot of waste and such thing lying at the bottom. Your airstone aeration probably caused that the water current mixed the bottom water with the rest. Pete anonymous 2008-05-02