29 Gallon Tank Issues

[jaw3709]

hi i have had my 29 gallon tank set up for a little over 3 weeks now i used preexisting gravel and filter media to get the tank going quick all my levels have been great.ive been having some nitrite spikes lately but not high enough to hurt the fish im guessing this may be the tank going thru the nitrite cycle finally im not sure if anybody can help with deciding if thats whats going on please let me know
i have 4 lyretail mollies 4 corys a few ghost shrimp 2 snails 3 platys and 2 small plecos in the tank
i clean the tank every week so i dont think waste could be causing my problem is the tank just trying to cycle or whats going on???
i did a water change 2 days ago put actived carbon in the filter and the water looked great now a few days later its very very lightly turning cloudy again can somebody please tell me why i cant get my water to stay clear.Thank you to all who respond

 

[Yvonne465]

It could be a bacterial bloom which is not harmful to the fish. It really just has to go through it's cycle. Changing the water won't change it. I have had this happen to my tank that has been up for 15 years. I got tired of waiting for it to clear on it's own so I added a UV sterilizer and it cleared up in about a day or two. I haven't had one since. A bacterial bloom looks like milk was poured in the tank. If it has any other color that whitish, it is something else. By the way, UV sterilizers also eliminate free floating algae and free floating parasites. I recommend one for every tank. Definetly worth the money.

 

[jaw3709]

just an update heres a pic of the tank not a great pic but i tryed i walked around the tank and noticed leftover food stuck in the gravel along the edges of the tank im thinking this may be causing my cloudy water as i just tested the water and everything looked good nitrites were dropping and nitrates were rising so hopefully the cycles ending how can i prevent the food stuck in the edges problem in the future is there any specific way i can feed the fish to reduce this problem i use a feeding ring but the fish stir up the food and it goes everywhere

 

[Prime Ordeal]

It will be the excess food and fish waste that is causing the bloom. You need to stop feeding using the feeding ring and only add very small amounts at a time so that as little as possible gets to the gravel. I assume you feed your corys and plecs some sort of sinking pellet or wafer so there's not much you can do about that but you should not overfeed either , in general. For example, I only feed my fish once every other day.

Then you need to improve your tank maintenance. If you have food leftovers that you can actually see you should be using a gravel cleaning syphon to remove it on a regular basis. You should be doing that anyway on a weekly basis when you change your water.