Help me out with this cloudy water question would ya kindly?

So I set up a new 65, well not new, I had drained a tank and let it sit for 2 weeks with the gravel in it empty, with trumpet snails in the gravel (I tried to get some out). I refilled her, added 2 penguin 280s with full of biomax and floss (one with a carbon bag), and a AC 75 full of biomax and floss. Used a bio wheel or two from an established tank, let it sit for a week, then added two orandas. Light feeding, with daily water changes since. Its been about 3 weeks now, and I can't get the water to clear. Its milky soon after each water change.

I'm assuming the cycle was never finished, and its recycling daily?

Do I do less water changes?

At first it smelled a bit funky, i'm thinking the snails died off during the no water period?

Any thoughts?

By the way, i have 33 years experience so this isn't my first rodeo.

I have a terrible memory, so im sure this is happened before, but to my best recollection the cloudiness of a cycle has never lasted this long.

I'm thinking im getting constant mini-cycles? How do I stop them?
 

pacu mom

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2006
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Easy enough to tell if you have a cycling issue--what are your water parameters? If you let the tank sit for a week with no ammonia source, it is possible that the beneficial bacteria in the established media died off. If there is measurable amounts of ammonia and/or nitrite, I'd add more established media ASAP and consider using a bacterial additive of some kind. It is very easy to get a bacterial bloom in an uncycled tank....cloudy stinky water can be signs of a bloom.
 
I would suggest just waiting it out. I know it's an eyesore, but …
I will do that... the fish seem fine but it looks awful!! Milky white...I'm a stickler for clear water.
 
Easy enough to tell if you have a cycling issue--what are your water parameters? If you let the tank sit for a week with no ammonia source, it is possible that the beneficial bacteria in the established media died off. If there is measurable amounts of ammonia and/or nitrite, I'd add more established media ASAP and consider using a bacterial additive of some kind. It is very easy to get a bacterial bloom in an uncycled tank....cloudy stinky water can be signs of a bloom.
I'm thinking mini-blooms over and over. Hopefully this will pass.
 

predatorkeeper87

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2014
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I'm thinking those trumpets died under your gravel and you probably have one hell of a decaying mess under there lol...which I would guess could cause your tank to seem like its recycling over and over. especially if those HOBS you have on there are pushing enough water downward onto the gravel it could be releasing bits and pieces of whats left in the gravel.
 
I'm thinking those trumpets died under your gravel and you probably have one hell of a decaying mess under there lol...which I would guess could cause your tank to seem like its recycling over and over. especially if those HOBS you have on there are pushing enough water downward onto the gravel it could be releasing bits and pieces of whats left in the gravel.
I agree. It's not to thick a gravel bed, but there maybe a number of dead snails.
 
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