Clouding Of New Tank

[1873teddy]

Hi there,

I'm currently in the 2nd day after introducing water to my aquarium, I rinsed the gravel & soaked the mopani wood for approximately 4 days, changing the water it was soaking in several times, but when I woke this morning the tank was very cloudy.

Is this normal & the cloudiness will eventually clear, or will I need to do a partial water change on a regular basis to resolve the problem?

I have a Fluval U2, 3 stage filter, will changing any of the filter stages help this.

Many thanks.

 

[1873teddy]

Here is the tank.

 

[Billbug68]

It'll clear up eventually. Are you doing a fishless cycle? If so your best bet is to just wait on water changes till that's done and deal with the cloudy water until then. The filter might even clean it up after a while. If you're doing a fish in you'll be doing plenty of partial water changes anyway and it'll clear up in no time! Mine did the same thing, it's pretty normal so don't stress on it.

 

[Jesselav1233]

I believe it's called bacteria blossoms it happens when u first start up a tank and the good bacterial cultures haven't established themselves yet it's normal. If ur doing a fish less cycle u need to add some source of ammonia to feed the first set of bacterial cultures that will establish.

 

[Jesselav1233]

If u have another established tank take the filter cartridge and stick it right in the new filter this will seed ur new filter and greatly reduce the time it takes to cycle ur tank if no cartridges then even the substrate can help put it in a bag in the back of ur filter this is assuming ur using a overflow filter and not a canister

 

[1873teddy]

Hi & thank you for putting me at ease, waiting 2-3 weeks before I add fish, just purchased 3 plants which I'll introduce this afternoon.

When you say add ammonia, how do I go about this?

Sorry for my ignorance but this is my first tank & want to get off on the right foot, I have several books & read on the internet but there can be a lot of conflicting information.

Craig.

 

[1873teddy]

Another question which I am unsure about is regarding blue LED lighting as a moon effect at night, will this encourage algae growth within the tank or is it outwith the light spectrum to do this?

 

[jlk]

Please check out the fishless cycling guide & ask any questions you may have!

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html

 

[1873teddy]

Thank you jlk!!!

So basically by adding some finely ground fish food, this should act by putting ammonia into the water & also help the recently introduced plants?

 

[Bbush]

I have heard that u should only use "moon lights" sparingly, like 1 hour in the morning and at night.

 

[1873teddy]

Bbush, my intention was only to have it on for effect for a matter of a couple of hours at most once the fluorescent tube has been switched off after its recommended time.

 

[Greenphantom]

Just sprinkle small amounts of food in the tank every other day or so

 

[jlk]

Thank you jlk!!!

So basically by adding some finely ground fish food, this should act by putting ammonia into the water & also help the recently introduced plants?

Fish food works as an ammonia source but its messy, inaccurate and can lead to other issues from the rotting food (such as fungus). Add all the plants you desire- they can help with your cycle. I would honestly seek out a bottle of ammonia (ammonium hydroxide & water-nothing else). You can try Ace hardware or Dollar Tree but a few other places carry usuable ammonia as well.

 

[1873teddy]

Fish food works as an ammonia source but its messy, inaccurate and can lead to other issues from the rotting food (such as fungus). Add all the plants you desire- they can help with your cycle. I would honestly seek out a bottle of ammonia (ammonium hydroxide & water-nothing else). You can try Ace hardware or Dollar Tree but a few other places carry usuable ammonia as well.

And exactly how much of the suggested ammonia should I add to a 28 us gallon tank, fyi I live in Scotland so unfortunately don't recognise either of the stores you mentioned.

Thank you so much for your assistance jlk, it is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[jlk]

Ok, thats why you dont recognize the names (US stores)! I believ you may have an ammonia called Ammo Clean (?). What you need to look for is a bottle of ammonia that has just ammonium hydroxide & water- no dyes, fragrances, surfectants, etc. If you can not find any, then using some raw shrimp/prawns in a piece of pantyhose may work a bit better than fish food. Let us know!

 

[SteelTown1]

i was just about to ask this.. glad i search the forum saved me typing out..

i have a 100l tank with x2 600l filters, water clouded up, i switched the pumps on todays later it stayed cloudy, was advised by the LFS it would be ok to put fish i so we have put some mollies&platies in yesterday how often should i do a water change?

 

[Zevyn]

Another question which I am unsure about is regarding blue LED lighting as a moon effect at night, will this encourage algae growth within the tank or is it outwith the light spectrum to do this?

I doubt that. I leave mine on by accident over night on occasion. They're barely bright enough to see the fish unless they swim right through the beam (3 LED bar). In fact, in the morning when the living room brightens up from the sun, I can hardly even notice the moon light on as it gets drowned out pretty bad.

 

[Zevyn]

i was just about to ask this.. glad i search the forum saved me typing out..

i have a 100l tank with x2 600l filters, water clouded up, i switched the pumps on todays later it stayed cloudy, was advised by the LFS it would be ok to put fish i so we have put some mollies&platies in yesterday how often should i do a water change?

My last fish-in cycle took 8 weeks and I was changing 50% of the water every day. You should be testing daily (24 hours past the last water change) and changing some out if you have any ammonia or nitrites showing up. You could do them less frequently, but imagine being stuck in a room full of tear gas. It's not going to kill you right then and there, but it's going to suck. Detoxing the water with Prime or something similar is like giving them a gas mask for a day.

When I saw my ammonia drop to almost 0 and my nitrites spike up, I could see some light at the end of the tunnel. When the nitrites dropped and nitrates rose, it lined up with a 3 day trip to Magic Kingdom. I had no choice but to let it go unchanged. No food and water changes for 3 days finished the cycle, so it's probably alright to go two or three days between changes when you're close to the end.