Newbie - tank + cloudy water - what have I done?

B

Beeeee

AC Members
Jun 17, 2009
12
0
0
Near Glasgow, Scotland
Hi Everyone,
After looking into setting up an aquarium on and off for a year or so I decided I really wanted to do it. Appatently there is so much more I need to know than what I had already read.

*I have a 90L tank,
*filled with water, heater and filter (Fluval U2), gravel - all set up,
*plants will be arriving on Friday.
*no fishes in there yet
*Lights set up but not on.

I set the tank up on Sunday evening, I used a water conditioner to improve the quality of the water and also for the past 3 days added biological water supplement - as the pet man told me to do.

I knew the tank had to cycle. The water was lovely and clear untill Tuesday evening when we came home from work. It was very cloudy. I assumed this was wrong.

My partner told me he "forgot" to empty the pellets out of the bag in the filter!!! :argue: I fixed that and put the filter back in. I thought this may be the "problem".

I came online today and have read various things. At first i thought the water was a murky green and thought I had best change it all so I emptied half the tank and realised it looked more cloudy white. So I abandoned the tank and came back online.

From what I have read the tank should get cloudy during the cycle, i have fille dthe tank back up with water and do not know what to do next. Any ideas?

Glad I did not jump in and buy fish already!!!
Any advice, suggestions would be very helpful. Thank you
Bxx
:help2:
 
By pellets do you mean the stuff inside the filter media? I think you need to rinse those, and maybe that would have been the problem, but your filter had been running for a few days without cloudiness. Once the filter media is rinsed there should be coming nothing from it, and after 3 days it should be rinsed.

I'm sure you're having a biological bloom. It's perfectly normal and it's a good sign that your tank is cycling. What kind of biological supplement are you using? Some of them do have the bacteria you need but others have snake oil. You can also do a fishless cycle using pure ammonia -- much cheaper. Do you have a test kit? What are your water parameters?

I would advise on doing a water change, maybe around 25%, but don't mess with it too much since eventually it will go down on its own, and since you don't have any fish inside you don't necessarily have to worry too much about the water params in terms of toxicity... just make sure that the cycle is moving along.
 
By pellets do you mean the stuff inside the filter media? I think you need to rinse those, and maybe that would have been the problem, but your filter had been running for a few days without cloudiness. Once the filter media is rinsed there should be coming nothing from it, and after 3 days it should be rinsed.

Yes from inside the filter media. They are all rinsed now - I can't believe he left them int he bag!

I'm sure you're having a biological bloom. It's perfectly normal and it's a good sign that your tank is cycling. What kind of biological supplement are you using? Some of them do have the bacteria you need but others have snake oil. You can also do a fishless cycle using pure ammonia -- much cheaper. Do you have a test kit? What are your water parameters?

I have Nutrafin Cycle, but from reading on here it isn't well liked. So that is something I need to look into. I don't have a test kit - yet. We thought there wa sone in the box, so we need to purchase one today or tomorrow. By water parameters do you mean ph, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia levels?

I would advise on doing a water change, maybe around 25%, but don't mess with it too much since eventually it will go down on its own, and since you don't have any fish inside you don't necessarily have to worry too much about the water params in terms of toxicity... just make sure that the cycle is moving along.

I did a big water change - 50% :(!! Now I am unsure whether or not to add more supplement and a little more water conditioner. Thank you very much for your reply, it is much appreciated. From what you have said it seems like it's a biological bloom - wish I had found this forum before I messed about!!
 
The test kits you need are Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate, and ph. Liquid test kits are the most reliable. The larger water change will do nothing but slow the process down so don't think you have to start all over. I would not do anything else until you test the water. If you don't have test kits take a water sample to your local fish store, and ask them to test it. Make sure you ask for the numbers of the results, not just Oh there fine. I do not use cycling products so I cant comment on that. Do you know anyone who has a fish tank? You could ask them to squeeze their filter media over yours to help jump start the cycle, or have them add your media to their tank for a few weeks. If neither of these is an option, get the liquid pure ammonia and continue with the fishless cycle of your tank.
 
I also used "Cycle" to add beneficial bacteria, I have no idea if it works or not, and I just let the pet store employee convince me to get it. Couldn't hurt in adding it as long as you follow the directions.

I would hold off on doing any water changes until you get a test kit. There are no fish in there, so let the tank cycle. That cloudiness you got was probably the bacteria you need. Start testing everyday and watch that you always have ammonia. Around 2-3 ppm. You can does with pure ammonia and test an hour later to make sure that's where you at. Your tank will be properly cycled when it can go from 2-3 ppm of ammonia to 0, in 24 hours. Along the way you will see NitrItes spike and then go down to 0 (the cloudiness may be the spike, so your NitrIte may already be on the way down). NitrAtes will go up, and probably won't come down much, if at all. When the ammonia is going to 0 after 24 hrs, do a large WC and that should take care of the high NitrAtes. Remember, less than 40 is recommended, less than 20 is ideal.
 
jm1212 said:
did you add any ammonia to your tank? if not, it probably isnt a bacterial bloom, just some dust from the media.
Click to expand...

I have only used what the man at the shop said, the water conditioner, the filter, heater and the nutrafin cycle. I was told I would be able to start adding fish late next week. But now it doesn't seem likely.
 
If it is a particle-based cloudiness from your filter media, then it should clear up within hours. If you put filter floss (its like $3 for a huge bag) in front of your filter intake, it should clear up within an hour or so.

If it doesn't clear up, its most likely a bacterial bloom. In order for your tank to start cycling, it needs an ammonia source, so you can either directly add ammonia to your tank or just do it the lazy way and put some fish food in there and let it decompose on its own.

From my experience, adding plants will make the cycling go *slightly faster while reducing the huge spikes after every stage of the process. I usually cycle with a cheap plant like anarcharis where I don't really have to pay attention to it.
 
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