Cloudy water in new tank

[rlcox24]

Hey everybody! I’m new here! I had a very successful tank for several years but took a hiatus for about 12 years. I set up a small 10 gallon starter tank and thought that it had cycled through, so added three Mollies and one African Dwarf Frog. After the first night the Mollies had not made it, and the water started clouding up. The Ph was off so I used a Ph adjuster which seemed to make it much worse.

Throughout this week I have done a 50% water change, and a 25% water change. It has helped. The Ammonia spiked again yesterday so I treated it with Ammonia Clear and the Ammunia level is back to 0 and my frog is starting to eat and become very playful again! My question is, do I do another water change, or just give it some time now that the tank is stabilizing? How long should I wait to add more fish?

 

[Rocky998]

Hey everybody! I’m new here! I had a very successful tank for several years but took a hiatus for about 12 years. I set up a small 10 gallon starter tank and thought that it had cycled through, so added three Mollies and one African Dwarf Frog. After the first night the Mollies had not made it, and the water started clouding up. The Ph was off so I used a Ph adjuster which seemed to make it much worse.

Throughout this week I have done a 50% water change, and a 25% water change. It has helped. The Ammonia spiked again yesterday so I treated it with Ammonia Clear and the Ammunia level is back to 0 and my frog is starting to eat and become very playful again! My question is, do I do another water change, or just give it some time now that the tank is stabilizing? How long should I wait to add more fish?

I'm going to guess you haven't cycled the tank? I would recommend not adding any other chemicals to the tank besides the water conditioner you use and do daily 75% water changes to keep ammonia down. Keep doing this until you see that ammonia and nitrites have stopped going above 0

 

[rlcox24]

I'm going to guess you haven't cycled the tank? I would recommend not adding any other chemicals to the tank besides the water conditioner you use and do daily 75% water changes to keep ammonia down. Keep doing this until you see that ammonia and nitrites have stopped going above 0

Thank you for the quick response! I thought that it had cycled through it it obviously didn’t It sounds like more water changes it is! Thanks so much for the advice. I didn’t know if I should keep doing them since it appears to be stabilizing. Another thing I neglected to mention is that I turned off my bubble stone because it seemed to agitate the water so much with all of the cloudiness. Good move or bad move?

 

[Rocky998]

Thank you for the quick response! I thought that it had cycled through it it obviously didn’t It sounds like more water changes it is! Thanks so much for the advice. I didn’t know if I should keep doing them since it appears to be stabilizing. Another thing I neglected to mention is that I turned off my bubble stone because it seemed to agitate the water so much with all of the cloudiness. Good move or bad move?

No problem! How did you cycle it? I would turn the bubbler back on as aeration can help the beneficial bacteria grow. I would say turn the heat up but you have fish in the tank so I wouldn't do that... Could you test your tap water for ammonia? Sometimes tap water has ammonia that cant be removed by a normal water conditioner. It needs one that detoxes ammonia and removes chlorine...

 

[rlcox24]

No problem! How did you cycle it? I would turn the bubbler back on as aeration can help the beneficial bacteria grow. I would say turn the heat up but you have fish in the tank so I wouldn't do that... Could you test your tap water for ammonia? Sometimes tap water has ammonia that cant be removed by a normal water conditioner. It needs one that detoxes ammonia and removes chlorine...

We are doing the 75% water change now and testing the tap water prior to putting in the conditioner. I also have the Ammonia Clear if it is detected. Hopefully we are on our way to clear water again! I will let you know how it goes! Thanks again for all of the help!

 

[Rocky998]

We are doing the 75% water change now and testing the tap water prior to putting in the conditioner. I also have the Ammonia Clear if it is detected. Hopefully we are on our way to clear water again! I will let you know how it goes! Thanks again for all of the help!

No problem! What brand is that ammonia clear? I wouldnt use a dechorinator and that... I would just use an all in one such as seachem prime or the stuff I use, API aqua essentials

 

[rlcox24]

No problem! What brand is that ammonia clear? I wouldnt use a dechorinator and that... I would just use an all in one such as seachem prime or the stuff I use, API aqua essentials

The Amonia Clear is made by Jungle Labs. I heard about the API brand after I purchased everything to get started. I will definitely be replacing all of my things with API very soon. Everyone on the forums recommends that brand. We tested the tap water and it does contain amonia so I used both and it did the trick. The water is still a little cloudy so I will do another water change tomorrow.

 

[Rocky998]

The Amonia Clear is made by Jungle Labs. I heard about the API brand after I purchased everything to get started. I will definitely be replacing all of my things with API very soon. Everyone on the forums recommends that brand. We tested the tap water and it does contain amonia so I used both and it did the trick. The water is still a little cloudy so I will do another water change tomorrow.

That's good to hear! I'm sjre the cloudiness will clear up in a week or less