Hi Im New And Need Some Advice

[LittleL]

Hi,

im new to this forum and i thought i would introduce myself and ask for some advice will im at it!

Im Laura and from Southern United Kingdom!

Yestarday i had the joy of buying my first few fish to add to my tank... i got 6 glow tetras... i did a water test just before i added them to the tank and all seemed fine (i think!) and i did a check of the tank, filter, heater etc and all fine... anyway after about four hours of adding them, i came back to see how they were getting on and the tank had gone all cloudy... it was crystal clear when i added them so why has this happened and what can i do about it? please can someone advice

Thanks
Laura

 

[silver tipped]

Hi,

Just to say i'm from south england too.

I had the same problem to when I first started out.

My water was clear, then I added 7 tetras and some plants, but almost immediatley the water looked cloudy. I put it down to the fact that I had disturbed the gravel substrate when I placed the plants and of course kicked up some of the dirt. (I did wash the gravel well before placing it in the tank but it never comes out really clean). Also the fish themselves were picking at the gravel too. The water did come clean again though so that was ok.

This is just my thoughts on what happened in my tank, there be another explanation for your cloudiness. I am sure that others with more expertise will come alomg and offer other advice.

Good luck with those new fish.

 

[spaceagehero]

Yeah I had a lot of trouble with cloudy water. Just keep the filter clean and do regular changes and it will clear itself, if not you can buy liquid from the pet store which will help.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Yeah I had a lot of trouble with cloudy water. Just keep the filter clean and do regular changes and it will clear itself, if not you can buy liquid from the pet store which will help.

You DON'T want to clean the filter media; that's where your beneficial bacteria live, leave well alone. Eventually, when the tank has been up and running for a few months, you may start cleaning one filter sponge at the time, once a month or so, by very gently swishing it in tank water.


Laura, the cloudy water is probably caused by a harmless bacteria bloom- common in new tanks. It's not the cloudiness you can see that should worry you but the chemicals you can't see.

Have you got a test kit for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? At this stage you need to test the water daily to make sure ammonia and nitrites are not rising to toxic levels (above 0.5 ppm). If they do, you need to dilute them with a partial water change (using dechlorinated water).

What size is your tank?

Oh, and I forgot- welcome to the forum!

 

[LittleL]

Hi, thanks to everyone who replied..

the tank is looking much clearer now... i haven't done much (well i did add some water clarifer liquid, although i dont think i did much help!)

i have a home water test kit (think it was a tetra one) anyway, im testing the water daily and keeping a diary of the readings to i can keep track of them and so i can pick up on any sudden changes...

my readings look fine at the moment...

i have a 55gal tank and at the moment i have 6 glowlight tetras, 8 harliquins (i think thats what there called.. i only asked for 5 but the LFS gave me 8 for some reason?!) and i've just added added 2 dwarf gouramis and im totally in love with them.. there so cute!!

 

[blackguppy]

I'm going with dwarfgourami's reply, but I'd also ask, if you netted the fish from the bag of water from the LFS, or if you added the water and fish into the tank? It's better to net the fish out, rather than introduce any LFS water to your tank.