Cloudy new tank syndrome
- Thread starter Matthew English
- Start date
Black 0.7mm sand, and I rinsed it
It is showing some but says ok on the test chart
So what is the current advice for current situation
It is showing some but says ok on the test chart
So what is the current advice for current situation
Current advice is to read that link! Then read it again! Probably seems like a lot of info, but need to get the hang of it. Basically any advice we will give you, you would know if you had a solid grasp on the nitrogen cycle. Kind of a long process to type out in a forum post. But you want ammonia, nitrite, then nitrate, all to spike and then drop down, as different types of bacterial colonies grow in the tank.
So you would add beneficial bacteria like fluval bio enhancer which I've brought
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fluval-Cyc...uval+cycle&dpPl=1&dpID=41XK8xVsRBL&ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fluval-Cyc...uval+cycle&dpPl=1&dpID=41XK8xVsRBL&ref=plSrch
Yes I would. I don't know about the fluval one, never tried it. One thing I do know is that 75% of the bacterial products are BS. Fluval is a good company so hopefully their product works.
What that product aims to do, is seed the tank with bacteria, so they take much less time to populate the tank. You should add the product and then test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate every day. When you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and nitrate which is steadily rising; that is when your tank is cycled.
What that product aims to do, is seed the tank with bacteria, so they take much less time to populate the tank. You should add the product and then test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate every day. When you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and nitrate which is steadily rising; that is when your tank is cycled.
Hello; Well it seems you have added fish to a tank that is not cycled. That means you are doing a fish-in cycle and the current fish are to be sacrificed as part of this particular type of tank cycle practice. I too strongly suggest you read the link about cycling that has been provided by Gourami Swami.
(Every aquarist needs to have that info.
Edit: here is the link https://modestfish.com/how-to-cycle-your-aquarium/)
Cycling is a long term issue is that it can take many weeks. Kind of ironic in that the more WC (water changes) you do can slow down the cycle process.
About the cloudiness. It is fairly common for a new tank to be cloudy for a few days. As already stated it depends on what you have done to cause it. I for one am just guessing at this point. Give it a week and if still cloudy then something not ordinary is going on.
So leave it, or do a water change and add the fluval bio enhancer ?
Also should I take the carbon out of my external filter
Also should I take the carbon out of my external filter
Hello; No opinion on the fluval stuff as I have never used it. The carbon will not hurt anything but is of short term effectiveness.
I happen to be participating in another thread right now and will add a copy here of a post I just put into that thread. Similar problems with a new setup.
"Hello; You have a bit of a catch 22 right now. To get the bb (beneficial bacteria) population established they need to have ammonia and nitrites in the water, both of which are toxic to fish at the levels needed. There are two sorts of bb. One sort takes in ammonia and turns it into nitrite and the other takes in the nitrite and turns it into the much less toxic nitrate.
The ammonia using sort will be established first because that is what the fish and rotting organic stuff put into the water from their metabolic processes. A bit later on the second sort will have enough nitrite in the water to start forming colonies and then eventually they convert the nitrites into nitrates. Once the tank cycle is established we (human fishkeepers) do WC to keep the nitrate levels down to a goal of around 20 ppm or less.
If the tank is done from scratch this cycling process can take six weeks or much longer. My take is that while the bacteria are around and will eventually find a way into a tank, it can take a while for this to happen.
We fish keepers with tanks that are fully cycled can do a short cut when we set up a new tank. We seed the new tank with some bb from the established tank. The bb make a film of colonies on tank surfaces so we just move something from the old tank into the new setup. This might be your next move if you have either a friend with a tank or can get some solid material from a fish shop. ( A word of caution here - taking stuff from someone else's tank means you can also get any diseases or parasites that tank may have.) Another catch 22.
Back to the first catch 22 which is the more you do WC right now to protect the fish from the ammonia and nitrite toxins then the slower the cycle process will be because the bb are not getting a sufficient level of those toxins. However even with WC there will be ammonia and eventually nitrite at some level because the bb are not yet in place to convert them.
Sorry for the long post on this.
#17 skjl47, 3 minutes ago "
Hello; I think you are in a similar situation.
It seems less cloudy today and I added the fluval bio enhancer,
Do I do a water change or just leave it and treat the bio enhancer again tommorow
Do I do a water change or just leave it and treat the bio enhancer again tommorow
