Cloudy water no fish yet

[jleigh726]

Hi All,
Firstly, thank you for your patience with me. I set up my new 5 gallon tank on Sunday. The pH was 7.4. I filled it with half tap (conditioned) and half distilled water. I have the temp at 80 degrees via a heater. I have gravel and silk plants, all rinsed well before being added to the tank. The water started getting cloudy this morning. There are no fish in the tank. I plan on having 1 male betta. I was going to get him tomorrow, but not sure I should do that now. Should I do a small water change? I tested everything (API master kit) when I noticed the cloudiness (it is a very slight milky white). Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are all at 0. I expected that since there hasn't been any introduction of an ammonia source. However, the pH is now at 7.8-8. Should I hold off on getting my betta? Should I do a small (25%) water change and still get him? Or do nothing because it may be a bacteria bloom? Thanks again!!

 

[icydeath]

Try using only conditioned tap water and reducing the temperature to 76 degrees (80 is a little warm for a betta) Did you wash your filter media? Sometimes that can make it a bit dusty.

Honestly I am a bit puzzled. Try to do that water change and leave it for a few days and see if it goes away on it's own.

 

[Mebbid]

Try using only conditioned tap water and reducing the temperature to 76 degrees (80 is a little warm for a betta) Did you wash your filter media? Sometimes that can make it a bit dusty.

Honestly I am a bit puzzled. Try to do that water change and leave it for a few days and see if it goes away on it's own.

80 degrees is actually perfect for a betta. They are good from 75 - 85.

I agree though, it's odd to have cloudy water. Could you take a picture for us?

I would do a water change and see how it goes from there.

 

[icydeath]

@Mebbid Is that so? I didn't realize they were comfortable past 78, I appreciate the update to my mental library!

 

[jleigh726]

Thank you all for your responses. The water is a very, very slight filmy, whitish, looking stuff. Certainly different from the crystal clear water we began with. It is actually better today than yesterday. I just tested the pH and it is about a 7.9 which is slight down from yesterday (8.0), as well. I just want to make sure I'm providing a good home for the fish. I don't want the fish to pay for my learning curve. I went ahead and got some water ready last night in case I should do a change. Straight tap water that I conditioned. Thanks for all the advice. How do I post the image? It's asking for a url. Do I need to set up a dropbox account?

 

[icydeath]

You should be able to see the paper clip. It is above the picture of the mountain slightly to the left (assuming you are using the browser version and not the app)

 

[jleigh726]

Thanks!! I see what I did. In the "quick reply" there is no paperclip. In any event, I did a 25% water change and I have put the betta in the tank. I took about 3 hours to acclimate him with floating his cup and doing gradual exchange of water. He was very shy yesterday and stayed at the bottom a lot, but today he is all over the place, his color is really nice and he ate this morning. I'm assuming he's much happier than the cup. BTW, the cup water tested .5 for ammonia and right now the tank is measuring 0 for ammonia. The pH is remaining steady at 7.8-7.9. The pH of his cup and my tank were identical, so he didn't have a shock there. The "cloudiness" seemed to disappear. Thanks for all the advice.