Cloudy Water In New Fish Tank!?

[Fishloverxo]

Okay so I'm a beginner with this fish hobby and although I'm super excited about it I'm also worried aswell.

I got my fish tank a couple of days ago, it was a starter kit so it included the tank, and the filter. I added my gravel (after cleaning it), decorations, fresh tap water and the internal filter.

I added a tap safe product which was to make the tap water safe.

It's been running, with the filter on since the setup, but today I noticed that my water was slightly cloudy, it's not that cloudy, I mean you quite easily see the back of the tank, but it's defiantly not like it was when I first added the water.

I'm getting my fish tomorrow, (variatus platy), and I want to know if it's safe to put them in there. Any advice would be great.


Thanks!

 

[rybrows]

Bacteria bloom, it's totally fine, happened with my new set week or so ago!

 

[Fishloverxo]

So it's fine to add fish? And how long does it take to clear up?

 

[CSnyder00]

Don't add fish yet unless you do one of two things. Ask the fish store for some gravel out of their tank to cycle yours, or start cycling your tank by adding fish food to your tank. If you get some gravel or some brown muck from the LFS you can start by adding one or two fish. Do it slowly. Add fish one or two at a time if you don't follow any of these instructions or else you will end up with dead fish.
 
Fish waste is Ammonia. Ammonia harmful to fish. Ammonia is broken down by bacteria present in nature to Nitrates. Nitrates, also harmful, are broken down by another natural bacteria into Nitrites. Nitrites are harmless unless the levels get very high. Gravel or brown filter muck from an established tank will provide you with a starting culture of this bacteria, allowing the cylce to happen much quicker than if you were to chose the fish food only or fish only method. See the section on this forum about Cycling for more detail.

 

[Fishloverxo]

If I do the adding food thing will the food disappear or will it make a mess? Also how long does this take? I'm very impatient lol.

 

[bretty1984]

Hi there,
 
I don't have any knowledge in this as I am new starting out just like you and I have had my tank for just over a week and I have still not put any fish in as I am running a fishless cycle to get my tank ready and safe for when the fish first get added.
 
To get the cycle going you need some sort of testing kit. A kit that will allow you to test the water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. This is all part of the cycle. The fish produce ammonia through their waste which is toxic to them, this then gets converted to nitrite which is also toxic to them then the nitrite gets converted to Nitrate.
 
This cycle cannot happen without the bacteria in the system and to get this bacteria growing you need to effectively pretend there is a fish in the tank by adding ammonia. Depend on the size of your tank will depend on how much ammonia you will need to add to the water but this calculator http/www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm will tell you how much ammonia to add. Tjhe ammonia you can get from homebase and costs around £2.49 a bottle.
 
Once you have added this ammonia, you have now given the bacteria in your water the food they need to grow. Make sure the water temp is sat at around 27 degrees Celsius ( this is what I was told) and test the ammonia levels on a daily basis. You should eventually see the ammonia levels drop to around 0. I am currently getting to this stage and today my ammonia reading was around 0.25ppm.
I have been informed by another member to now measure my nitrite levels and add a smaller amount of ammonia which I have done.
Now I will monitor the levels over the next few days to see what happens.
 
Just like you I am eager to get fish in my tank but I really understand the importance of ensuring that the tank is fully cycled so that the fish can live a healthy life plus I am also enjoying measuring the levels in the water and just playing with test tubes, it takes me back to my school days!
 
Anyway, I am more than likely to have missed something out there or given some wrong advise, but this is what I have done so far.
 
Good luck, stick with it!

 

[BrianMcC]

hey,
if you don't cycle your tank you will end up with dead fish!
B

 

[Gruntle]

Click the link at the top of the page titled "Cycling a Tank" and have a few read-throughs.  I've just gone through the same process (I had a mature tank so I was able to speed things up by swapping some of the ceramic tubes into the new filter). I've also had a bacterial bloom (through various issues including dying plants and high ambient temperature - just went through a mini heatwave here) but it's clearing up nicely. At its peak you couldn't see the back of the tank!
 
Trust me (and everyone else here) - waiting is best, it will give you a better result in the long run.  Due to being sold some plants that weren't true aquarium plants I had a nitrite spike and lost 6 fish out of 20. If I had waited just a few days longer I wouldn't have had any losses.
 
Five to six weeks is not long to wait in the long term and you don't have to deal with watching your pets die.

Fish waste is Ammonia. Ammonia harmful to fish. Ammonia is broken down by bacteria present in nature to Nitrates. Nitrates, also harmful, are broken down by another natural bacteria into Nitrites. Nitrites are harmless unless the levels get very high..

 
Ammonia gets turned into nitrite, which gets turned into nitrAte.

 

[FreshwaterCollector]

Sometimes it's best to rinse the gravel out before placing it in the tank. If its a 5 gallon tank or below, i'd put new water in there for sure, but if its a  bigger tank, then maybe 25% of it. Good luck!

 

[Inga]

Just wondering if you rinsed out the filter cartridge before you put it in the tank? If you don't rinse them out, the carbon dust will go into the tank when you first run water through it. It may clear itself up on its own, or you can purchase a product that makes small particles in the tank clump together so the filter can catch them. I don't remember the brand name, but there are a few on the market. Hope it helps.

 

[Francesjane]

Seriously...try not to be impatient...your fish will suffer and/or die if you start adding fish...read the forum about cycling your tank...then read it again.... I have done an Uncycled tank without realising and regretted it deeply...I have also done a cycled tank and it's the only way to go. If you have no qualms about adding your fish to toxic water and watch them die, or get ill all the time through not coping then go ahead....but why anyone would do that I don't know. Next time you go swimming in a bath of ammonia...let me know how you feel. The lucky thing for you is you could get out of that bath!! Sorry to be so blunt.

 

[CSnyder00]

Thanks for the correction Gruntle. It's been so long since I've had to worry about my levels I mixed the two up! I mirror everyone's opinion here. Be patient. You will be happier in the long run. I've done it both ways, too. The waiting way is better.

 

[Gruntle]

Someone should come up with a better naming convention for nitrite and nitrate, they're too similar. I thought the correction was necessary, since nitrites of 5ppm is really bad, but nitrates at that concentration is not bad at all.

 

[Gvilleguy]

Hey Fishloverxo, some of these posts were coming on a little strong! Most members will encourage you to do a 'fishless cycle' of your tank filter, which, as you have read, takes time to do properly. If you have decided to go that route, have a read through the 'do and do not' link in my signature. It answers most of the common questions we get after someone reads the cycling threads in the beginners section.
 
If you decide to get fish prior to cycling, then we encourage you to follow the steps of a "fish-in cycle", which has you do frequent water changes and monitoring of the levels of ammonia to minimize damage to the health of your fish.
 
Good luck, and continue to ask questions as needed!
 
EDIT: I just saw your other post where you added fish already. If you want to give your fish the best chance of making it, read through any threads you can find on doing a "fish-in" cycle. 

 

[Fishloverxo]

Thank you so much Gvilleguy, yes I agree some posts were a little hard but I do realise and understand it's annoying sometimes when you watch someone make a decision that you certainty wouldn't have done.

Thank you for the advice and I have spent a couple of hours this evening researching fish in cycles. Thank you once again