Mistake

[Mybbygotsauz]

I made the mistake of not washing thoroughly the ornaments that i put in my tank
also i didnt let the tank cycle as long as it should have. i only cycled it for 2 days
I believe that this is the direct result of the tank seeming cloudy or hazy a bit,
is there anything i can do to clear the water up, or will it just eventually clear itself up?
If i have to ill do a complete water change but that can be a pain due to the tank being 60 gallons
So please help with any suggestions,
thanks

 

[Essjay22 137]

Unless you used a lot of mature media in the filter, the tank won't be cycled. It takes several weeks to cycle a filter not a couple of days.
The haziness is a bacterial bloom, which unfortunately are a different species from those we want to grow in the filter. Unless the haziness is green, in which case it's algae. White haziness caused by a bacterial bloom will clear up by itself.


But if you have fish in an uncycled tank, you are in for lots of water changes regardless of the haziness to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels as near to zero as possible while the tank cycles.

 

[Mybbygotsauz]

Thanks for the help
When i do a water change should it be all the water?
Or simply a portion of it?

 

[the_lock_man]

Thanks for the help
When i do a water change should it be all the water?
Or simply a portion of it?

Once your filter is cycled fully, you should be looking to change 30%+ of your water volume per week.

If you have fish in the tank currently, you need to be changing water daily. To know how much to change, you need to know how much ammonia and nitrite is in the water. Your goal is to keep the levels of those 2 poisons below 0.25ppm at ALL times, not just when you've changed water.

If your test shows that you have 0.5ppm ammonia, then if you change 50% of the water, you'll be getting rid of 50% of the ammonia, ie you get to 0.25ppm. But within an hour or so, the levels will have risen. If you do a 75% change, you'll get rid of 75% of the ammonia, ie you get down to 0.125ppm. That buys you a bit of time to work, sleep, eat, etc., until you test again.

 

[ZoddyZod]

Thanks for the help
When i do a water change should it be all the water?
Or simply a portion of it?

I would recommend that you read the beginners section and thoroughly read through the links on 'fish-in cycling'. This should give you all the information you need to undersntad the situation you are now in.