fish in cycle, cloudy water?

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ZombiesAteMyDog

Aquarium Advice Activist
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Feb 16, 2013
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saturday night I added 4 danios as well as some jungle start zyme to my tank to start my fish in cycle, sunday morning the water was crystal clear, as of today it is cloudy / hazy looking, as I said in another thread my fish havent eaten yet, and i tried to feed them 2 or 3 times so there was some uneaten food in the tank so yesterday I did a 25% PWC and gravel vacing to get rid of the excess uneaten food but it hasnt changed anything.

is this normal part of cycling a tank? is there something I should be doing? will this go away as the cycle completes?

here is a picture of the tank sunday morning, and how it looks today.

any help / advice would be GREATLY appreciated.
 

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I'm going with Convict on this one.

I've never been a fan of the add-this-magic-juice-and-presto-cycled things.

You usually get a bacteria bloom. What kind of bacteria - well, who knows? Some of that stuff has been determined to have bacteria from sewage in it (not saying jungle start does, just giving you a picture...).

Since you are so early on in this adventure, and it looks like you intended to do a fish-in cycle, I'd do this...

Move the danios out to a food safe container with dechlorinated water the same temp as the tank.
Ditch all the tank water, and clean the filter with hot water.
Refill the tank with dechlorinated water and re-install filter media.
Replace danios.

Sit back prepared to do the necessary water changes needed for a fish-in cycle and don't look to rush things.

But that's just my opinion. YMMV.
 
so the water will not clear up as the cycle completes then? this is the way to cycle recomended by several family members as well as the LFS.

should I start from scratch again now or wait a bit and see if it improves first?
 
I really thought a fish in cycle would be the way to go, but I am now wondering if a fishless cycle would really be best?

is a fishless cycle really as hard as you see people saying around here? seems like every other thread is someone having some sort of issue with fishless cycling.

also, what if i can not get a seeded filter / rocks from the LFS?
 
No, the water will eventually clear up with successive water changes.

I suggested you start over since you are so newly in your set-up.

If you can get seeded media, that would be a plus.

Fish-in cycle is fine. You just have to be diligent with it. Don't consider your danios "throw away" fish. They are living breathing beings, and even though they are hardier than other fish who make it through fish-in cycles, there's no point in deliberately searing their gills.
 
I agree, I completely intend to keep these little guys in my tank, I just got back from the LFS went there to get my water checked and she said everything checked out, it showed very low ammonia levels and nothing else was off , and a couple of bizarre things happened.

1. the lady who works there swore up and down it is not possible to cycle a fish tank with out actual fish in it.... seems suspect to me her claiming this considering just about EVERYBODY knows the inverse to be true.

2. she recommended I add API quick start, even though I have already added jungle start zyme.

so I am not entirely sure my LFS knows what it is talking about, blah.

but I did ask, and they said they would sell me some used filter media, so what I am thinking is, do PWC in the 25 - 50% range daily until friday when I get paid, go pick up and API master test kit, and buy a couple pieces of used / seeded filter media, drain as much water as I can from my tank, replace with declohrinated water and put the used filter media in my tank and just let it go that way.

I am not sure if it is the jungle zyme causing the cloudiness or uneaten food but either way I dont like it, and would rather be safe than sorry.
 
Did she give you the actual readings? I find it bizarre when they won't do that.

The API master test kit will be one of your best buddies. If you have a big box store close to you, you can get replacements for the ammonia test there without having to buy the whole thing again. Do check the expiration date on the bottles or box you buy. (I mention replacements for the ammonia kit because since you use a greater number of drops from that one, you only get something like 130 tests out of it, as contrasted with the pH test, which only uses 3 drops per test - high range pH uses 5).

Take what fish store employees - all of them, not just the big box stores - with a grain of salt. The *only* reason I swear by my guy at my LFS is because he owns the place, has been doing this for 25+ years, and it kills his soul to lose livestock. We've developed a relationship over time.

That said, I do not rely on any of the teenaged help he has on Saturday.

Just leave off with the instant cycle juice. You will have more money for plants and livestock that way...
 
Fish in cycle can be done and done successfully. I cycled a heavily stocked African cichlid tank (55g)

Yeah I was doing water changes CRAZY and went trough a whole freshwater test kit in about 3 weeks!! But it was done and I didn't lose one fish.
 
Well I had this happen to me a while back the water got a bit cloudy and I was told it was a bacterial bloom and is fairly normal for fish in cycles at the beginning.Just keep up on regualr WC's and test the water everyday or so.How healthy are the fish at that lfs because u wouldnt want to get some used filter media and bring home some diseases.
 
So today the cloudiness went away, did a test with my master kit and the ammonia was. 50 ppm, I assume that means time for a pwc? How much? At what levels should i start doing my pwcs?
 
I always did 50% water changes with fish-in cycling.

And always do them for my goldfish tank. Goldies are very messy critters.

And I'd go ahead and do one for ammonia at that level. Anything over .25 ppm for ammonia or 20 ppm for nitrates makes me twitchy.
 
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I would go ahead and do another water change. It's not going to harm your fish. Water changes are your best friend right now. Keep doing them. Get that ammonia number down.

When your cycled you can relax and sit back.
 
As bad as this sounds how urgent is it that I do this water change? Can it wait until the morning? I can probably get it done tonight but it would be rough.
 
I had time to get back over here tonight and do a 50% PWC, however while doing my PWC I did come up with a few questions.

how exactly should I go about doing a PWC? the way I have been doing it is use my siphon, vac the gravel, and fill a couple of 5 gallon buckets, then go and fill up 2 different 5 gallon buckets with water that feels similar in temp to the water in my tank ( judging by touch ) once the bucket is about 1/4 full I add the required amount of dechlorinator, and let the bucket fill, then put it into my tank.

do I need to let the water sit so it has time to take out the chlorine or is the way I am doing it ok?
 
You can do it the way you describe - most dechlorinators say on the bottle that they work in seconds.

So you don't have a faucet close by then? I do, and siphon and refill from the faucet. I also dose the entire tank volume with dechlor.

But what you are doing is fine.
 
You can do it the way you describe - most dechlorinators say on the bottle that they work in seconds.

So you don't have a faucet close by then? I do, and siphon and refill from the faucet. I also dose the entire tank volume with dechlor.

But what you are doing is fine.

I agree. Your doing fine. I dose for my entire tank as well. Other dose for the amount added.
 
I agree but you will need to get a thermometer judging water temp by touch is inaccurate.If you go to your lfs you should be able to find one cheap.
 
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