New 125 Gallong Set-up

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Ajohnson2882

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 24, 2012
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nebraska
Hello everyone! I just recently bought a 125 Gallon aquarium from a guy in town that has had it set up with a couple big green terrors and a pleco for a few years now and is moving to a smaller house and needed to get rid of his tank. I jumped on the offer as I've been in the market for a larger tank for awhile now. I've had a few tanks in the past, biggest being a 55G I got rid of a few years back.

Up until this tank I've never really heard much about the 'Bio-cycle'. And I'm sure some of you read that and think how could I have had tanks in the past and never heard much about the bio cycle?! Well, In the past I've never had any issues with my tanks. Id get them set-up and running for several days and then add fish into them. Never had any issues with fish dying or anything, so the whole Bio-cycle/nitrogen cycle never really came to my attention and I didn't even think about it.

I purchased this 125G and got it all filled up and running for several days now like I mentioned, and I am doing a native tank with fish from lakes. (I've had natives in my past tanks) This past thursday I put in a 8-9" Smallmouth Bass, and an 8-9" Channel Catfish. Friday afternoon I got home and noticed the water to be very cloudy, had a milky color to it. At first I was confused, but then started to think about the bio-cycle that I hadn't payed any attention to in the past. And after some researching I quickly came to the realization that it must be the beneficial bacteria blooming. Would I be correct by saying that? My question is how long can I expect the water to stay cloudy/milky in color before it will start to clear up? Since friday it has cleared up a small amount, but is still quite cloudy.

I am also curious when I can expect to be able to safely put more fish into my tank.. I know that during the nitrogen cycle the water goes through an amonia spike, and nitrite spike.

Any and all input and advice is greatly appreciated, Thanks!
 
The cloudy water is definatly not the good bacteria "blooming". Test your water, it could be a bunch of things what filters re on the tank new or used? What did you use to clean the tank? What type of substrate? New or used? Did you clean it?
 
djlamonica said:
The cloudy water is definatly not the good bacteria "blooming". Test your water, it could be a bunch of things what filters re on the tank new or used? What did you use to clean the tank?What type of substrate? New or used? Did you clean it?
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From what I was told is it is a bacteria bloom, and they are growing at such a rapid rate they just havn't settled into the filter and substrate which is causing the cloudiness in the water. When I got the tank I had rinsed it out, as well as rinsed out the substrate, which is gravel. (I realize now I would have been better off not rinsing it off as it would have already had the 'beneficial bacteria' from his tank that already went through the nitrogen cycle) Both the filters on my tank are used, The guy I bought the tank from had it up and running up until the day before I picked it up and he drained it.
 
Just test the water.
as long as ammonia 0, nitrite low, you're good.

no fish will survive an ammonia spike. If you can detect ammonia, water change 50% now.
you can only allow an ammonia spike if you are doing a fishless cycle.
there's plenty of bacterial products on the market, such as seachem Stability, that will metabolize the ammonia.
 
I do not have any pictures at the moment. It's cleared up even more today, but is still cloudy. It's slowly clearing up. My fish seem to be doing just fine, they are very active and swimming around. I don't have any testing kits at the moment, but I will get the water tested tomorrow to make sure it's safe.
 
I got my water tested today, Amonia read zero, Nirites read zero and nirates read zero! PH level was 7.8, talk about perfect water!
 
Ajohnson2882 said:
I got my water tested today, Amonia read zero, Nirites read zero and nirates read zero! PH level was 7.8, talk about perfect water!
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If your tank is established and has both bacteria you should read nitrate. If not you just have a whole lot of clean water and its not reading anything. Is it an api fw kit? If so shake nitrate bottles real good and try again!

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I don't have any testing kits yet, so I took a sample of my water to a local fish store and they tested it for me. They just used test strips, could it possibly be that there was a small nitrate reading and they just didn't compare the strips to the color charts good enough? I'm going to get some test strips and test the water myself.
 
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