Cycle change gone wrong. Dial 911

[H20lover99]

Question for you experts out there. I think I know what I did wrong just not sure how to fix it. I did ahout a 60% water change about 2 weeks ago. Cleaned my gravel, cleaned the filter and cleaned all the decor inside even my real plant. Then my water got super couldy. I'm guessing I basically got rid of all my good bacteria. It's been couldy since. Now for about a week ( wk 1 milky couldy wk 2 green cloudy ) it's been pea soup colored and still couldy. I check my water parameters they all look the same as before when I checked the parameters ( when the tank was good and their was no couldy water) nothing has changed with the tank. I have not touched it now for 2 weeks. I've had the tank a maybe 2 years now. 20 g with 2 fish. Not sure if I should let it regain itself or if I should tank action. Advice appreciated ♡

 

[Rocky998]

So I think you are right on it being that you kinda cleared out a lot of the good bacteria.. But it should clear up in a few days.
On a 20g id be doing weekly water changes, unless it is heavily planted and a very matured aquarium.

Also you said there was green cloudy water. That would be an algae bloom and its not good necessarily. I would try to black out the tank. Turn off any light you have on it and if it is near a window that gets sunlight, keep the blinds closed as much as possible.
This should kill of all the algae slowly. Just keep up with your weekly water changes as well

And also, welcome to the forum!

 

[Rocky998]

And it would help others more that want to offer further advice if we knew the actual test results of the Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Big Water Changes. Stop feeding the tank. It is hard to kill all the nitryifyiers. It is easy to get bacterial and green water algae ones. The problems is excess nutrients in the water and this includes light for the algae. Also, when you black out a tank to rid yourself of the bacteria and algae, success means you will be creating much more ammonia from the decaying dead stuff.

Blackout wont hurt for sure and combined with water changes should solve the problem.

It is very hard to test cloudy, green water when the results of the test is color based I have one tank I run with "tea" stained water. I have a digital monitor on that tank as I cannot rely on the traditions test kits and I need to alter the water parameters in that tank from what come from my tap. However, after you do a big water change the tank water may be clear enough to test.

When you lift the blackout after a few days, you should probably do a big water change and rinse out the filter media as a lot of the tiny corpses will be in the media.

 

[JuiceBox52]

It’s highly unlikely you removed the bacteria, at least enough to cause a cycle crash, they adhere firmly to surfaces

 

[AceMcFly]

I had the same thing happened and have had luck with a water polishing filter added to my HOB filter. I think it might have been masking the problem at first, but it helped with aesthetics.

 

[H20lover99]

Hey guys I really appreciate the advice. Heres an update. So I did do a water change the other day with a black out and I did close the curtain bc it is close to a window. I didnt notice a change. I did it for 2 days which I'm sure is not long enough but I was lazy and wanted things to improve lol. So today I went to pick up a algae removal solution, a new plant (real) and those like good bacteria balls that are dissolvable. I put those all in the tank and within an hour the tank is looking alot better, now I would have rather done it the natural way and without adding things to the water but I chose not to. It is an established tank. just odd this happened out of now where. Hopefully this stuff that I added to the water isnt just a beautifyer and dosent harm the actual chemistry of my tank. I also brought a ammonia tester vial that sticks in your tank and reads your levels for you. 4 hours later the ammonia strip level was good but suspicious of the accuracy of this stick on ammonia strip. I guess I'll test again trm with my own testing kit. See how things look from there. Thanks budds!