New filter, cloudy water

[rognavald]

I have a 29 gallon well planted tank and about 3 days ago i switched filters from the crappy one the tank came with to a Aquaclear 50. Previously the water was really clear, but within a few hours of setting up the new filter the water got cloudy and has stayed cloudy ever since. Ive done several small water changes and have tried Acurel F water clarifier which didn't help at all.

Any thoughts on what i should be doing? Is this a common problem when switching filters?

--Rog

 

[dlobom]

I suspect this is bacterial bloom, you need to wait it out until the tank is cycled again.

When you take the old filter out, you took all the bacteria that it contained, so you have to wait for this bacteria colonies to grow in the new filter.

Since there are no bacteria in the new filter, amonia/nitrates/nitrites will be all over, so you need constant water changes.

You can speed this up a lot, if you take the media from the old filter and put it in the tank, that is unless it already dried out, in which case all the bacteria are dead.

 

[redtailcatfreak]

theres a product called "Stress Zyme+" its in a white and blue bottle. it helps boost the biological filter. this will help clear it up faster

 

[dlobom]

just be careful, sometimes adding stuff just makes things worse

 

[rognavald]

Thanks, Ive stuck the old filter media in the tank for now. I'll see how it looks the next couple of days.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Just wait it out. The cloudy water doesn't really harm the fish.