water still cloudy after 7 hours

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sarah1953

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
10
Hi,
Someone brought me his secondhand (but very clean) 200 litre fish tank today - it's huge - and set it all up for me. The backing paper is a multi colourful green and the colours were viewable through the front of the glass when it came. At 1pm the water was incredibly cloudy due to buckets of water having been poured onto the gravel but you could just see the bottom of the tank starting to clear. It's now 7pm and the water is better but still cloudy. You can't see the colours of the background paper at all. it all looks a misty grey. :confused:
The external filter system is new (Fluval 306) and the new media was all washed in the fish tank water of my smaller tank. ( fish being moved after cycle ).

Is the grey cloudy appearance going to eventually clear or will I have to buy a smaller internal filter?

I'd be grateful for advice please.:(
 
Is the background paper losing color, or is the cloudiness from the gravel?

If it's the background, I can't help you. If it's the gravel, you can either wait it out (it might take days) or get CaribSea's BioMagnet. That stuff is amazing.
 
Is the background paper losing color, or is the cloudiness from the gravel?

If it's the background, I can't help you. If it's the gravel, you can either wait it out (it might take days) or get CaribSea's BioMagnet. That stuff is amazing.
Do you mean WAS the paper background losing colour when the tank was empty or IS the background losing colour now the tank is being cycled??

The fine gravel is grey, yes, and in my other tank I have sand. Why does fine grey gravel pose a problem? The person who sold me this tank uses it and said the water was always crystal clear when he himself had this tank working in his home. He is really knowlegable with all fishkeeping.....
 
I mean is it losing color now?

Grey gravel is fine. Sometimes new substrate causes cloudiness. It doesn't hurt anything. When I started our 10 gallon, I used pea gravel. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed... And it still caused cloudiness that lasted a couple days.

CaribSea actually puts little bags of the BioMagnet in with their sand, which is how I know it's so great!

So, in short, if the image is leeching ink into the water, that's a problem that can only be solved by emptying the tank, removing the paper, and starting over. If it's dust from the gravel, it's not a problem. It's just a matter of it settling out.
 
Patience and filtration will result in the water clearing. When I added water to my substrate, it took a solid 24 hours for everything to completely clear up.
 
A bunch of huge water changes will do it
This morning the water is a lot cleaner looking but what on earth is going on with the green foliage background colour? There is about half an inch of lovely bright green colour all around the edge. And that's it. The whole of the rest of it is greyish, dull green, dull white, dull everything. I'm totally gutted
 
This morning the water is a lot cleaner looking but what on earth is going on with the green foliage background colour? There is about half an inch of lovely bright green colour all around the edge. And that's it. The whole of the rest of it is greyish, dull green, dull white, dull everything. I'm totally gutted

Can you take a picture? I'm having trouble following what you're talking about...
 
Yeah, sometimes when I do water changes all of that sediment is thrown around but settles down in its time.
 
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