Help With Cloudy Water

[orgear]

My 55 gal com. tank has just become very cloudy. You can't even see that back of the tank. I think it might be a bacterial bloom, but I'm not sure. It was almost done cycling and then overnight it became very cloudy. The fish seemed fine so I did a 10 gal water change(I know it slows the cycle time, but it looked like it wasy way to cloudy), and left it overnight. It actually got more murky. I then transfered the fish to a 10 gal bare tank after I saw that one of the gold pristellas had died. The fish are fine in the 10 gal. After that I then did a 20 gal water change, replaced one of the two carbon pads and left overnight again. There is still no change. Any suggestions or help would be very helpful

Thanks

 

[FishHeadSoup]

its a bact. bloom.....stop the water changes and let it cycle itself out!

 

[orgear]

Thanks, Is there an average length of time that it takes to clear up?

 

[FishHeadSoup]

could take a couple of weeks maybe.

if you want to speed it up buy some bact. seed at your local pet shop.

 

[LA213]

yea..this probably happened because u did not let the beneficial bacteria grow..u did a water change too early

 

[orgear]

Thanks for the help, I was adding cycle until it began to cloud up, should I continue to add or just let it finish on its own. Also, would it be ok to to put the fish back in, they seemed to be "gulping" for air when I transfered them.

 

[MikeVance]

Just let the tank clear itself, get a few goldfish and feed them so they get their poop on; don't change the water anymore until it clears. What kind of filter are you using? Whatever it is don't change the media in it for a little while also.

 

[USMCtanker]

ya dont put the fish back in yet let it cycle 1st put some goldfish in there or cheap feeders, and this will help things out

 

[orgear]

I'm using a hang-on back type filter. It has two carbon pads and two bio media pads.
this is my first serious try at fishkeeping so I bought a kit that came with the tank, hood, filter, etc. Thanks for all you guys help.

 

[FishHeadSoup]

next time only change/clean one pad at a time, that way you still have some beneficial bact. to process/cycle your tank.