cloudy water

[Arctic_Fishery]

i cycled my tank and it has a very light looking fog in it.,...i rinsed my gravel,plants,and decorations very well before putting it in my tank...also i did put an aqaua safe chemical in it.....but its been 3 days now and the water is still a little foggy....is this normal or not...and will it go away in time.

[Dapple2]

The cloudiness is perfectly normal :) But....

When you say that you cycled your tank can you tell me how? Somehow I have a feeling that your definition and mine are a bit different... ;)

...geesh I sure hope that didn't come across the wrong way, I couldn't come up with a friendlier sounding way to ask :o ...

[Arctic_Fishery]

well i got it and dechorinated it then tested ph...read 7.4-7.6.....then checked nitrates.....pretty much 0....then waited 3 days...did same process...all same result then got a few fish......

[Andy16]

The cloudy water is probably from the gravel, so matter how much you rinse it, there will always be dust on it that you cant get off until you put it in the tnak. IT should settle after a week. When i put sand in my tank it took almost to weeks to become clear.

[Erik713]

Yeah, i have the same thing going on in my tank. I found that partial water changes really do help.

[Harry Tolen]

Cycling is a 4-6 week process where your tank slowly and naturally develops the bacteria necessary to convert ammonia to nitrites to nitrates. When you start, you don't have any (or very little) of those, so of course your tests will show negative. I suggest you do a search here on cycling and read up on it. For the next month, keep your fish population very low (just creating minimal amounts of ammonia to start the process), and do frequent (once every 2 days or so) water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites from building up while the bacteria take hold.

Good luck with your new tank.