Cloudy tank

I’m brand new to the hobby and I’ve spent a lot of time researching. I’ve had this tank for about 3 weeks now and I’ve done multiple water changes. But for some reason the tank is cloudy. You can’t see it very well in the photo but in person it’s cloudy and I don’t know how to clear it up or what could be the problem. Is it because I have sand or do I need to do daily water changes? There’s only two fish in there a betta and a pleco and it’s 10 gallons so I wouldn’t think it’s because it’s dirty. I need to know how to clear it up so please I’ll take any suggestions.

Have you tested the water for ammonia and nitrite?
If the filter hasn't cycled (developed colonies of good bacteria to keep the water clean), the milky cloudy water is from bacteria feeding off the uneaten food in the tank and filter.

What sort of materials/ media are in the filter?
Have you cleaned the filter since the tank was set up?
You don't want to clean the filter for the first 8 weeks of its life otherwise you can wash out the beneficial filter bacteria. After the filter is 8 weeks old, you can clean it once a month.
Don't replace filter media, just squeeze it out in a bucket of aquarium water and re-use the media. The bucket of dirty water goes on the garden or lawn outside. You only replace the filter media if it starts to fall apart.

Have you cleaned the inside of the glass?
Sometimes newly setup aquariums leave a film on the glass that makes the water look milky cloudy but it's just on the glass. Wipe the glass down and see if it helps.

If the water is still cloudy after cleaning the glass, do a 75% water change.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the aquarium.

Auttie_Pie1 said:

I’m brand new to the hobby and I’ve spent a lot of time researching. I’ve had this tank for about 3 weeks now and I’ve done multiple water changes. But for some reason the tank is cloudy. You can’t see it very well in the photo but in person it’s cloudy and I don’t know how to clear it up or what could be the problem. Is it because I have sand or do I need to do daily water changes? There’s only two fish in there a betta and a pleco and it’s 10 gallons so I wouldn’t think it’s because it’s dirty. I need to know how to clear it up so please I’ll take any suggestions.View attachment 350294

Click to expand...

Cloudy white water is due to bacteria bloom. It's either you have a lot of uneatened fish food or starter bacteria over-growth.

White coudiness is either dust from the substrate (which will settle) or a bacterial bloom. These bacteria are not the ones we want to grow.

The ones we want to grow multiply slowly, they live in biofilm which is attached to surfaces, and they feed on nitrogen based food.
Bloom bacteria multiply quickly, they live free floating in the water and they feed on carbon based food.

The bloom bacteria are present in our tap water in small numbers as the chlorine or chloramine added by the water provider kills most of them. When a tank is filled with tap water and water conditioner added, this removes the chlorine/chloramine and the few which survived can now start to multiply. Because they live floating in the water we see them as the cloudiness. Because they multiply so quickly, water changes can't keep up with the numbers of them.
The good news is that these bacteria will run out of food and die. But as every tank is different it is impossible to say how long this will take.