Cloudy water w/ new tank setup HELP!

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midasman714

midasman714

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Oct 22, 2007
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Fountain Valley, CA
as some of you may know, i recently setup a 75G seaclear II which has a built in wet/dry.

It's working great as far as waterflow but at the same time, causing my tank to be VERY cloudy b/c of where the return is.

i've attached a diagram of my setup. basically all i have are pebbles. i'm thinking of putting gravel high enough to block the bottom return holes so it doesn't stir up the tank, thus curing the cloudy problem.

do you think it will work, any other suggestions? (and all the bioballs and prefilters are clean)

tank.jpg
 
You don't want to block the return holes @ the gravel level because it will affect your overall filtration ability.

Did you wash the gravel before you put it in? What kind of gravel are you using? The water may be cloudy on a new setup just because it's new! Your filtration hasn't caught up to filter out fine debris yet.

I know this is a used tank. How clean was it when you got it? What did you do to clean it before setting it up? Is it just a whitish cloudy or milky cloudy?
 
deeda;2434947; said:
You don't want to block the return holes @ the gravel level because it will affect your overall filtration ability.

Did you wash the gravel before you put it in? What kind of gravel are you using? The water may be cloudy on a new setup just because it's new! Your filtration hasn't caught up to filter out fine debris yet.

I know this is a used tank. How clean was it when you got it? What did you do to clean it before setting it up? Is it just a whitish cloudy or milky cloudy?
Click to expand...

ok, bad idea blocking the return holes then, will scratch that idea..

well, i don't have gravel in it right now, just larger bolder type pebble/rocks. (i've attached a photo of it after being setup when it was not cloudy, now its really cloudy)

its a SUPER CLEAN used acrylic tank. all i did was washed it w/ water and dried it w/ a fine cloth.

tank1b.jpg
 
You already put fish in it?!?!?!?! That's going to cause problems for the fish. Did you add anything to cycle the tank?
 
deeda;2434982; said:
You already put fish in it?!?!?!?! That's going to cause problems for the fish. Did you add anything to cycle the tank?
Click to expand...

half of the water is from the original tank so i figured it didn't need to cycle for very long. maybe i'm wrong but i've always done this w/o any issues to the fish.

back to the cloudy water, do you think it will clear itself up?
 
It should clear up within a few days but then your tank will really start the 'new tank' cycle and you will probably start seeing some other issues.

There really isn't enough good bacteria in water alone. Most of it is on hard surfaces, that is, gravel, rocks, plants, filter media. If you have another tank, see if you can transfer a dirty filter cartridge or used gravel in an old nylon stocking (temporarily) or something.
 
good idea, thanks for your help. you're right, i'm in major need of beneficial bacteria.

mods, please forward this to the lesson learned thread LOL! :D
 
just finished reading up about NTS (new tank syndrome) and what an eye opener... all this time i've been doing this the wrong way... i've had success tho b/c the fish i cycle w/ are all very hardy fish, but i've probably been putting them through a month of stress.

lesson WELL learned!
 
Glad I could be helpful. Sometimes I get caught up in reading/searching for the correct way to do stuff. I actually set my tanks up & cycling with zebra danios a few years back. Everything worked out well but....for future setups, I'm going fishless cycling w/clear ammonia.
 
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