Robcurry12
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
So I've posted on a different board about a bacterial bloom in my tank but after research I think I've figured out a possible cause to my cloudy water
Breakdown of what I did to get to this point:
Restarted my 36 gallon bow front tank second weekend of January because I had way too much gravel and I wanted to put in new black gravel. It was easy because I only had 3 fish and the live plants were growing but all above the substrate. So I started up my old 10 gallon and let it filter for a week. (Filled it with tap water and put stress coat in) After the week, I plopped my old fish from the 36 into the 10 and siphoned out about 95% of the water. I left about (rough estimate here) 1-1.5 gallons of the old tank water as well as about a half inch layer of old gravel. Then I re-landscaped with the new thoroughly rinsed gravel, a new rainbow rock (also thoroughly rinsed), the live plants (I was extra careful to protect the roots) and the existing decorations. I also buried two air stones and an air-wand. I then filled the tank up with tap water and put in areas coat and let the tank filter for about 4 days. The filter I use is a Magnum 350 canister and I used Ammocarb in it as well. The first 2 days of filtering the water was a little cloudy but each day saw significant progress in getting clearer. I didn't do any tests I just let the tank run. The plants seem to adapt just fine to the change as well.
This is where it started to go downhill...
At this point it's been 3 days and the tank looks pristine. Crystal clear water. I checked the ammonia level with test strips(first mistake right there) and the pH level of the tank(liquid test). Ammonia was considered to be "safe" according to the test strip but the pH was very high (7.5). At that time I thought pH was the ultimate test as to whether your water is safe for aquatic life. So naturally I freaked out and put in some pH down to help lower the pH. The bottle said to put in 2 drops for every gallon so I proceeded to put 72 drops of this stuff in (*facepalm*)!!!! Hindsight I was a real idiot to put that much of anything into the tank especially something that is useless to adjust something that is really useless to worry that much about. The tank looks great for the rest of the day but then I wake up the next day and the tank is cloudy. Not super cloudy but cloudy where you can certainly tell something is up. I test the ammonia level with test strips again and ammonia levels read safe again. I write it off to maybe just some weird cloud of dust that the filter will deal with and I go out for the day. While I'm out, I think, "hey the tank's ammonia is safe so let me buy some beginner fish."(I'm batting a thousand) Plus I figured by the time I bought them and got home the tank will have cleared up. I go to Petco and purchase three zebra danios and head home. It's been about 10 hours since I tested the water so I figure the water will be clear. Unfortunately that wasn't the case but now I was stuck. I had the new fish in the bag so I sat their bags in the water and then 15 mins later I dropped them in the tank. That was about 6 days ago. Fast forward to today and the tank is still cloudy but the danios are as active as ever. They seem completely unaffected by the cloudiness at all. They swim all around the tank on all levels of the tank, I feed them about once every other day but the water has shown little to no improvement.
As it is obvious, I'm still a novice at this and all the practices I've learned over the years I learned from my dad who didn't have access to all the knowledge so his practices tend to be outdated or just completely erroneous.
Sorry for being so long winded but is it possible that perhaps the reason for my cloudy tank water was because of the ph Adjuster I added and not a bacterial bloom? Or is it possible that it's a combination of both? And how what do I need to do to fix the water? I've read mixed reviews in water changes and lots of people say just to wait it out. But at this rate it seems like it'll never end ?.
I hope you guys can help me out.
P.S I have basic knowledge of the cycling process so if you reference it try to break it down simply for me I'm obviously in need of help ?
Breakdown of what I did to get to this point:
Restarted my 36 gallon bow front tank second weekend of January because I had way too much gravel and I wanted to put in new black gravel. It was easy because I only had 3 fish and the live plants were growing but all above the substrate. So I started up my old 10 gallon and let it filter for a week. (Filled it with tap water and put stress coat in) After the week, I plopped my old fish from the 36 into the 10 and siphoned out about 95% of the water. I left about (rough estimate here) 1-1.5 gallons of the old tank water as well as about a half inch layer of old gravel. Then I re-landscaped with the new thoroughly rinsed gravel, a new rainbow rock (also thoroughly rinsed), the live plants (I was extra careful to protect the roots) and the existing decorations. I also buried two air stones and an air-wand. I then filled the tank up with tap water and put in areas coat and let the tank filter for about 4 days. The filter I use is a Magnum 350 canister and I used Ammocarb in it as well. The first 2 days of filtering the water was a little cloudy but each day saw significant progress in getting clearer. I didn't do any tests I just let the tank run. The plants seem to adapt just fine to the change as well.
This is where it started to go downhill...
At this point it's been 3 days and the tank looks pristine. Crystal clear water. I checked the ammonia level with test strips(first mistake right there) and the pH level of the tank(liquid test). Ammonia was considered to be "safe" according to the test strip but the pH was very high (7.5). At that time I thought pH was the ultimate test as to whether your water is safe for aquatic life. So naturally I freaked out and put in some pH down to help lower the pH. The bottle said to put in 2 drops for every gallon so I proceeded to put 72 drops of this stuff in (*facepalm*)!!!! Hindsight I was a real idiot to put that much of anything into the tank especially something that is useless to adjust something that is really useless to worry that much about. The tank looks great for the rest of the day but then I wake up the next day and the tank is cloudy. Not super cloudy but cloudy where you can certainly tell something is up. I test the ammonia level with test strips again and ammonia levels read safe again. I write it off to maybe just some weird cloud of dust that the filter will deal with and I go out for the day. While I'm out, I think, "hey the tank's ammonia is safe so let me buy some beginner fish."(I'm batting a thousand) Plus I figured by the time I bought them and got home the tank will have cleared up. I go to Petco and purchase three zebra danios and head home. It's been about 10 hours since I tested the water so I figure the water will be clear. Unfortunately that wasn't the case but now I was stuck. I had the new fish in the bag so I sat their bags in the water and then 15 mins later I dropped them in the tank. That was about 6 days ago. Fast forward to today and the tank is still cloudy but the danios are as active as ever. They seem completely unaffected by the cloudiness at all. They swim all around the tank on all levels of the tank, I feed them about once every other day but the water has shown little to no improvement.
As it is obvious, I'm still a novice at this and all the practices I've learned over the years I learned from my dad who didn't have access to all the knowledge so his practices tend to be outdated or just completely erroneous.
Sorry for being so long winded but is it possible that perhaps the reason for my cloudy tank water was because of the ph Adjuster I added and not a bacterial bloom? Or is it possible that it's a combination of both? And how what do I need to do to fix the water? I've read mixed reviews in water changes and lots of people say just to wait it out. But at this rate it seems like it'll never end ?.
I hope you guys can help me out.
P.S I have basic knowledge of the cycling process so if you reference it try to break it down simply for me I'm obviously in need of help ?
