Please Help!!!!!

[Cope_Sarah]

I have a 10 gallon tank. At the moment we have 4 black skirt tetras, 1 albino cawed frog and 1 algae eater! We just started the tank about 2 weeks ago. All ofthe sudden the tank is really cloudy. At PETCO the ysaid ( when we started the tank) that it would go through a "Recycle" and not to touch the water, but every website I've been on tels me to do a 20-50% water change...
Does this sound like what is going on? What do I do? And how long before it go's away? Should I go a partial waterchange?
I AM SO CONFUSED? WHAT DO I DO NOW?

 

[Jericho]

You are going to want to do water changes to keep your water levels acceptable. Do you have a test kit? And what your tank needs to do is cycle, you can read the stickys on that, but what you need to do is get good bacteria to form. That good bacteria is what thrives on the waste that your fish put off. Since you do not have any good bacteria yet you will need to do regular water changes too remove amonia, if you do not you will kill your fish...

 

[wataugachicken]

^what he said.
test your water, do a 50% change, test again. if the ammonia and nitrite levels are not under .25, do another water change and maybe another until they are. do this daily. ammonia levels under .25 will still be enough for the bacteria to feed and grow, but not enough to damage your fish. most of us on this site recommend the liquid tests kits. the initial cost can be a little steep, but they are much more accurate than test strips and last for much longer so in the long run the investment is worth it.

you will still have to do water changes once you are cycled to get rid of the buildup of nitrates, which is the final product of the bacteria. 20% twice a week should be good. keep the temperature of the new water the same as the tank, and remember to use dechlorinator.

also, do you have a clawed frog or an african dwarf frog? the clawed ones get big and mean and messy, and aren't really recommended for a community tank.

oh, and don't get advice from your Petco anymore. by telling you not to mess with the water, they are keeping their fingers crossed that your fish die from ammonia poisoning and you will have to go back there to buy replacements.

what kind of algae eater do you have? if you have a pleco, return it and get 1 or 2 otoclinus cats (quite small and effective). you will still have to feed them algae chips b/c they will eat all the algae. i doubt you have much anyway since the tank is so new. most plecos available are the common kind. small and cute in the store, they will eventually get about 2 feet long.

the cloudiness (aside from cycling) may also have some roots in overfeeding. one pinch once or twice a day, and half of an algae chip for the algae eater, more if it eats it fairly quickly.

I apologize if you know a lot of this already, but i don't know how much you know, so i wanted to cover a lot.

 

[Cope_Sarah]

I do have a plecto, what is wrong with those other than that they get pretty big?
The clawed frog will have his own tank by the time that he gets too big.
One more question, OK I understand that I need the "good" bacteria, we ll how do I get them? Just by doing water changes and lowering the amonia levels?
I am really hesitant about doing the 50% water change, I am a REAL novice. Our tank was looking pretty scuzzy so we took all of the fish out (1 electric blue, and one yellow chilid, an african clawed frog, a plecto, a dwarf gourami an upside down catfish and a tiger barb) And we changed 100% of the water scrubbed the tides and the gravel and we replaced the filter. Needless to say ALL of them died

 

[Dangerdoll]

scrubbing everything after trying to get the cycle going is the problem. You have killed any of the bacteria that started coming around.

If you are saying you have no fish in the tank now, you're in a good position. Sorry you lost the fish but sometimes life's lessons are harsh. I suggest you read the fishless cycle thread and start from there. It might take a little longer than expected but it is definitely worth the effort and is soooo easy to do. The biggest thing is not to completely wash everything off and if doing a fishless cyckle, THAT is the time when no water changes are needed, just a daily ammonia (etc) check and keeping the ammonia up to build the bacteria your water will need to sustain a healthy tank. This all sounds confusing, I know.... that's why I suggest the Cycle sticky.... it will all fall into place.

 

[Cope_Sarah]

I do have fish in the tank as I posted before. So, You want the amonia levels high? Does that help build the "good" bacteria....
I am even more confused now?

 

[Dangerdoll]

no, things will be different if you are going with a fishy cycle. I took your last post of you saying you removed all the fish as them not being in the tank any longer. You're going to have to grow bacteria to take care of that ammonia. What you'll need to do is lots and lots of water changes only. Not cleaning anything, just doing water changes and monitoring the ammonia levels. Read the levels, when they start to rise, do more water changes. With a fishy cycle, the most important thing is to keep the ammonia level low enough to do as minimum damage to the fish (and frog) as possible.....

 

[Jericho]

No you do not want high amonia levels, you want to try to get your amonia levels at zero. Your fish will produce amonia (waste) which if it gets to high it will kill your fish. By doing water changes you lower the amonia and keep your fish happy. Just the existance of some amonia in the tank will produce the good bacteria that you need. When you start to see amonia levels of zero and you have fish in the tank that means that the good bacteria has formed and is doing its work. You never want to do a 100% water change and scrub your tank unless you want to start all over.

 

[Kasakato]

Fish poo which is ammonia turns into nitrite which turns into nitrates. Ammonia and nitrates are toxic at any levels. You want to do water changes to keep them below 0.5ppm at all times. Eventualy you will have nitrates, which should be keeped under 20ppm with weekly water changes. You need to do water changes to do this. This process called cycling (building up bacteria to do the conversions) takes 6-8 weeks. During this time you will need to be daily testing and water changes. You know when you are done when you have 0ammoina, 0nitriate, and some nitrates with out doing any water changes.

 

[zazz]

Just to say the same thng One more way.
The good bacteria need amonia, as lontg as there are fish in therer the good bacteria will have enough ammonia to multiply to the level you need.
At the same time. ammonia will harm or kill the fish. that is why you Must change water as has been described.
There are really two kinds of good bacteria. The first kind eats ammonia,and turns it into something else that will kill the fish, NitrItes> keep testing and keep changing lots of wter to lower nitrite levels. dont worry tere willbe plenty to grow the bacteria. Thes bacteria live On surfaces. Most of them inside your filter. dont change or wash the filter or anything else in the tank while you ae trying to get these good bacteria established.

The cloudiness is likely to go away by itself and hurt nothing.
The Pleco is too big. needs a larger tank even though it is small now. if you keep it, it is likely to become stunted and die young. Or Possibly it will grow too large for the tank and die young taking tankmates with it. You will probably not find a pet store that will take it back when it is bigger. best shot is to return it to where you bought it.
Do you know how fast the clawed frog will grow?
i strongly rcommend thatyou read the begginers articles here, and the archived help stickies, and as much as you can find.
Unfortunately, the guy at petco is the Last person to take advise from. it happens like that alot.
good luck.