Foggy water

Help.

Required a tropical tank along with fish.. was told and shown the water was cycled.
Levels he shown me were:
PH 7

Nh3 ammonia 0ppm

No2 0ppm

No3 5ppm

Was totally clear.. woke up this morning and the water has a water fog to it.

Awaiting my water test to arrive as it’s been delayed should of arrived this morning and now won’t be here until tomorrow.

I’m gathering bacteria build/ ammonia is the problem

I’ve removed 25% water and dechlorinated the new water.

Is there anything else I can do before my testing. Kit arrives?

Fish seem fine and nothing that’s alarming me apart from the water.

It looks like a bacterial bloom. These bacteria feed on organic matter and live floating in the water. They multiply very quickly, so quickly that they replace the ones you remove by water changes within an hour or so.

When you got the tank, what did you do? Did you take all the substrate as well? It's possible that the substrate was disturbed, releasing a lot of fish poop and uneaten food back into the water - and this organic matter is what the bloom bacteria feed on.
The good news is that a bacterial bloom is not harmful to fish, it just makes it difficult for us to see the fish properly. And it will go away once all their food has gone. it's impossible to say how long that will take as every tank is different.


Once you have the test kit keep an eye on ammonia and nitrite daily until you are certain they are staying at zero. Disturbing a tank can disturb the filter bacteria and it sometimes takes them a few days to recover. If you do see either above zero, do a water change to get them down.