Milky cloudy water

@Bruce Leyland-Jones

Do you mean quartz? Quartz is silicon dioxide, the same as sand. Though a lot of quartz contains impurities which can affect the water.

It's usually calcium carbonate which affects hardness - coral, limestone, shells etc.

P J said:

Be patient it can take four to six weeks to cycle, the cloudiness is normal. Just leave it absolutely no need for water changes at this stage you are just delaying a full cycle. Too many fish too soon but they should survive.

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Mine took 2 months to cycle

Slaphppy7 said:

8 PPM before the WC??

I'm surprised the fish are still alive, quite frankly.

What kind of test are you using?...did you get a good water conditioner, as suggested above?

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Yes I know.
we are using the API test kit recommended above. We also got another water conditioner as well.
Did another water change and now ammonia is at 0.50ppm.

Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

There are usually a lot of anxieties associated with large water changes, but, provided the water is being treated with a good water conditioner, clean water is usually way, way better than the toxic soup you're replacing. Think about the rain in the natural environment.
The only real issue might be the temperature difference, adding chilled cold water to a warm tank. You could always boil a kettle* and add a small amount of hot water to your cold water, before adding it to the tank.

*Traditionally, hot or warm water from a hot tap isn't recommended, because this often travels through copper piping and copper is toxic for many water creatures.

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The water temp isn’t really an issue, our tap water isn’t too cold (in FNQ Australia). It is the same temp as tank water.
The fish were extremely happier after the water change.

Essjay said:

Ammonia needs to be zero when there are fish in a tank. You really need to do another big water change to get it down, and if it's still more than zero after that, do another one.
Going forwards you need to test every day for both ammonia and nitrite and if either of them are over zero, do a water change. This is why fish-in cycling is hard work.
Live plants will help as they take up ammonia as fertiliser and they turn it into protein rather than nitrite. Even a few stems of elodea/anacharis left floating on the water will help.

Ammonia burns their skin and gills. The damage to the gills means the fish can't absorb as much oxygen from the water.
Nitrite binds to the oxygen receptors in the blood and stops oxygen being taken up. It basically does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us.

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We are testing water everyday for ph, ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. Nitrites have never been an issue, they are still sitting at 0ppm. Ammonia has been our issue, but after the multiple water changes it is now at 0.50ppm.
We have a couple live plants in the tank but I will be getting more just to see if it helps.

Update:
We are doing daily water changes until the ammonia is 0ppm. It is currently sitting at 0.50ppm, which is great considering only a few days ago it was 0.80ppm.
The rocks in the tank are ones I purchased with a smaller tank we have, are they no good? Should I invest in gravel as mentioned above?
surprisingly we have lost 0 catfish, 0 neon tetra, and our gourami is still going strong. However we have lost most of our male guppies, we only have 2 males left. Now the water is sitting at 0.50Ppm they are all actively swimming around, not appearing stressed at all. We will continue with water changes until it is 0ppm. We check water temp is the same or similar, we have no issues with that.
first photo is a couple days ago with ammonia at 8ppm, and second photo is tank now at 0.50Ppm.

thanks for all the advice

Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

Mostly* great advice and it's good of you to turn your error into learning opportunities.
The only small thing I have some slight issue with was;
"P.S. When you're changing water, make sure it's the same temp as water in the tank. There is nothing that can kill stressed fish faster than fast temp change. Couple of degrees up or down will not be fine (another bad advice from my sales person)".

This would depend upon how much water you're changing. Remember that rain rarely comes heated and, whilst it may be warmer than running stream water, it would likely be cooler than that found in a pool. Granted, a lot of extremely cold water would not be good, but it doesn't have to be at 'exactly' the same temperature as that in the tank.
Once a tank is up and running as it should, water changes should be a simple and routine process, with as little complications as possible.

Oh yes...and be wary of the 'quartz' part of your gravel recommendation. Too much quartz will seriously affect the hardness of the water in the tank and will continue to do so, until all of the quartz has dissolved. I'd suggest just looking for 'aquarium' or 'river' gravel.

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True for regular water changes.
Couple of degrees doesn't really matter that much.

However: I was talking about stressed out fish in similar circumstances as OP. I had about 20 fish in a tank that was not cycled.
And you are forced to do 50-80% of water change everyday. Sometimes twice a day.
That fish has ammonia poisoning, nitrite poisoning. Probably under attack from ich, fin root, etc because they are so week from ammonia poisoning.
Small temp change in water just tip them over the edge. Even the act of changing water and added stress from it and water composition, tips them over.
I lost all 20 fish within 2hrs after water change. Before that: they were just gasping for air on the surface or lying on the bottom/trying to escape through the glass.
But die-offs were significantly less numerous after I read somewhere to use heather and ice to match water to tank temp as close as possible. In circumstances where fish is stressed (not cycled tank, sick, being treated, stressed, etc)
Seemed to work for me to an extent, as ultimately I lost all fish to poisoning and accompanying parasite/bacteria attack.

Quartz aquarium sand is inert and not active. It doesn't leak anything into water.
You do have to wash it properly to get rid off debris in the bag, even though it says it's pre-washed.

Shan98 said:

Update:
We are doing daily water changes until the ammonia is 0ppm. It is currently sitting at 0.50ppm, which is great considering only a few days ago it was 0.80ppm.
The rocks in the tank are ones I purchased with a smaller tank we have, are they no good? Should I invest in gravel as mentioned above?
surprisingly we have lost 0 catfish, 0 neon tetra, and our gourami is still going strong. However we have lost most of our male guppies, we only have 2 males left. Now the water is sitting at 0.50Ppm they are all actively swimming around, not appearing stressed at all. We will continue with water changes until it is 0ppm. We check water temp is the same or similar, we have no issues with that.
first photo is a couple days ago with ammonia at 8ppm, and second photo is tank now at 0.50Ppm.

thanks for all the advice View attachment 141415View attachment 141416

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Yeah, I lost guppies first; then Platties and Mollies. Livebearers are opposite of hardy fish these days.
At the end I lost corries and BN pleco, after Nitrites were skyrocketing.
And I was lying, I didn't lose all fish now that I think about it!
My Betta went through all that ordeal not even slightly bothered by cycling process, dying fish, water changes, etc.
Still going strong

Spyro said:

Yeah, I lost guppies first; then Platties and Mollies. Livebearers are opposite of hardy fish these days.
At the end I lost corries and BN pleco, after Nitrites were skyrocketing.
And I was lying, I didn't lose all fish now that I think about it!
My Betta went through all that ordeal not even slightly bothered by cycling process, dying fish, water changes, etc.
Still going strong

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Definitely interesting isn’t it. Good to hear people have also been through the same thing