clouds and puting fish in them

[jonhimes]

alright guys just another newbie posting his stuff. I have seen all over stating that having a cloudy tank is ok, well my tank is had water running in it for about 2 days i have no fish in it as of yet. the tank is a 55 gallon with an undergravel filter about 2-3 inches of rocks. two heaters one is a 20-40 and the other is a 30-90? i think both dual-temps by marine land the power filter is made by aqua tech or something it is new i have an emporer 400 in the mail now. and two 18 inch bubble wands. i am like are the clouds going away are staying forever. i have not had a chanch to test the water i added dechlorinator and about 33tsps of aquarium salt last night which is 11tbls/ 1 for every 5 gallons of water. i would like to know are the clouds going away? what are they what can i do to get rid of them? will they go away by themselfs? i have not tested for ph or anything else. can i add any fish? im looking for 2 starter fish i think i heard that the best ones to go with are zebra danos or something like that? please help thanks
jon

 

[pinballqueen]

Don't buy any fish yet!

You've got a very good opportunity to fishless cycle. That's the best way to go. Wait until your new filter system arrives. Get yourself some household ammonia, the kind without detergents in it (non-foaming). Pour it into the tank, enough to bring your ammonia readings up to 5ppm.....

Heck, I'm not the one to tell you about "fishless cycling". I've never done it personally. There are many, many good articles on the subject floating around. Someone will probably offer one up here soon enough...

As far as cloudy water, here's a silly question....is there anything that might be suspended in your water, such as soap or something? Also, your salt may have temporarily clouded up your water...I wouldn't think that would last more than a few hours, though.

It is possible that the cloudiness is due to teeny little air bubbles from your airstones.
No good ways to fix that that I'm aware of....

Good luck!

 

[jonhimes]

im glad to see that you like boyds bears. so do i they are very lovely and detailed. i was unable to get your post before i added any fish. i added 2 zebra danios to it and they have been in about two days and i think that it has been about 4-5 days since it started clouding up. no this morning before work i went down there and it was clearing up. very excited, i have checked the fish once after i added the zebra and no ammonia yet. i think i am going to leave them in there for about 3 wks before i get any thing else. that gives me time to decide what i want in there i think african chililds of some kind. so thank you so much for the reply.

 

[pinballqueen]

Don't set yourself an exact time frame just yet. If you're not reading any ammonia yet, you haven't started cycling yet. You still have a brand-new tank. Adding fish before the cycle is over will be an unwise thing. Increase your bioload ***slowly***. Keep checking your ammonia/nitrites/nitrates and when it starts to level out, add another fish to the mix, and let it level itself again, etc. Don't just go out and buy a whole school of Africans at once, because that will just start the cycle all over, but with much more sensitive (and pricier) fish. Losing one fish is very much preferable to losing 5 or 6.

Also, if you want african cichlids, try and keep them in pairs, according to species. Maybe you'll get a male and a female, and wind up with fry sooner or later...I wouldn't go with more than maybe 2 or 3 pairs in 55 gallons. There will be less territory issues this way, and those little guys get big pretty quickly (most of them top out at 6-9", but they're really, really territorial).

Good luck! Read up on cycling WITH fish. It'll help you with the rough road ahead.