Can anyone please help, we have just got a new 125 litre tank we have set up it all with the heater, filter and everything like that, We have added a tap water treatment and also the filtration boost and have put a couple of fish in. 2 mollys and 3 tetras we added these about 12 hour after setting the tank up but now about six hours later the water is all cloudy and you cannot see into the tank also 3 of the fish have died does anyone have any advise please??
Brand New Tank With Cloudy Water
- Thread starter jamie01
- Start date
Hi Jamie,
New tanks/filters need to build up friendly bacteria to support he ecosystem of a fish tank. Bascially all waste such as fish pee and poo, rotting plants and leftover food generate ammonia in the tank, which is harmful to fish. The tank eventually creates the bacteria to break down the ammonia. This then creates nitrites. This is also harmful to fish. But.. the tank then harbours some new bacteria to break that down. It breaks it down into nitrates. Nitrates kept to a manageable level by 25% weekly water changes. plants also use it up a bit. Whilst all this is going on, the tank can get a little bit cloudy.
So how do people do this without harming the fish. Well, cycling the tank (the term used for getting all this bacteria stuff going) can be done with or without fish. Without fish is called a fishless cycle, where the ammonia is added manually until the tank has all the bacteria ready. For many years it has also been done with hardy fish that can survive this process. Unfortunately they don't all survive, especially more fragile ones such as tetras.
You are now in a fish-in cycle. Take a look here for a bit of advice and to see what to do. There is an example of somebody doing a fish in cycle.
Also.. have a look here. There are some great resources for a beginner to get up to speed with how to support thier new tank and fish.
Best of luck, and don't be afraid to ask questions! I asked loads of them here when i first started, and I still ask daft questions now!
Cheers,
Squid
New tanks/filters need to build up friendly bacteria to support he ecosystem of a fish tank. Bascially all waste such as fish pee and poo, rotting plants and leftover food generate ammonia in the tank, which is harmful to fish. The tank eventually creates the bacteria to break down the ammonia. This then creates nitrites. This is also harmful to fish. But.. the tank then harbours some new bacteria to break that down. It breaks it down into nitrates. Nitrates kept to a manageable level by 25% weekly water changes. plants also use it up a bit. Whilst all this is going on, the tank can get a little bit cloudy.
So how do people do this without harming the fish. Well, cycling the tank (the term used for getting all this bacteria stuff going) can be done with or without fish. Without fish is called a fishless cycle, where the ammonia is added manually until the tank has all the bacteria ready. For many years it has also been done with hardy fish that can survive this process. Unfortunately they don't all survive, especially more fragile ones such as tetras.
You are now in a fish-in cycle. Take a look here for a bit of advice and to see what to do. There is an example of somebody doing a fish in cycle.
Also.. have a look here. There are some great resources for a beginner to get up to speed with how to support thier new tank and fish.
Best of luck, and don't be afraid to ask questions! I asked loads of them here when i first started, and I still ask daft questions now!
Cheers,
Squid
drobbyb
Bowhead
Welcome to TFF!
Ok, looks as if you have jumped into the hobby with both feet. There are some things that have to happen before you add fish. There is this vital part of fishkeeping called the nitrogen cycle. You see, the fish produce ammonia every time they breathe and from their waste. Ammonia is toxic to fish, and therefore it must be removed or broken down. In the wild there are millions of gallons of water to dilute the ammonia, and it is never a problem. In captivity we don't have the quantity of water for this to happen. Luckily for us, there are bacteria that develop naturally to break down the ammonia to nitrite. These bacteria live mostly in your filter, but they do not come with your filter, you have to grow them. Once the first set of bacteria have taken up residence and start breaking the ammonia down to nitrite, which is slightly less toxic to fish but still very bad, a second set starts to develop. These new bacteria breakdown the nitrite into a substance known as nitrate (notice the spelling on nitrite and nitrate, they are different.) Nitrate is harmless in low concentrations (less than 40 parts per million ideally) and is removed from the tank via a partial water change.
What I suspect has happened here is the fish you bought have produced enough ammonia to be lethal to them. What you should do now is a 75% waterchange. Simply remove 75% of the water and replace it with temp matched water that has been conditioned by using a water conditioner. You are in what's called fish-in cycling. You need to buy a liquid based test kit that tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH. We here on the forums like the API Master Test Kit and it can be bought from many places. Many people find them for sale on Ebay. Until that test kit arrives, you are going to need to do a 75% waterchange everyday.
There is another option that is far less work. It's called a fishless cycle. In this version, you would take your fish back to the fish store and purchase a small bottle of pure household ammonia (the kind without any coloring, scents, or surfectants.) If you shake the bottle and it foams, it's the wrong kind. Then you would add a measured amount of the ammonia to your fish tank, verified by a test kit, and wait.
Here's a link to the Beginners Resource Center. Pay special attention to the fish-in cycling, fishless cycling, and the nitrogen cycle topics.
Ok, looks as if you have jumped into the hobby with both feet. There are some things that have to happen before you add fish. There is this vital part of fishkeeping called the nitrogen cycle. You see, the fish produce ammonia every time they breathe and from their waste. Ammonia is toxic to fish, and therefore it must be removed or broken down. In the wild there are millions of gallons of water to dilute the ammonia, and it is never a problem. In captivity we don't have the quantity of water for this to happen. Luckily for us, there are bacteria that develop naturally to break down the ammonia to nitrite. These bacteria live mostly in your filter, but they do not come with your filter, you have to grow them. Once the first set of bacteria have taken up residence and start breaking the ammonia down to nitrite, which is slightly less toxic to fish but still very bad, a second set starts to develop. These new bacteria breakdown the nitrite into a substance known as nitrate (notice the spelling on nitrite and nitrate, they are different.) Nitrate is harmless in low concentrations (less than 40 parts per million ideally) and is removed from the tank via a partial water change.
What I suspect has happened here is the fish you bought have produced enough ammonia to be lethal to them. What you should do now is a 75% waterchange. Simply remove 75% of the water and replace it with temp matched water that has been conditioned by using a water conditioner. You are in what's called fish-in cycling. You need to buy a liquid based test kit that tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH. We here on the forums like the API Master Test Kit and it can be bought from many places. Many people find them for sale on Ebay. Until that test kit arrives, you are going to need to do a 75% waterchange everyday.
There is another option that is far less work. It's called a fishless cycle. In this version, you would take your fish back to the fish store and purchase a small bottle of pure household ammonia (the kind without any coloring, scents, or surfectants.) If you shake the bottle and it foams, it's the wrong kind. Then you would add a measured amount of the ammonia to your fish tank, verified by a test kit, and wait.
Here's a link to the Beginners Resource Center. Pay special attention to the fish-in cycling, fishless cycling, and the nitrogen cycle topics.
Thanks for the replys these are the readings we have just done for it... amonia 0, kh 120,ph,6,
n02 0.5, n03 0. we have had the fish for over 6 months its just the tank that is new that we put them in, when we transferd the fish we also put some of the water from the old tank into the new one. so with them readings what is the best action for me to take now. thanks.
n02 0.5, n03 0. we have had the fish for over 6 months its just the tank that is new that we put them in, when we transferd the fish we also put some of the water from the old tank into the new one. so with them readings what is the best action for me to take now. thanks.
The water itself doesn't contain much of the bacteria required unfortunately. Did you transfer any of the old filter media to the new tank, transfer the filter, or are you starting from scratch?
Large water changes as recommended above are probably best at the moment.
Squid
Large water changes as recommended above are probably best at the moment.
Squid
Hi,
No that will be it we didnt put any of the old filter into the new one, they were too differant types and never thought, we have done a 20% water change tonight but it has gone even worse would you just keep doing the same as this?
thanks
No that will be it we didnt put any of the old filter into the new one, they were too differant types and never thought, we have done a 20% water change tonight but it has gone even worse would you just keep doing the same as this?
thanks
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Yup, agree with the others, this is a classic Fish-In Cycling emergency and the larger and more frequent the initial water changes the more quickly you will get the situation under control. Robby has outlined good water changing technique up there and it sounds like maybe you've got a good liquid-reagent based test kit as that will also be needed. Good luck!
~~waterdrop~~
~~waterdrop~~
These guys have given you some great advice!
What you need to do now is test your water twice a day at least and change as much water as necessary to get ammonia and nitrite to zero. This might mean 30%, 50% or even 80% at a time, sometimes a couple of times a day!
Unfortunately, there is very, very little bacteria in the water so just moving the fish into the new tank with some old water is the same as adding new fish to a brand new tank. You need to re-grow the bacteria and this could be a long, hard process with lots and lots of water changes!
As you have found out, if these chemicals rise in the tank, they will kill fish.
The cloudy water is caused by algae (if it is green) or bacteria (if it is whiteish). In both cases, you need to do water changes as the bacteria and algea grow rapidly if there is ammonia in the water.
You need to wait until your fish are healthy and you have had zero readings on ammonia and nitrite for at least a week (without water changes to bring them down) before you add more fish.
What you need to do now is test your water twice a day at least and change as much water as necessary to get ammonia and nitrite to zero. This might mean 30%, 50% or even 80% at a time, sometimes a couple of times a day!
Unfortunately, there is very, very little bacteria in the water so just moving the fish into the new tank with some old water is the same as adding new fish to a brand new tank. You need to re-grow the bacteria and this could be a long, hard process with lots and lots of water changes!
As you have found out, if these chemicals rise in the tank, they will kill fish.
The cloudy water is caused by algae (if it is green) or bacteria (if it is whiteish). In both cases, you need to do water changes as the bacteria and algea grow rapidly if there is ammonia in the water.
You need to wait until your fish are healthy and you have had zero readings on ammonia and nitrite for at least a week (without water changes to bring them down) before you add more fish.
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