Cloudy Tank ?

[Romany]

Not sure if i'm posting in the right place......

I don't have any fish in my tank yet but will be getting some guppies from my friend during the week.

She told me to set my tank up using tap water and leave it to establish for a few days. I added gravel yesterday (washed) and the tank has gone cloudy.

Any ideas?

 

[KittyKat]

Cloudy = bacterial bloom -> do a 50% water change and wait a few days, it will go.

If you do what your friend has told you to, you will have a lot of problems. You will be in a fish-in cycle situation.

I recommend that you set up the tank, dechlorinate the water, get it up to temperature, add some of your friend's filter media to your filter and fish-less cycle.

If you want to set-up quicker (and make life more difficult for yourself), set-up tank, dechlorinate water, take some of your friend's filter media (and add to your own filter), then buy lots of plants and take the fish. Make sure ammonia and nitrite never come close to 0.25 ppm by doing water changes.

 

[Romany]

How do i decholrinate ?

Thanks for the advice !

 

[KittyKat]

You can buy a product, which is often called dechlorinator, from any fish shop (aka LFS) and some pet shops. On it, it will say that it removes chlorine and chloramine (sometimes heavy metals too) and deals with ammonia. For example, a product called "Prime" by Seachem or "Stress Coat" by API (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) would work. It is important to dechlorinate because chlorine and chloramine can harm fish and the bacteria in the filter which make water safe for fish to live in.

I strongly recommend that you read the beginners' resource centre, especially about what a cycle is: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I strongly recommend that you read the beginners' resource centre, especially about what a cycle is: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

+1

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

The cloudy water is from where you added your gravel. Will soon clear.

Ask your friend if you can have some of his filter media from his tank, this has good bacteria which will instantly cycle your tank.

If not either do a fish in cycle, which entails daily water changes, or do a fishless cycle which normally takes 2 months sometimes longer.

So your best bet is to get some media off your friend.