Quick Start API Making Tank Foggy?

[Tess]

I'm new to the hobby so please bear with me!!

I recently purchased a 10-gallon tank on sale at PetSmart with the intention of introducing some nice little finned friends into my life. I use to own a betta when I was 12 (I am 19 now) and was devastated when he passed but I was a very bad and uneducated fish-mom at the time and had him in a 1.5-gallon tank which I regret to this day.

I decided at the beginning of 2021 that I was ready to introduce a fish back in my life but this time I wanted to do it right so I did a lot of the necessary research and earned a lot of pivotal information.

I set my tank up at the end of February and put quicks tart API in it along with some stress coat and water conditioner per my fish store's recommendation. (Fishy Business) - However, I noticed after a day of the tank cycling it got extremely milky.

I got upset and drained the tank completely and started again from square one a few days ago and the water was clear, and low and behold when I came home from work today the tanks were milky again!

Is this normal? I know Quick Start is supposed to help speed up the nitrogen cycle and my friend who has been in the hobby way longer said that it was normal and happened to her tank for a bit while it cycled but I'm paranoid and scared I'm doing something wrong. I'm scared to do a water change in fear I'm going to mess up the bacteria already trying to cycle.

I'd also like to note I'm doing a completely fishless cycle to be safe and don't intend on buying any fish until my aquarium is leveled.

For reference and hopefully to help this is my current tank set up and what I've put in it:

10 Gallon Tank
55 Watt Aquarium Heater
Sponge Filter
2 Airstones
1 1/2 In of Aquarium Gravel (thoroughly rinsed)
Silk Plants

My dosage:

10 mL of Quick Start API
5 mL of Betta Water Conditioner
5 mL of Stress Coat+ API

 

[Aiken Drum]

Yes. Cloudy water is entirely normal in newly set up tanks. It is bacteria taking advantage of imbalances in nutrients, and growing to such an extent that they are visible. It tends to go away after a week or so as these nutrients get used up and the tank starts to establish.

You are doing a fishless cycle, but havent mentioned how you are dosing ammonia into the tank. What is your ammonia source?

 

[Tess]

I’m using the fish food method! Would it be better if I invested in some bottled ammonia?

 

[Aiken Drum]

I dont like fish food. Its difficult to know how much to add to sufficiently bring up your ammonia and it tends to go mouldy after a while. It could take months to cycle a tank, and thats going to be a lot of food going into the tank and decomposing. I would go with an aquarium specific ammonium chloride product.

 

[Tess]

Do you have any specific brands that you’d recommend

 

[Aiken Drum]

They are all the same. All they are doing is adding ammonium. Whatever you can get hold of. I use Dr Tims Ammonium Chloride.

 

[ColdKoi]

Yea don’t get too excited about the milky water, unless it doesn’t go away in a week or 2. Much like green water (pea soup!) you can do all the water changes you want, it won’t help, you just need to try and mitigate the root cause of the imbalance and let it sort itself out.

I agree a ‘proper’ ammonia source is the way to go if you want to do a fishless cycle. It’s a controlled dose every time and will give you steady repeatable results. Ghost feeding does work but it’s a guessing game, not to mention how lovely it is to have a bunch of rotten food in a glass box full of water to stare at lol

 

[Tess]

So - I dosed my tank with ammonia and as expected it spiked. I just continued to do my routine dosing to level it out and it took a good 3 days for everything to hit level zero.

Everything now is registering at zero.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrates: <19 ppm
Ph: 6.5

I added some gold ribbons and amazon swords a few days ago on the 24th, and they're thriving amazingly but, my friend just went out and bought me a betta as a surprise yesterday because she knew I was wanting one.

Beautiful fish. I drip acclimated him after checking the parameters several more times last night and he's adjusting to the tank well. Even began making a bubble nest

I'm just still a bit concerned. My tank isn't milk-white anymore, but still has a tiny hazy tint to it. It doesn't seem to be bothering my fish and the parameters are nearly perfect - but I'm getting paranoid he and the snail I have are going to die because of the slight haze.

I use an API Master Test Kit - Liquid Version to test my parameters.

I've read where the little haziness is normal and just to nitrogen cycle completing it's last few steps and it won't hurt the fish but I'm just still paranoid.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Spiking once and then dropping isnt cycling a tank. You arent cycled.

You need the tank to be cycling out 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours. You need to be dosing ammonia to 2ppm and if its gone to 0ppm ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours you are cycled. If it takes longer, redose back to 2ppm and see how long it takes to drop to 0. This typically takes 6 to 8 weeks. You havent mentioned how much ammonia you dosed, but 3 days to drop isnt quick enough to say you are cycled.

Now you have a fish, you will have to do a fish in cycle.

 

[Tess]

The tank didn't just spike once. It spiked three times, and I dosed as you instructed.

I took my water to our local pet store (Fishy Business) and they tested all the parameters and I even showed them my tank. They said everything was fine and well and from the looks of the parameters and sound of the process, the cycle was nearly completed. This is a huge store that houses salt water, freshwater, pond, and bracken fish with over 200+ tanks and have been doing this for 30+ years.

My water is clearing, just a bit milky. I was told that this was a result of the cycle finishing out and that the bacteria wouldn't hurt them.

 

[ColdKoi]

I agree you’re probably not fully cycled yet. You will be continuing with a fish-in cycle now so don’t dose any more ammonia, keep an eye on water parameters as it’s more than likely possible that you’re going to see ammonia rising and you’ll need to change water

Cloudy water to any degree is quite normal for a new tank. Even after you achieve nitrogen cycling it takes months for the tank to ‘season’ with bacterial growth in the substrate and everything in the tank to balance out. Lots of factors involved there, I found my 29g tank took quite a while to fully clear up and looked almost like milk for a few days, whereas my 75g didn’t ever get near that bad, hardly a haze, but there completely different substrates and stocking levels too

 

[Tess]

I've been doing about 25% water changes every other day. Just to keep things at bay and make sure it's okay. I'm just very paranoid. I was happy about the fish but also very upset when she just dumped him on me after I had told her I was still cycling.

There's hardly a haze right now, but I have 2 amazon swords, 4 Ribbons, and a mystery snail in the tank with him. I've been religiously checking the water every 2 - 5 hours because I'm so scared.

Also - Is Indian Almond Leaf actually good for bettas?

He has a small bit of fin rot and I was recommended to use almond leaf (i heard it turns water slightly brown) but I'm hesitant

 

[ColdKoi]

I don’t think I’d go as far as doing that many tests. Twice a day (morning and evening) should be more than enough to catch any rise in ammonia or nitrite levels. By all means, do as many as your comfortable with but it is a bit on the wasteful side imo to be doing more than 2 a day.

I’ve never used almond leaf so I can’t comment there other than it’s entirely possible it can add some colouring to the water. Much like adding a piece of driftwood can do the same. It’s not a permanent thing even with a piece of wood and will eventually go away as the tannins are leached out and removed. I imagine if some leaves had any effect of water clarity it would be quite short lived.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Size of store and how long it has been operating is irrelevant. They will tell you what you need to hear to sell you stuff.

What where you raising the ammonia level to? How long did it take to cycle out?

A bit late for advice on fishless cycling, but may come in useful if you start a new tank or something.

You dont need to be doing water changes during a fishless cycle. It defeats the object of dosing ammonia and then removing it with water changes. All you should be doing is dosing to 2ppm, test 24 hours later. If ammonia is less than 1ppm then redose it back to 2ppm. If it hasnt dropped below 2ppm, let it go and test again 24 hours later. Redose if it drops below 1ppm. Etc etc. If you have dosed to 2ppm and your test 24 hours later shows no ammonia or nitrite, you are cycled.

You are now doing a fish in cycle Do you know how to do this?

You have to be very careful with medication and bettas. Bettas are labyrinthine fish, they can breathe air. Anything oily will make it difficult for them to breathe at the surface. Indian almond leaves release tannins into the water. These are beneficial to fishes health and its common to have them in betta tanks. Do i think they will help cure finrot? Probably not, but will help prevent further infections. Clean water will give your fish the best chance of recovery.

 

[Tess]

I wasn't doing water changes with the fishless cycle, but I am doing them in the fish in the cycle when I see the parameters start to get a bit high.

I was raising my ammonia to 4 ppm and it took 24 hours to cycle it out every time. This was per the ammonium chloride bottle instructions


I am definitely NOT investing in that crappy betta-fix junk that the pet stores sell. Heard way too much bad stuff about it.

I have been doing research on fish-in cycling, and almost every forum I have read and seen says to watch water parameters, do changes as needed (params get too high), don't splurge feed them but that's about as much as I can find anywhere.

I have extremely teeny fingers so I'm feeding the fish right now about 4-5 pellets of food, and plan to conduct at least a 25-30% water change every other day. 50% if it gets extremely high

I've just found when it comes to betta care, you fall into a loophole of contridictory information from almost every single form. One form will say 3.5 is ideal (I don't believe that) and another will say 5 gallons is minimum. Similarly, one form will say fish in the cycle is best while another says fishless is - it's just getting stressful but I refuse to give up on this as it's something I really raelly really want to get into.

 

[Aiken Drum]

3.5 gallon is fine for a betta on its own, with a snail if you want sonething else in there. Bigger tanks make managing water quality so much easier, so a 5g tank is easier to manage than a 3g. Especially for a beginner.

Bettas arent active swimmers, they are happy on their own, dont always tolerate new fish, especially if they are accustomed to having the tank to itself. They dont need a lot of space if kept on its own.

You will never be able to get a consensus of opinion on anything regarding fish care. And also the conflicting opinion will likely both be good opinion. People will tell you what works for them, and there is more than one way to achieve the same end results.

 

[Tess]

So - as long as I continue to regularly check my parameters, do water changes as needed, etc.

The light haze should clear up in 3-4 weeks?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Target should be ammonia + nitrite no higher than 0.5ppm. With just 1 betta in a 10g tank you may not get to that level, in which case just change some water every week.

If its a white cloudy haze that should clear up as the tank establishes. If its still there in a couple of weeks then its something out of the ordinary.

 

[Tess]

Thank you!

I'm keeping my 1 betta and mystery snail for now. When I feel more comfortable I plan to introduce either corys or tetras to the tank.

Just trying to play it safe

 

[Aiken Drum]

Playing it safe would be adding a betta last, after all your other fish have settled in. Once your betta has decided the whole tank is its territory its much less likely to tolerate other fish.

But we are where we are. Be prepared for things to potentially go wrong when you add more fish. Have a plan for rehoming the betta if needed.