Micro Bubbles

Question
Ummm...thanks for the helpful advice?  I really don't understand why you think this is a homework question?  I tried to give you as much information as possible so you might have some ideas as to what is going on with my tank!  If you know of courses that deal with this kind of stuff, please let me know!  That might be the only place to find help!  


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Sorry, but I don't answer homework questions..

Your Question was:

Hi!  I have a 50 gallon aquarium that has been up and running for several years.
I do regular water changes (25% every week or two), fairly regular vacuumings
and don't think I overfeed (once a day and everything seems to get eaten).  The
fish in the tank seem healthy and content and aren't overcrowded.  I have an
AquaClear 500 filter.  I change the carbon every month or so... I usually just
rinse the sponge thoroughly and keep reusing it until it gets really old. For
the last months the water has been clouded with hundreds of thousands of 'micro
bubbles'.  It's driving me crazy!  Although it doesn't seem to affect the fish,
I think it looks awful!  Is it possible that I'm over-filtering the water?  I've
tried slowing down the flow coming out of the tank but i guess it's still a big
filter for my tank.  Do you have any ideas what could be causing this?  Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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Answer
Have you tested your water?? If you have not you will want to do this and test for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and pH. If little to no food is going to the bottom of the tank excess isn't probably the cause. It sounds as if your tank is almost recycling itself but shouldn't be because you have been doing the same routine from what I can tell for quite some time. Another thing you can do is test your tap water for the same things I mentioned above, something may have changed in your water causing the problem. It's good to just rinse the sponge and reuse it like you have been as you are keeping your beneficial bacteria in your tank. I do not feel your are over filtering. The cloudiness may be caused from an ammonia spike in your water chemistry or possibly an algae bloom, how long is your light on? The bubbles are bit more difficult to explain at this point. Let me know how your water turns out and we can go from there with this. Most local fish store will provide this service for a small fee or for free.