Milky cloudy water

[Shan98]

Only have had my tank set up for a couple weeks and have had nothing but issues really. Finally we thought the tank was all good after treating with stability and ammonia but woke up yesterday with cloudy tank water. We went to pet shop and had water tested. Everything was good except for the ammonia which was off the charts (has been up and down since we started)… we cleaned the tank, vacuumed gravel and filter media on Saturday, which now I understand we shouldn’t have cleaned the filter media. We also purchased a bigger filter yesterday because we have a 100L tank but our 2 filters which we had in the tank only did upto 80L together. Now we have the 100L filter plus one of the existing running to keep any good bacteria (if any) in the tank. Our fish seem to be doing ok, the pet shop said to keep treating tank with ammo lock, but they cannot explain the cloudiness. Can anyone advise? We have 16 x guppies, 6 x tetras, 4 x Cory catfish and 1 x gourami. Also baby guppies were born we believe yesterday despite cloudy water… I can’t see them all because of how bad it is but I managed to pull one out and put in a breeder tank inside the tank. First photo yesterday morning, second yesterday afternoon

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[Guyb93]

I’m no expert on tank chemistry but it seems like your cycling the tank and the cloudiness is a bacteria blossom

 

[Colin_T]

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the ammonia and nitrite levels are 0ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you have fish in the tank, reduce feeding to 2-3 times a week until the filter has established in a month's time.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Bacteria bloom...harmless to fish but ammonia isn't, massive water changes every day until both ammonia and nitrite read 0

 

[Corypower]

It’s called new tank syndrome

 

[P J]

Be patient it can take four to six weeks to cycle, the cloudiness is normal. Just leave it absolutely no need for water changes at this stage you are just delaying a full cycle. Too many fish too soon but they should survive.

 

[Slaphppy7]

You are in the midst of a fish-in cycle, read through this and post any questions you may have: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i.433769/

You need to be testing your own water, get one of these ASAP: https://apifishcare.com/product/freshwater-master-test-kit

You will be doing daily water changes, to keep the toxicity of the ammonia down. You need a good water conditioner, get either Seachem Prime or API Tap Water conditioner...there is no need for any other chemicals, they will just complicate matters.

You have hard water fish (guppies) and soft water fish (tetras) in the same tank, which usually doesn't work out well. Get a water quality report from your water supplier, and see if it lists the gh, kh, and ph of your tap water.

 

[Essjay]

You have ammonia now, and nitrite will appear shortly. Both of these are poisonous to fish.

Fish-in cycling is a balancing act between allowing the bacteria grow quickly and keeping the fish from harm. I prefer to keep the fish from harm by doing water chnages whenever either ammonia or nitrite read above zero.

 

[Shan98]

Update, I completed a water change (as much as I could leaving the fish in there). Treated the water and re-tested. The ammonia levels are now sitting at 3ppm, nitrates and nitrites are 0ppm and ph is 7.4.
I will keep doing the water changes daily or every second day until the ammonia is 0ppm. But the ammonia was at 8ppm before water change so I suppose the initial result is ok..? This was the tank after water change, still cloudy but better then before.

 

[Essjay]

Ammonia needs to be zero when there are fish in a tank. You really need to do another big water change to get it down, and if it's still more than zero after that, do another one.
Going forwards you need to test every day for both ammonia and nitrite and if either of them are over zero, do a water change. This is why fish-in cycling is hard work.
Live plants will help as they take up ammonia as fertiliser and they turn it into protein rather than nitrite. Even a few stems of elodea/anacharis left floating on the water will help.

Ammonia burns their skin and gills. The damage to the gills means the fish can't absorb as much oxygen from the water.
Nitrite binds to the oxygen receptors in the blood and stops oxygen being taken up. It basically does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us.

 

[Slaphppy7]

8 PPM before the WC??

I'm surprised the fish are still alive, quite frankly.

What kind of test are you using?...did you get a good water conditioner, as suggested above?

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Update, I completed a water change (as much as I could leaving the fish in there)...

There are usually a lot of anxieties associated with large water changes, but, provided the water is being treated with a good water conditioner, clean water is usually way, way better than the toxic soup you're replacing. Think about the rain in the natural environment.
The only real issue might be the temperature difference, adding chilled cold water to a warm tank. You could always boil a kettle* and add a small amount of hot water to your cold water, before adding it to the tank.

*Traditionally, hot or warm water from a hot tap isn't recommended, because this often travels through copper piping and copper is toxic for many water creatures.

 

[Spyro]

Update, I completed a water change (as much as I could leaving the fish in there). Treated the water and re-tested. The ammonia levels are now sitting at 3ppm, nitrates and nitrites are 0ppm and ph is 7.4.
I will keep doing the water changes daily or every second day until the ammonia is 0ppm. But the ammonia was at 8ppm before water change so I suppose the initial result is ok..? This was the tank after water change, still cloudy but better then before.

I hope you do better then me.
I've lost all the fish while cycling the tank.

Here is some info that might help you with what I assume you've been told in Pet shop, like me:

- Adding stability does not mean your tank is cycled and ready for fish after 24hrs or 7 days. It will be deadly for up to 6-8 weeks with that number of fish and water changes no matter how much stability you put in.
-Do not clean filter or change cartridge until you have ammonia and nitrates at 0 for at least a month!
-Do not wipe glass until your tank is fully cycled!
-If your filter has cartridge that looks like a bag =look up on youtube how to fix your filter with sponge and bio-media. Cartridges that look like a bag are useless.
- I would strongly recommend taking those pebbles out and replacing with quarts 2mm gravel if you have kit tank filter with cartridge. Gravel will help with bacteria as it can house way more than cartridge filter. Those pebbles will also cause you bacteria/fungus problems if you're not cleaning the tank all the time.
-Cloudy water will resolve itself on it's own, nothing to worry about.

And finally and most importantly - Do not believe a single thing sales people at pet store tell you. I'm sure they mean well but they just have no idea what they are talking about. And seem to be trained to give advice based on some product/store wisdom that is not true, for most part.

GL

P.S. When you're changing water, make sure it's the same temp as water in the tank. There is nothing that can kill stressed fish faster than fast temp change. Couple of degrees up or down will not be fine (another bad advice from my sales person)

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

P.S. When you're changing water, make sure it's the same temp as water in the tank. There is nothing that can kill stressed fish faster than fast temp change. Couple of degrees up or down will not be fine (another bad advice from my sales person)

Mostly* great advice and it's good of you to turn your error into learning opportunities.
The only small thing I have some slight issue with was;
"P.S. When you're changing water, make sure it's the same temp as water in the tank. There is nothing that can kill stressed fish faster than fast temp change. Couple of degrees up or down will not be fine (another bad advice from my sales person)".

This would depend upon how much water you're changing. Remember that rain rarely comes heated and, whilst it may be warmer than running stream water, it would likely be cooler than that found in a pool. Granted, a lot of extremely cold water would not be good, but it doesn't have to be at 'exactly' the same temperature as that in the tank.
Once a tank is up and running as it should, water changes should be a simple and routine process, with as little complications as possible.

Oh yes...and be wary of the 'quartz' part of your gravel recommendation. Too much quartz will seriously affect the hardness of the water in the tank and will continue to do so, until all of the quartz has dissolved. I'd suggest just looking for 'aquarium' or 'river' gravel.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Slightly cooler water really is not harmful....nor is slightly warmer water...BUT, tap water that is MUCH warmer than the tank temp can cause serious issues, even death to the fish...gas bubble disease comes to mind....I personally witnessed the death of 4 of my fish, in minutes, when I inadvertently added tap water that was around 6 degrees F warmer than my tank water during a WC, due to GBD....I used to "feel" the tap water temp with my hand before adding to the tank...big mistake...now, I use a digital thermometer to match the tap temp to my tanks' temp, as closely as possible.

More on GBD: https://fishhistopathology.com/home/2020/04/15/gas-bubble-disease/