Someone Help! (cloudy)

[codyl1121]

OK, so I got a new 25 gallon tank early this morning from PetSmart. I bought a bag of dark SeaChem Fluorite, Driftwood and a Bag of Gravel. I rinsed the gravel and the driftwood, but didnt rinse the Fluorite (this is probably where I went wrong). I put the Fluorite on the bottom and the gravel on top of it, evened it out then added 2 pieces of driftwood then added the water. The water was supperrr cloudy so I started running the filter. After a few hours, nothing really changed. Water was still cloudy as heck. Mind you, I have no plants as they are sitting off to the side in their gel waiting for the water become un-cloudy (shh I made that word up) so I can see what I'm doing. I did about a 25% water change and ehh it helped a little but figured I really shouldn't do water changes. I gravel vacced it a little just to see and there it was a bunch of cloudiness!



The bag said to buy SeaChem Clarity if I wanted to speed the process and take away the cloudiness so I did. I went to the pet store, got home and noticed my tank was white and cloudy at the very top and yellow and cloudy the whole rest of the tank. I put the Clarity in and it turned even more Yellow lol. Is this good? Am I being impatient? Will the bottom ALWAYS be so cloudy if a fish or shrimp digs into it? Do they like that lol or will it hurt them? Will my filter eventually clear all this up even the clouds of dust from the bottom? I really don't have the money to buy all new substrate again just to rinse it

 

[bud29]

You probably did go wrong by not rinsing the fluorite. Also, driftwood releases tannins into the water which discolor it.

 

[Snmurray]

Does the wood continously stain water? I have added would which I soaked before hand?

 

[Snmurray]

Ps water very cloudy after first 24hrs & isnt clearing. Been informed by lfs staff that it is a bacteria bloom which should clear after a few days. Using seachem stability to prime tank.

 

[shellieca]

Ps water very cloudy after first 24hrs & isnt clearing. Been informed by lfs staff that it is a bacteria bloom which should clear after a few days. Using seachem stability to prime tank.

Driftwood can stain the water for a long time, it isn't harmful to the fish & some people don't like the look. As for the cloudiness, you don't need to add anything, it'll clear up with water changes & time. It took one of my tanks about a week I think it was. I was fish in cycling & doing 50%+ water changes every few days.