New Aquarium Very Cloudy Water... Help

Rocky918

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hey everyone, im new to owning an aquarium... ive always wanted one and now i finally went out and got a 40gallon tank about 2 weeks ago... ive been setting it up so far, spent a week making sure my tap water was dechlorinated and then it was time to establish the nitrite nitrate cycle... so i bought NUTRAFIN to do this before adding fish so that my water was safe for them to live invand followed the instructions ... it was a 3 day cycle and by the 2nd day i used it, the water was really cloudy... teh 3rd day the water was even cloudier... i tried two different products to clear hte water and neither have worked... i went to the store and they said the water was fine to add fish so i bought a couple cheap ones to help the cycle going and didnt wanna spend more money yet in case they die because of teh water...

so my question is, how can i get the water to be clear? right now it looks so ugly and dirty.... and it all started when using NUTRAFIN to help the ammonia cycle... any help woudl be greatly appreciated
 
What Nutrafin product did you cycle with. I had some nutrafin cycle, but I didn't think it could do a fishless cycle, it's one of those bacteria boosters, and seeing you dosed daily, i guess you have a bacterial bloom.

Large water changes are the order of the day here for two reasons. You need to dilute the bacteria and what's feeding it. Also now you have fish you're in a fish in cycle you'll need to test the water daily and do a water change if there's any ammonia or nitrite to protect the fish from their ill effects.

What fish have you put in? seeing they're cheap I'm guessing danio's, tetras or guppies. I've fish in cycled with guppies before and they survived some seriously horrible levels of nitrite.

Quick aside, If you can get away without adding any chemicals to maintain the tank, clear the water etc... you're in a better place for you're tank.
 
i used NUTRAFIN biological aquarium booster... so i guess it is for the beneficial bacteria it says.....

and i know nothing about starting up an aquarium... i was only following the directions of the people in PETCO, and they said that using this NUTRAFIN that my tank should be ready for fish in 3 days as it says on the bottle...

i have 3 kinds of fish, i cant remember the other 2, but one of hte types are 3 tetras...

so basically i should start with partial water change, like 1/4 of hte water daily for a few days? since i use tap water to fill it, i will have to use more of the other product to take out the chlorine i assume as well right?
 
you will HAVE to do 80% water changes twice daily to keep ammonia down, other wise you may end up killing your fish.

you will need to use more dechlor yes, and it may be worthwhile picking up a bottle of pond dechlorinator.
 
Hi Rocky and welcome to TFF!

Yours is a clear case of lack or -real- information about how a tank works and how to get one started! We see quite a few of these cases every month. Gosh, what a bunch of contrasting circumstances:

1) You've got the desire. You've waited and anticipated and now have a nice tank and are ready to go with the hobby, Great!
2) You've gone to the local fish shop and bought some bottles to help get the tank started, most of them have not helped and basicially did nothing more than add to your cash register receipt!
3) You've gone to the local fish shop (LFS we call them) and they're nice enough folks but somehow the info they've given you is dead on opposite very often of what you should be doing. We see this every week. It may take a few weeks before you trust that there's this contrast between LFS information and information you get at a place like TFF, but eventually you may come to be amazed.
4) You've searched the internet and stumbled across this forum, read some, made an ID... in my opinion - luckiest thing you could ever stumble across, if you want to be a real hobbyist! The members here are great. They'll get you sorted.

Just to reinforce or add to things others have said, your most urgent thing at the moment is to do large water changes (50 to 70% for the first few) with good technique (use your conditioner and roughly temperature match with your hand for all the return tap water.) This is to try and hold down the damage to the gills and nervous systems of the poor fish they've had you dump in with the toxins of a new tank.

Meanwhile, your first homework assignment is to find the Beginners Resource Center up top in this same subforum and read your first three articles: the Nitrogen Cycle, the Fishless Cycle and the Fish-In cycling situation. With these you'll begin to get a glimpse of how much the LFS has over-simplified the story of tank startup to you. But don't worry it'll all get worked out!

Note that one option here is to test your reverse salesmanship and see if you can gently coax the LFS to "take back" these fish! A good approach is to be friendly and joking a bit perhaps, but firm, and tell them you'll be back to more before very long! (The LFS is still important to you because its a place close by that you can go to buy fish and get things you need quickly. Its just not a place to actually seek advice!) If you are successful at that you can do a fishless cycle and not have a month of heavy water changes! But if it doesn't work and you are forced to stay in a "fish-in cycling situation" then the techniques and the help from members here will get you through, it will just be more work and more frustrating interpreting the results. Anyway, good luck, glad you made it here and hope things work out!

~~waterdrop~~
 
Welcome to the forum Rocky.
It sounds like you are in the US so the cheapest dechlorinator to use ends up being the Seachem Prime in one of the larger size bottles. It only takes 1 ml/10 gallons so it is quite economical although a bottle will cost more per bottle than other brands.
So far the responses have been on the money, a tank is never cycled in 3 days and rarely so even using a filter clone approach. You will be doing water changes, much more than 25% each day, to control ammonia and nitrites at less than 0.25 ppm. A thing that you will need is a decent liquid type testing kit. Many people here use the API master freshwater test kit so it is one we are all familiar with. They can be had for about $20 on E-bay and similar places although they will be closer to $30 at a local fish store.
 
Hi Rocky,
I am also new to fish keeping, so I can't offer much more then the others have already done. But I would like to stress one thing that was mentioned earlier. GET A LIQUID TEST KIT...DO NOT USE STRIPS. I made this mistake, I was using test strips for ammonia testing and my readings were constantly at a 3.0ppm. I even tested my tap water and it was also reading at 3.0, this was my first clue, I got some distilled water and it also tested ammonia levels at 3.0ppm. So I bit the bullet and purchased a liquid test kit and all was fine (well I am still cycling so my aquarium is testing at a 0.5ppm - on day 5 of fish-in cycle). So please learn from my mistake and listen to the experts on this site invest in a Liquid test kit. I live in the States and here they range from $20 to $60 dollars depending on were you buy it and how many tests they do. Mine was $20 and it tests ammonia, pH, High pH, nitrate and nitrite. It is a worth while investment (espically if you are doing a fish-in cycle - my first mistake). Trust me make the investment it will save you alot of headaches.
 

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