Help! Tank cloudy, stupid question but...

[BAM Himself JB]

To make this short.

Yesterday I got a 75 gallon tank, it's cloudy, I added the rocks after the water, the water was crystal clear, the whoel tank was filled, I wasn't going to add rocks but hten I decided to add used rocks, that I rinsed for a while.

I added the rocks and now it's cloudy, I havn't purchased a filter yet, the only filter I have is an submergable filter from my 20 gallon tank.

Their are 2 turtles, a Texas Cichlid, and 20 feeder fish in the tank.

I also have a undergravel filter. but don't really understand it.

Any suggestions?

Should I let the sit tank and "settle"?

Should I waste my money on that crap Accuclear or whatever.

Trying not to spend any more money as I have spent enough.

Sorry if i seem like I got an attitude or anything I'm just rather frustrated.

Please help, thanks.

 

[indiginess]

don't mean to have an attitude, but there's a lot here to address,

but first the simple, do you have airstones hooked up to the undergravel filters uptake tubes?

hate to say it, but you are probably going to have to spend some more money, but you can do it minimally with some research.. this site is a good start.

what is Accuclear? if its a chemical, i'd definately avoid it for now

my first guess on the cloudiness is a bacterial bloom. this is actually a good thing

i've never set up a tank without it being cloudy for a day or two

fire way some more specific questions.. this is only my second day on this site, but the people here are helpful and it seems to get decent traffic.

 

[indiginess]

and what do you mean by 'rock' chunks for decoration or gravel on the floor?

for an undergravel filter to be effective, you need at least an inch of gravel, more like two

 

[BAM Himself JB]

Hmmmm... I got like an inch of gravel, but I dont reallly get how it works?

I got the undergravel frame thing on it, i got the tube that hooks up to the carbon filter or whatever it is and I go tthe air hose going to it and its blowin out bubbles out of the little filter thing... is their anything else I should be doing?

And what's the difference how much gravel is on it?

 

[indiginess]

an undergravel filter works by creating a tank current down through the gravel, through the plate with the slots, up through the uptake tubes and out into the rest of the aquarium. a circle of sorts.

the gravel itself is the filter. bacterial colonies 'clean' the water of fish wastes. for more about this process, search the forum archives for 'nitrogen cycle' or cycling. its been a while since i've actually ran an undergravel filter, but i don't think 1" is enough. your texas probably likes to root around anyway, right? the stability of these bacterial colonies is VERY important to the health of your tank

i would suggest purchasing a couple of powerheads to replace the air pump. you plug them in and attach them directly to the tops of the uptake tubes. I'd get at least one with a decent output, 50+ gallons per hour. the bigger the better if you are only gettin one, but several small, cheaper ones might be the way to go

and there are no stupid questions, just stupid people who don't know enough to ask questions

 

[indiginess]

one more thing... the circulation is created by the rising air bubbles, creating an upward flow of water with it... the further down the bubbles start down the tube, the more efficient the system. if you can force the airline tubing further down the pipe, do it immediately