Cloudy Water - Month Old Tank

[loveysfish]

Hello Everyone - My name is Lovey

I am brand new to this forum & a fairly new aquarium enthusiast - although I've had goldfish since I was a kid.

I recently set up a 35 gal. hexagon aquarium with no live plants - only plastic with approx 20 small fish of mollies, tetras, platies, 2 hatchet fish and 1 pleco. Everything was going good until about a week ago when the water started haviing a whitish cloudy cast to it. 10 days prior I lost one molly - but that's the only casuallty.

I have sought out all kinds of help from pet stores to an experienced fish keeper friend. I apparently was over feeding (up to 2-3x daily per the food instructions) and the amonia level was up pretty high. I did get a test kit & the rest of the numbers looked good except for the high amonia level - which I have not been able to get down. I tried an otc amonia stabilizer & remover to prevent harm to the fish - added "Cycle" beneficial bacterias - did several partial tank water changes. I noticed many fish started gulping at the surface & I added 2 airstones which helped a great deal & they are now swimming around happily, and I only feed once a day now.

I don't know what to do next to clear up the cloudy water. It actually looks like it may be starting to clear near the bottom. Is this the result of it being a new tank and do I just hope it cycles to clear soon? All the fish look good & are active & eating well - so far. Would a partial water change do any good at this point? Should I re-test the amonia level - or just assume it's high - if so - what can I do to get the level down? Last time I tested - it was almost emerald green thanks!

 

[neutral]

So that I understand you right, this is a new tank which has never been cycled and you fully stocked it?

 

[loveysfish]

So that I understand you right, this is a new tank which has never been cycled and you fully stocked it?

Yes - I am new to tropicals - what do I do to correct the problem? Thank you.

 

[OldMan47]

Hi there Loveysfish. You have been the victim of a local fish shop with chemicals for sale. It is not at all unusual. What you really need badly is a good dechlorinator, the one you use for the goldfish will probably be fine. Do an immediate 50% water change with dechlorinated water that is roughly temperature matched to your tank's water and test for ammonia again. If the ammonia is still above 0.25 ppm, do another 50% water change and test again. Repeat at one hour intervals until the water quality is acceptable. Many people are afraid of big water changes and I avoid them myself when they are not needed. Your fish are in an unhealthy environment that will end up killing them if you don't deal with the water pollution that you have. Don't worry too much about cloudy water, it is not too unusual and will gradually go away.

 

[Anna Robinson]

As Neutral said, it looks like you stocked the aquarium too fast. This is the main problem, rather than that you were feeding so heavily, although that won't have helped. If the water is still cloudy then it's reasonable to assume you do still have ammonia. It sounds like you had an extremely high level, so perhaps that's why it's taking so long to go. There is lots of information about ammonia and cycling a tank on this site in the 'Beginners Resource Center' at the top of this page, so if there's anything you're still not clear about you could look there.

In the meantime, as Oldman says, you can do plenty of partial water changes to dilute the problem. You can also use ammonia-binding liquids (as you already have) and you can also get ammonia and nitrite-removing resins which can be placed in the filter - these can be used to bring the ammonia/nitrite readings to acceptable levels, and then if necessary taken out again. I personally prefer these methods to the stress of huge water changes, although water changes do do the job as well, if you keep doing them. Eventually the filter bacteria will build up to the required level, and the ammonia will reduce, although you obviously need to look out for nitrite next. I assume you are not washing out the filter or anything, as that will harm the beneficial bacteria. A test kit would be very useful: you need to do water changes/add resins until the ammonia/nitrite are at acceptable levels, and a test kit will tell you when this has occurred. ('Acceptable levels' vary according to the water chemistry, but usually no more than the lowest detectable levels on the test kit).

I think it's a good idea to feed once a day while you have water quality problems, but once the water has settled back down go back to feeding twice a day, as most small fish do not do well on only one meal a day.

Incidentally, I don't feel it's helpful to blame the shop - shops can't give each customer an exhaustive list of everything they might need to know. Fishkeepers need to take responsibility themselves.

 

[Bobtastic]

Here is a link to Fish-in Cycling, which you'll need to do to keep the fishies alive and healthy while the good bacteria grow. It's basically test water, change water rinse repeat until the ammonia and nitrite stay at zero.

Have fun and enjoy!