Help Needed On These Test Results

[david419]

hi i have transfered from my 90 litre tank to a 180l tank, i am using the same filter and decorations from my old 90litre tank and also added an internal filter. my trouble is that the water seems to be cloudy (white) and some of the guppies seem to be at the top of the tank breathing at the surface,
i have live plants (mainly straight vallis) in there and the stock is 15 neons, 15 guppies, 4 corydoras 5 danios and a pleco.
it has been setup for 3 days now and still is cloudy.

i tested the water and heres what it read:

PH 7.6
NITRATE 2.5
NITRITE 0 ppm
AMMONIA 0.50


Any help would be great as i dont want to lose all my fish and not sure what else to do, many thanks.

 

[pirate monkey]

Could the cloudy water be due to your substrate at all, or did you use new substrate? If you put your old substrate in it might just need a few days to settle.

In the least I would suggest water changes daily til the ammonia goes down, I imagine that a nitrite spike will appear after the ammonia has gone.

I read a post on here recently about Tetra Safe start, apparently it works wonders to boost cycling in your tank.

If the fish are gasping that suggests a lack of circulating oxygen, can you adjust your filter outlets so they disturb the surface more? Or use an airstone maybe?


Hopefully someone else can give you some better advice, but HTH for now!

Good luck

Pirate Monkey

 

[2polypterus2]

Eco-Start (i think this is a kent product) I would add that at double dose on the bottle it works wonders. or another type of live bacteria product. Water changes will not help your tank cycle faster

 

[david419]

Could the cloudy water be due to your substrate at all, or did you use new substrate? If you put your old substrate in it might just need a few days to settle.

In the least I would suggest water changes daily til the ammonia goes down, I imagine that a nitrite spike will appear after the ammonia has gone.

I read a post on here recently about Tetra Safe start, apparently it works wonders to boost cycling in your tank.

If the fish are gasping that suggests a lack of circulating oxygen, can you adjust your filter outlets so they disturb the surface more? Or use an airstone maybe?


Hopefully someone else can give you some better advice, but HTH for now!

Good luck

Pirate Monkey

hi, i did use the old sand and added a bit more as it wasnt enough and there is a 12 inch airstone in there?

 

[pirate monkey]

Water changes will not help your tank cycle faster

this is true but I thought it's probably nicer for the fish not to be in toxic water... especially with neons since they're so sensitive.

IMHO I would say the cloudiness is due to either the substrate where it has bee stirred up in the move, or a bacteria bloom.

Maybe try the SafeStart or Eco-start and see how that goes, keeping close eye on the ammonia and nitrite. I personally would do daily water changes throughout just to help the fish a bit, but that's up to you!

As for the gasping, I have no idea..

HTH

Pirate Monkey