new tank with cloudy water and slight odor

[cornhead45]

I just started up a 10 gallon tank about 4 days ago i bought two zebra danios and a pleco yesterday and this morning when i turned the lights on the water was very cloudy and it seems to have a slight odor, the fish seem to be doing fine but the pleco is staying close to the top of the tank. If anybody could help me out by telling me what i can do to fix the water problem it would be appreciated

[fishfreek]

If you dont have an ammonia test kit you should go out and get one right away. Test your water for ammoina as I fear you have an ammonia build up in your tank.

The problem is that you have a new tank with zero or very low amounts of bio filtration capacity. When you added the fish you added an ammonia source. Also by feeding the fish its very easy to overfeed when you have a very small number of fish.

I would perform a 50% water change at this point also. Drain out about 5 gal of water from the tank. Then add 5 gal of declornated water that is at about the same temperature as the water in the tank. If you need to put a small heater in the new water to get it up to temp do so. This will help from shocking the fish.

I dont suggest using warm tap water to get a simular water temperature as hot water heaters are known to leach hard metals into the water.

[Scalelover]

I was having the same problem with my tank, I followed your advice, and there has been a 100% improvment.
Many thanks.

[loganj]

The ammonia is the most likely culprit. However, if the ammonia doesn't test high, you could have a bacterial bloom. This can be set off by just putting your hands in the tank. It is called heterotrophic bacteria and, if that's the trouble, it will go away on it's own in a few days. It will not harm the fish. By all means, test for ammonia though. As soon as you see a drop in ammonia, test for nitrite. Either of these, unlike the bacterial bloom, will kill your fish.
Logan J