Baby Tank Prob

[crusty]

Hi guys hoping for a little advice with my baby tank which is a jewel rio 60 litre and has been established for at least a month now and thought had finished the main cycling (maybe not) contents are 4 live plants,1 piece small decorwood 5 guppie babys 10 molie babys and a small common plec 2" max.The guppy babies are about 5-6 weeks old and the mollie babies are 3-4 weeks old.There is nothing else and there hasnt been anything else in the tank.
The problem Im having is that there seems to be a bacterial bloom or something similar happening my water is cloudy whiteish little bits suspendend there and this started about 6 days ago.My water parameters are ph 7 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 cant do nitrate test as dont have the tester to do this and cant get one till next week .
Im thinking it is a nitrate bloom that im having at the minute so I have for the past 4 days been doing 20% water changes and extensive gravel cleaning at the same time.
Any advie here would be great and please tell me if Im doing something wrong as want to sort this problem out.

Cheers in advance guys

 

[Lateral Line]

Somethings that strikes me...

>>> thought had finished the main cycling

... and...

>>> hasnt been anything else in the tank

... curious, do you mean there have been no fish or anything else in the tank during "cycling"?

 

[crusty]

The Babies have been in the tank with the plec for 2 and a half weeks to 3 weeks no for cycling the little baby tank I used filter media and gravel and water from my main tank before I had to put the babies in as had nowhere else to put them.So yes i thought that the cycling was over by now but i might be wrong that is why I asked the question and the only fish that have been in there are what i have said .
Just need to know if im doing the right thing at the moment.
I have kept fish since i was a teenager and kept them and breed them for over ten years but havent kept fish for 2-3 years and just got back into the hobby but i havent had this problem before so just need to check im doing the right thing

 

[Lateral Line]

My concern, of course, is that during "cycling" you are building up the bacterial colonies to process the waste products from your livestock - if there was no live stock, then you will not have built substantial colonies of bacteria to deal with it.

If you've been around the block, then I guess you've got that covered somehow.

There are some inorganic "white blooms" caused by precipitating out CaCO3 and the like, but usually, that would show up as a change in pH.

Are you overfeeding? That could easily generate a bacterial bloom, there are not many fish, and what there are are small.

I'd be looking at doing some water changes.

 

[crusty]

Well to start with everybody should IMO do a fishless cycle which is a proven way of cycling your tank and in this process you are not causing any stress or health problems to the fish.There are a few ways of doing a fishless cycle and Im sure there are a few posts on here about it I have allways used this method and it is ime 100% successfull.
As I said ph is perfect which is why ithink it may be a nitrate bloom with adding the babies and the plec so soon ie before the fishless cycle was complete and the only reason I did this was that I had no choice and as i said i have never had this problem before but I have never had to add fish so soon before.So not 100 % sure if the fishless cycle was complete well pretty sure it wasnt.
As I said Im doing a 20% water change every 48 hours along with a gravel clean.Overfeeding isnt an issue Im the only one in the house who feeds them nobody else is allowed to so this problem never arrises.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> everybody should IMO do a fishless cycle

I don't disagree with you, however, not knowing you or your skills, I feel that was a reasonable doubt!

>>> said ph is perfect

Hence my comment, "that would show up as a change in pH". However, the inorganic "white bloom" also holds true for Nitrates or any other micro crystalline suspension.

>>> Overfeeding isnt an issue

Fair enough, had to ask - was one of the most probable causes on the info given...

>>> not 100 % sure if the fishless cycle was complete

Would seem like a decent guess, so...

>>> 20% water change every 48 hours along with a gravel clean

... ain't a bad scheme.

Do the fish look to be in any kind of trouble?

 

[crusty]

Nah the fish are fine mate growing fast and are in excellent condition feeding well no health probs no deformities swimming happily and freely around the whole of the tank not a prob with the fish.
As said just want to make sure im doing the right thing as not had this problem at allin over ten years of fishkeeping but saying that never had a jewel aquarium with the inbuilt filter and heater and TBH at the moment not very confident in the filter as never used one of this kind before.Allways used other types not the jewel one.