Cloudy white water

[Davidfishboy]

Good evening,

I have a tropical 40 litre tank. It was an upgrade, transferred some of the water from old tank. Filled with new, added Tap safe and filter boost. Also laid an air line in. Washed all the gravel until clear. Ran perfect for 36 hours. Introduced four new fish, five neon tetra, rainbow shark, silver shark and two silver Molly. Tank started to cloud up as this afternoon has gone on, tried a sixty per cent water change, again treated it, but after about half an hour, fish returned to the top of the tank, for air. Please help as I have already lost my daughter's twofavourite fish.

 

[jaylach]

Can you supply a photo of the tank?

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

Unfortunately, it sounds like you didn't properly cycle the upgraded tank, or removed too much bb from washing the gravel and/or any other media or hard surfaces causing you to have a mini-cycle. The tank simply couldn't tolerate the addition of 4 new fish. The white water is likely a bacterial bloom due to excess nutrients in the water column that your BB colony isn't established enough to process right now.

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

Ultimately this means that you likely have some ammonia present in the water based off of your description of the fish. Ammonia is highly toxic to fish and can lead to death if exposed to high levels. I would suggest getting a test kit to see how much you have in the water and to also monitor your tank as it recycles. I would also suggest large daily WCs to remove any ammonia and nitrite in the water. There are also issues with the tank being severely overstocked that should really be addressed too...

 

[sharkweek178]

The beneficial bacteria lives on surfaces, not in the water. This sounds like the tank is going through a new cycle.

 

[sharkweek178]

Do you still have filter media from the old tank? If it wasn't washed in anything but used tank water, that could help accelerate the cycle.

 

[Essjay]

Introduced four new fish, five neon tetra, rainbow shark, silver shark and two silver Molly.

Are all those fish really in a 40 litre (10 gallon) tank? If they are it is incredibly overstocked.

With all those fish in a newly set up tank, ammonia is probably through the roof - do you have a test kit to see just how high?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Are all those fish really in a 40 litre (10 gallon) tank? If they are it is incredibly overstocked.

Beat me to it...2 "sharks" in a 10G = not good

Agree with the others, tank not cycled, ammonia burns of the gills leading to gasping at the surface, etc

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

Are all those fish really in a 40 litre (10 gallon) tank? If they are it is incredibly overstocked.

With all those fish in a newly set up tank, ammonia is probably through the roof - do you have a test kit to see just how high?

Exactly.. and silver aka bala sharks can get up to 25cm... OP is going to need to drastically updgrade their tank or rehome both sharks.

 

[sharkweek178]

Exactly.. and silver aka bala sharks can get up to 25cm... OP is going to need to drastically updgrade their tank or rehome both sharks.

Plus, bala sharks are shoaling fish. So there needs to be space for more of them.