new need some input

[Rich954!]

so just got the courage to break down my salt water tank and go fresh water. so my setup is a 40b with a 30tall sump using 2 4x14 sock filters and some activated charcoal in chamber 1. chamber 2 using ceramic rings and bio balls 3rd chamber using bio sponge and 4th some filter floss.. substrate is seachem black sand i cleaned it for about 1 hr till the water was clear. i have a 3lb drift wood which i boiled for 4 hrs and soaked for 3 days and reboiled. also have amazon swords in the tank.. its been 3 weeks i test water everyday 0 ammonia 0 nitrate 0 nitrite water is cloudy and i cant not get it cystal clear. i did use prime and stabilty. need some guidance never had issues with my salt setup water was always crystal. thank in advance.
i have ordered
2 mono peacock bass
3 clown loach

figuered i get this tank up and running for the next 6-8months let the fish grow till i setup a 220gal

 

[Joshuakahan]

so just got the courage to break down my salt water tank and go fresh water. so my setup is a 40b with a 30tall sump using 2 4x14 sock filters and some activated charcoal in chamber 1. chamber 2 using ceramic rings and bio balls 3rd chamber using bio sponge and 4th some filter floss.. substrate is seachem black sand i cleaned it for about 1 hr till the water was clear. i have a 3lb drift wood which i boiled for 4 hrs and soaked for 3 days and reboiled. also have amazon swords in the tank.. its been 3 weeks i test water everyday 0 ammonia 0 nitrate 0 nitrite water is cloudy and i cant not get it cystal clear. i did use prime and stabilty. need some guidance never had issues with my salt setup water was always crystal. thank in advance.
i have ordered
2 mono peacock bass
3 clown loach

figuered i get this tank up and running for the next 6-8months let the fish grow till i setup a 220gal

View attachment 1511443

It’s been my experience that new freshwater setups are usually cloudy in the beginning. I’ve heard of the prime/stability way of cycling but I believe it needs fish to work. They way I’ve always done it is i add cycled media and a bottle of safestart and fish, but I start lightly stocked. That’s always worked well for me. If you get your fish and cycled media from the same place, it should be fine if you trust the source

 

[Rich954!]

It’s been my experience that new freshwater setups are usually cloudy in the beginning. I’ve heard of the prime/stability way of cycling but I believe it needs fish to work. They way I’ve always done it is i add cycled media and a bottle of safestart and fish, but I start lightly stocked. That’s always worked well for me. If you get your fish and cycled media from the same place, it should be fine if you trust the source

what i did was actaully ghost feed the tank. added brime shrimp to kick start the ammonia process to get it cycled did that for a week every other day till i test and seen ammonia in the tank let it sit for about a week till everything kinda leveled out did a 25% water change which is about 10 gallons and the last week everything has tested perfect 0 across but now the water ia cloudy

 

[deeda]

Your tank is not cycled until ammonia & nitrite show zero and you have some level of nitrate above 10ppm. I doubt the addition of brine shrimp for an ammonia source is sufficient even with the addition of Stability.

Are you using the freshwater test kit or ?

 

[Joshuakahan]

what i did was actaully ghost feed the tank. added brime shrimp to kick start the ammonia process to get it cycled did that for a week every other day till i test and seen ammonia in the tank let it sit for about a week till everything kinda leveled out did a 25% water change which is about 10 gallons and the last week everything has tested perfect 0 across but now the water ia cloudy

I wouldn’t worry about the cloudiness, every freshwater tank I setup does that in the beginning, it always clears up after a couple weeks to a month. It’s probably a small bacteria bloom

 

[Joshuakahan]

what i did was actaully ghost feed the tank. added brime shrimp to kick start the ammonia process to get it cycled did that for a week every other day till i test and seen ammonia in the tank let it sit for about a week till everything kinda leveled out did a 25% water change which is about 10 gallons and the last week everything has tested perfect 0 across but now the water ia cloudy

I agree with deeda about a level of nitrate, I missed the zero nitrate part. You should be seeing some nitrate if it’s cycled and there’s any amount of waste

 

[Rich954!]

Your tank is not cycled until ammonia & nitrite show zero and you have some level of nitrate above 10ppm. I doubt the addition of brine shrimp for an ammonia source is sufficient even with the addition of Stability.

Are you using the freshwater test kit or ?

im using the freshwater master kit.. ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0 i will retest nitrate when i get home and post a pic.. i shake the bottles 30sec each. then shake for tube for 1min and let sit for 5min then check color

 

[Rich954!]

1.ammonia
2. nitrite
3. nitrate(picture taken at 4min and 58sec)

when the light is on the camera will not pick up the cloudyness

 

[Joshuakahan]

1.ammonia
2. nitrite
3. nitrate(picture taken at 4min and 58sec)

when the light is on the camera will not pick up the cloudyness

View attachment 1511523View attachment 1511524View attachment 1511525View attachment 1511526View attachment 1511527

Since everything is zero, I’m not sure how it would be a bacteria bloom, makes me think it’s an algae bloom. But new tanks always seem to be a little cloudy in the beginning for one reason or another

 

[Joshuakahan]

1.ammonia
2. nitrite
3. nitrate(picture taken at 4min and 58sec)

when the light is on the camera will not pick up the cloudyness

View attachment 1511523View attachment 1511524View attachment 1511525View attachment 1511526View attachment 1511527

Does it always get that much natural light?