Cloudy Water!

[vcmtik]

Hi there

I need advice. Last night i changed my gravel for sand. I bought play sand, washed it thoroughly in a pillowcase, and put it into the tank.

12 hours on my water is cloudy. I have tested the water and ammonia is zero. I have a fluval u2 filter running, and my airstones, but it doesn't seem to be clearing. What should I do?

thanx

Vikki

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Vikki and welcome to the beginners section!

It could just be that you need to wait longer for the sand to settle. That's the way sand is. Takes a heck of a long time to get all the dust out and depending on how much of that was done you may still have sand dust that will be slowly going out when you do water changes in the weeks ahead.

The members will also want to analyze what your status is with respect to your fishless cycle or whatever your plans are for getting a working biofilter going prior to fish. If you are totally new to all this you can make a good start by doing your homework and reading the Nitrogen Cycle, Fishless Cycling and Fish-In Cycling articles in the Beginners Resource Center here in our "New to the Hobby" subforum. It normally takes 3 to 6 weeks of prep before a tank is ready for fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[vcmtik]

Hi there

Thanks for the advice. I currently have fish in my tank. When I stocked the tank for the first time, my ammonia and nitrItes were 0, I didn't test for nitrAtes because I wasn't aware that this was an important factor to conclude that the cycle was established. Since then, and after finding your VERY useful website, I have been testing the water everyday and bought a NitrAte testing kit. The levels have been higher, so I have been changing at least 50% water, to get the cycle going again. Unfortunately the LFS never advised me about testing the water BEFORE I purchased my fish stock. I have a 80l tank stock with:

4 cherry red shrimp
2 Golden Apple snails
2 Horned nerite snails
3 Molly
5 Tiger barbs
4 Guppy
1 Molly fry

I don't have any live plants, but i do have a piece of bogwood. The tank temp is 25 degrees celsius. I changed to sand as I liked the look of it in the tanks, and I would like to have corydoras in the future - I understand the the type of gravel that I had was unsuitable for their barbs.

I have only been keeping a log of the aquarium water for 4 days, so far it has been:

DAY 1 - Temp - 25 PH - 7.6 Ammonia - 0.25 - 0.5 NitrIte - 5 NitrAte - did not test
* Changed 54 litres, then retested:
Temp - 26 PH - 7.6 Ammonia - 0 NitIte - 0 NitrAte - did not test

DAY 2 - Temp - 25 PH - 7.6 Ammonia - 0 NitrIte - 0 NitrAte - did not test

DAY 3 - Temp - 25 PH - 7.4 Ammonia - 0.5 - 1 NitrIte - 0.25 NitrAte - 10
* Changed substrate and 90% water.
DAY 4 - Temp - 25 PH - 7.4 Ammonia - 0 NitrIte - 0 NitrAte - 0

Sorry the reply is so long winded, but I wanted to give you as much info as possible. What is the ideal temperature for the tank. Some info says 24 and the LFS says 26, my brother has his at 28!

 

[aly_starh]

Test Stats seem ok. The sand will take atleast 2 days before fuly settled.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you're into the beginning of a nice solid Fish-In Cycling Situation and you'll probably be changing a lot of water over the next month unless I'm missing something. Keep combing our Fish-In cyclng article for bits of understanding and plenty of the members here can help with the details of fish-in cycling, plus it sounds like you're already well on the way to doing the right stuff and understanding it. You're just basically having to be the "manual filter" for your fish's breathing and waste for the next few weeks! Make sense?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[vcmtik]

Waterdrop,

Yes, thank you. Your help has been much appreciated. Could you confirm the ideal temperature for the water and what is the maximum I can stock in my tank, there are so many kinds of fish I would like in my tank, but I don't want to over do it! Would you like me to keep you up to date with my water readings?

Vikki

 

[chelski]

im a novice too tbh,i tried everything,then i got an ehiem filter,stuck some carbon pads in it and by the end of the day it was crystal clear

 

[vcmtik]

My fluval filter has carbon cartridges, that need changing regularly. The water is clearing ...... slowly. I have read some info saying that I should just remove these carbon filters and just use the other poly cartridges and biomax. Is this true?

 

[waterdrop]

Waterdrop,

Yes, thank you. Your help has been much appreciated. Could you confirm the ideal temperature for the water and what is the maximum I can stock in my tank, there are so many kinds of fish I would like in my tank, but I don't want to over do it! Would you like me to keep you up to date with my water readings?

Vikki

Hi Vikki,

You won't want to go as warm as your brother's 28C, that's a little high for the barbs, they don't like to go over 26C. So I'd go 26C or lower, as all your fish would be happy with it lower.. they can take 21C but perhaps 24 or 25C would be ideal, with 26 begin fine too and if the summer is perhaps making it a little hotter then don't worry its not such a big deal for them to take that too.

Don't add fish and probably don't change filter cartridges while you are in a fish-in cycle. You need to learn a bunch of basics about filters and the members can probably help you with it. Filters have three functions: mechanical, biological and chemical filtration. Mechanical is the one most people already think of, the catching of debris particles. Chemical filtration is special and optional. Carbon (aka activated charcoal) is an example of "chemical filtration" and is used typically for 3 purposes: the removal of medications after treatment, the removal of excess yellow tannins from woods in the water and finally the removal of the occasional organic odor of unknown origin. Carbon is only effective for 3 days and then needs to be removed and tossed. It is a great tool on the aquarists shelf but is not normally used on a regular basis. It is a poor biological media.

The third function, biological filtration, is the most unusual and most important one. This is the one that cycling is all about of course. The best biological media are ceramic rings, sponges, ceramic gravels and plastic bioballs or other similar structures like plastic "tuffy" potscrubbers. All these type of media compete in the marketplace to be the best anchor for our two special species of beneficial bacteria that eat the ammonia and nitrite that can kill our fish. The greater the biomedia volume the better. The flow rate of a filter is a different parameter and it is not necessarily a higher-is-better thing.

Most experienced aquarists like to brag that their biomedia has lasted for years and years, that's why ceramics are a very competitive type of biomedia. Overall the typical filter is a mix of layers that are optimized for either bio or mechanical function, with chemical only optionally and temporarily brought in as previously mentioned. All media types will actually overlap somewhat for the functions. For instance, good biomedia will also perform some mechanical filtration functions and carbon will also serve as a poor biological surface area and so do some bio functioning as well. Many filters have a "water polishing" floss or fine mat as well to do the "fine mechanical" cleaning.

So, in summary, its better to -ignore- the manufacturers pleas to constantly thow out your media and "buy new cartridges." That is something dreamed up by marketers and the world of the hobbyist fish keeper is something different altogether.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[vcmtik]

Waterdrop

Thanks for the info, I understand it now! The water is a lot more clearer this morning I have done my readings - they are:

DAY 5 - Temp 25 Ammonia - 0 NitrIte - 0 NitrAte - less than 5

Is this the start of a successful cycle?

I wasn't going to purchase any more fish until my cycle is established, I was wondering how many I could have without over-stocking. I also understand now that I need to slowly build my community.

 

[OldMan47]

You are on a very early start of your fish-in cycle. It seems that you have a light enough stock level that it is not requiring as many big water changes as some people get into. Whenever you can go a whole week with no water change, no ammonia and no nitrites, you can say that you are cycled for the current biological load in the tank. You are probably nowhere close to that this early but are having good success with controlling the chemistry. When you have a cycled tank the nitrates will climb constantly and becomes the chemical that we usually use to judge when to do a water change on a mature tank. The reason for the caveat about being cycled only for the current biological load is that an enthusiastic beginner will often think cycled means its time for more fish. On a fish in cycle, what it means is that you can relax a bit on water changes until you add more fish. When those new fish go in, the bacteria will not likely be up to the job and your water change routine may need to pick up for a few days until the bacteria get caught up with the new biological load.
I run most of my community tanks at around 24 or 25C. I have some specialized tanks where I match temperatures to the ideal for the particular fish in the tank with several below 22C as their ideal. If you kept something like discus, you might have a tank at 28C or a bit higher. Your present target of 25C seems a good all around temperature. Fish that prefer cooler water can usually tolerate it that warm and fish that prefer warmer can usually thrive with water that cool.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree

 

[vcmtik]

Great!

Thanks Waterdrop & oldman47 for all yr help. I will keep you posted on how my cycle develops.

 

[vcmtik]

Hi again,

Do I need to change my water today?

As you can see the last couple of days of my fish in cycle the levels have been minmal. My readings toady are:

DAY 6 - Temp 25 Ammonia 0.5 - 1 NitrItre - 0 NitrAte - 5 PH - 7.4

Please advise me!

 

[OldMan47]

Answered in your other thread but yes, it is time for a couple of big water changes.