Bloom and cycle in guppy fry tank

Hi folks,

I'm new to this guppy fry thing, my Big Momma has just had her second batch of fry. The first are about 4 weeks old (All 23 survived) and the second batch is now 4 days old, there are ~35 (how do you count the little boogers?)

However, in my zest to make sure they're well fed, I think I've overdone things. My 10 gallon tank got a cloudy bloom about 2 weeks ago, and this week the nitrites went through the roof.

Luckily, the 40 gallon tank I got about 3 weeks ago is done cycling. I'd intended this to be the 'grow out' tank for likely males, so I could keep the females in the 10 gallon tank. I also purchased, but haven't set up yet another 10 gallon for a baby fry tank, which I won't put gravel in.

I moved all the fish into the 40 gallon tank, on the theory that they'd be better off in good water (no ammonia, no nitrites, nitrates ~5ppm) and that the minor shock of changing tanks would be worth getting them out of the icky water. Luckily, they seem to have all survived it.

Here's the problem. Even with some 'clear water' tabs, and daily 50% water changes for the last 3 days in my 10 gallon cloudy tank, I still can't clear the water up. The nitrites have dropped back to acceptable levels, but I won't move fish back in 'til I'm sure the water is stable again. (Using an old filter to ensure I don't kill off all the beneficial bacteria while it cycles.)

Anyone have any idea why the cloudiness isn't clearing up, or what to do to fix it?

Also, I think the water cycled because I was overfeeding the babies. I kept worrying that the small amounts recommended on websites wouldn't get to the fry, who were all hiding in the rocks and anachris all over the tank. I was afraid the filter would get it all before it got to them. Is this silly? The recommendations I've seen are "dip a damp pencil lead in the powdered baby food and don't add more than that" but how will they all get some?

Thanks!

-Wendy

Thanks! Seriously, stop changing the water? Do you think I'm just stirring up gunk at this point, and if I let it settle it'll be ok?

The 10 g tank was originally cycled, then was good for almost 4 months, 'til I had baby guppies and started overfeeding.

Ok, thanks everyone for the help. I didn't realize it was ok to change out all the water once I'd removed the fish -- now that you've said it, it's obvious. I didn't move my filter to my 40 gallon, it sat in the 10 g for about a week with no fish. I had some plants (some with a few dead leaves) and tossed a couple of pleco pellets in through the week, so I'm hoping there was enough ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. Just to be sure, I put in a handful of gravel from my 40 gallon tank when I put fish back in, to help re-establish bacteria.

I obviously made a lot of mistakes with all of this, thanks for the help.

By the way, where do you get straight ammonia? I looked at Petco, Petsmart, Target, Wal-mart, and my lfs. My LFS guy said he sometimes had it but not at the moment and pushed me to do a fishy cycle (He pointed out I have a bunch of guppy fry, some of which I'm not going to keep anyway, so it wouldn't hurt) -- his concern was primarily for my daughter. said "You have 3 yr old, she gets ammonia, she dead. You do fish cycle."