Aarrgg!

[Holly001]

Ok...so I have cycled my newest aquarium for 7 weeks and all the levels were normal:
0 nitrate
0 nitrite
7.5 pH
78 degrees

I have two amazon swords and two small bunches of hornwort in it. Last week I added some fish (3 small corydoras and 3 killy fish). The water has been a bit cloudy for about three weeks now. I do 10% to 20% water changes on all my tanks every five days but this particular tank will not un-cloud. I have never had this problem before and it is majorly frustrating!!! Any advice would be helpful please and thanks.
As a side note I also have three ghost shrimp in this tank as well and all of my other tanks except my oscar tank are planted and NONE are as cloudy as this one. Once again all have normal levels.

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons is the tank.
How did you cycle the tank.
What's your tap nitrate reading.
Do you over feed.
Do you have ammonia reading.
What test kit are you using.

 

[Holly001]

It is a 10 gallon tank
I did a fishless cycle....my dad taught me how a long time ago, it is pretty much the same as the tpoics I have read on this website.
My ammonia is at 0. The test kits I use are API ammonia test kit and API 5 in 1 test strip kit (nitrite, nitrate, pH, KH and GH).
My tap nitrate reading is 10.
I don`t think I overfeed. They get half an algea tablet every evening and either one feeding of frozen brine shrimp a day or two feeding of tetramin colour crisps or tetramin rich mix flake food for tropical fish. And I net out whatever they don`t eat.

 

[Curiosity101]

Perhaps it was too many fish in one go.
When you cycle a tank what you're doing is getting the filter ready to cope with X amount of ammonia produced by fish.
If you put so many fish in that the ammonia they create is greater than the amount the filter was cycled to cope with then there will be a lag phase whilst the bacteria catch up.
During this period the ammonia levels will rise.

Oops didn't actually finish my explanation did I.. lol.
The large spike in ammonia will have triggered a bacterial bloom.

How much ammonia were you using to cycle the filter with. 5ppm?

 

[WILDER]

Test strip cards are not that accurate.
If you have a tap nitrate reading of 10 your tank reading should be around there.
So you have live plants.
Sounds like the tank gone into a mini cycle since adding the fish.

 

[Holly001]

curosity101 - I did use 5 ppm ammonia to cycle. All the levels were balanced. Sorry I should have explained better. At seven weeks the tank was balanced and I added my 3 ghost shrimp, four days later I added 3 killie fish and one week later I added the three cories.
Wilder - A mini cycle.....never thought of that. I treat my water in buckets for atleast two days sometimes three to get rid of chemicals and all that, so is it possible that my nitrate reading is different in my tanks because of that? I treat that water with tetra aqua easy balance and tetra aqua aqua safe.

 

[WILDER]

Only time you have a nitrate reading of 0 is if tap reading 0 and you have live plants.

 

[Holly001]

I see. Well hopefully I can get out to the pet place in the next few days and I will pick up a different nitrate test kit. Thanks for the help. My fish are doing well so it seems to be the water....I will keep a close eye on it and keep up my regualr maintenance and hopefully it will un-cloud soon. Thanks again!