Crushed Coral Discolouring water

[wilson_004]

I just recently upgreaded from a 25 gal to a 55 after my 25 started leaking,i bought new crushed coral for the substrate and the water would not clear for 2 days,i also didnt liek the look very much.so i scooped it all out and put dark blue gravel in but read u can put crshed coral in a womens stocking and slip it in the filter(i have cichlids btw)and 3 min later i looked and the water was going foggy again.Is there any way to stop this or will crushed coral do that no matter what?

 

[QTOFFER]

I'm not sure it's the coral that's causing the fogginess - your new tank may be experiencing a mini-cycle and a heterotrophic bacterial bloom.
It could also be a bacterial bloom caused by stirred up gunk from the substrate.

A few questions, so we can help you out:

Did you rinse the crushed coral very well in water to remove the dust?
What are your readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?
How often did you gravel vac the 25 gal?
When you upgraded the tank, did you get a new filter and seed it with media from the old filter?
Did you move the substrate from the 25 to the 55?

 

[wilson_004]

I have both me penguin 170 from my old tank running and the new 330 that came with the tank.I rinsed the coral super good almost took me an hour,and no i didnt add any substrate from my other tank i thought since i was using the filter it would be enough bacteria.i vaccumed my 25 gal once a week.the ammonia is at 0.25 nitrites 1.5 and my nitrate test kit ran out so im not sure.

 

[RoK]

Well, looks like you are having a whole new cycle or a mini-cycle. An established tank has 0ppm ammonia & nitrIte, and some nitrate.

 

[jgc8fan]

That happens to me every time I put in a new substrate no matter how good I rinse it. It's a bacterial bloom, and the best way I've found to get rid of it is heavy aeration, and water changes.

Do you have fish in there yet??? If not then my best suggestion is to drain and replace all the water. If there are fish in there then I suggest 50% water changes until it gets "mostly clear" the aeration and filtration will take care of the rest over a week or so.