Cloudy Water

[mrchelsea]

Hi

I have a 28l tank, the water was stress coated and then it was suggested i add some hardy fish so 6 penguin tetra were added and a few days later 4 serpae tetra were added. i have stopped at that for now as i was told the nitrogen cycle needs to take place before i add anymore, my problem is the water is cloudy.. is this a natural part of the process and will it clear up?? i also have another post under tetras together regarding my fish behaviour if anyone can help..

Thanks

 

[Gilli]

The shop have given you terrible advice! You need to take the fish back. your tank needs to cycle before adding fish and this can take 6 weeks!

Tetras are not fish to cycle with and they will die. If you are determined to cycle with fish you could cycle with a few Danios , but really is is far less cruel to fishless cycle. You can read up on it on this forum

Fishless Cycle

 

[OldMan47]

It is not unusual to see cloudy water a short way into a cycle. You will be changing water so often with all those fish in the tank that it will not be an issue. I hope you are testing the water and already doing large frequent water changes. This fish-in cycle is so often a problem that I have a link to the thread in my signature line. Please read up on it today so you can start doing the right things for your fish.

 

[Colin_T]

You can cycle the filters with fish in but you need to minimise the feeding and do regular water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down. there is also a chance the fish might die while the tank si cycling.
The milky cloudy water is caused by excess food breaking down and the filters are not ready to clean it up. Do a 50% water change each day (using dechlorinated water with a similar temperature) and feed the fish once every few days. They won't starve and the less food going into the tank, the better it will be for the fish.
In a month or so the filters will have developed enough good bacteria and then you can reduce the water changes to once a week and feed the fish each day.