Bacterial Bloom in New Tank

[CowFishlova]

Hello!

So I set up a 10 gallon freshwater tank 3 weeks ago and put 2 dwarf puffer fish in last week after doing extensive research on them. I have a Aquaclear filter with AquaClear Foam, Activated Carbon and BioMax and Cycle Guard. The substrate is sand and I have 4 live plants in the tank.

The pH is at 7, Nitrite at .25r and Nitrate at 0. However the ammonia is like 4.0 which obviously is not good so I put some Ammo Lock to make sure the fish are not getting burned. Then the water started to get milky and super hard to see through after 3 days of having the fish put in so I am assuming this is the bacterial bloom. I regret not cycling the tank without fish in it but 2 of the plants were from a cycled tank and the substrate so I decided to do it with fish in it (please do not bash me for this as I see the mistake).

So my question is will the ammonia go down as the bacterial bloom dissipates? I have not done water changes and have been only feeding the puffers once a day as I read that I should do that. I just am super worried about the high ammonia.

Thank you!

 

[JuiceBox52]

Do daily 75% water changes and test daily until the ammonia reaches 0

 

[Colin_T]

Milky cloudy water is a bacterial bloom caused by uneaten food rotting in the tank.​

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean each day until the ammonia and nitrite are both at 0

You should reduce the feeding to once every couple of days. The less food going into the tank, the less ammonia that will be produced and the lower the level will be.

Once the filter has established, you can increase feeding to once or twice a day and do a 75% water change and gravel clean once a week.