Started fishless cycle-cloudy water

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Azure Lord

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
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224
Location
Greenville, KY
I began my fishless cycle roughly 12 hours ago, adding the ammonia up to 5 ppm. Not long after, I noticed the water had become pretty cloudy. Not extremely cloudy, but not crystal clear either. I've read about bacterial blooms, but is it way too early in the cycle for that to happen? I've had my tank and equipment running for almost a month now in an effort to reduce previous cloudiness of an unknown reason. Finally got it clear and now I'm back to square one kinda. Any advice?
 
Was it running for a month before you added ammonia? If so, the bacteria bloom theory is very possible. You just gave them a whole lot of food. Otherwise, I'd say it could be due to new substrate that has some dust on it.

What kind of filtration do you have for your tank?


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Yes to it running a month before ammonia. I have a tetra pf10 with a polishing pad between the filter and the bio sponge. I have a small bubbler going as well.
So.... 10g/ tetra pf10 filter with polishing pad/50w nonadjustable heater.

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I agree with Radmax. Are you able to test the water for ammo, nitrite and nitrate? That is the only way to tell what is going on.
 
Yeah...i can test the water. It would be kinda hard to perform a fishless cycle without being able to test. How would being able to test the water tell me if its a bacterial bloom?

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Yeah...i can test the water. It would be kinda hard to perform a fishless cycle without being able to test. How would being able to test the water tell me if its a bacterial bloom?

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Well some folks make multiple trips to their lfs for testing. I was just asking.
Anyway by testing the water you will have an idea of what is going on chemically in the water. Other than that, no, testing will not definitively tell you if it is a bacterial bloom or not.
In all honesty you should be more concerned about the waters chemical composition at this point rather than how clear it is. All tanks go through cloudy stages, especially in the first few months.
IMHO I would not do any water changes and just let it roll for another week and allow the bacteria to do it's thing.
Futzing around with it too much trying to get the water clear at this stage will only delay cycling.

Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. You don't have any livestock in there to be concerned about, so you have absolutely nothing to lose by leaving it be for a week or so, and actually a lot to gain.
Just keep checking the levels of the main three, and add ammonia if needed to push the cycle along.
when you start seeing nitrite and nitrate, then you know for sure it is moving along in the right direction. :)

As the filter material builds a BB colony and traps junk, it will filter smaller particles and help clear up the water.
Time is the main thing here.
 
All i have is time...so im good. Ok ty guys. Ill just continue the cycle and hope for the best

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