New Tank; Cloudy Water

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I have my first tropical tank set up;

a bit of background; I have 3 other cold water tanks and I've never had the problem before so I'm a bit stuck.

The tank is about 5 gallons with a single betta fish in it; I have cloudy water (white cloudy water); I have been doing water changes but to be honest the morning after a water change the tank water is worse than it is the night before; can I add anything to get rid of the cloudiness OR do I have to keep doing water changes (roughly what percentage?) and for how long?

 

[waterdrop]

Need more info dips: How long did the cycling take before you put the beta in. How long has the beta been in. What are your current numerical stats as measured by a liquid-reagent based test kit. What kind of substrate and what were the rinsing particulars on that. Any recent changes or actions. WD

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Need more info dips: How long did the cycling take before you put the beta in. How long has the beta been in. What are your current numerical stats as measured by a liquid-reagent based test kit. What kind of substrate and what were the rinsing particulars on that. Any recent changes or actions. WD

I am/was trying to do a fish in cycle. I put him in on Thursday and I'd had the water in a few days earlier for the chlorine to 'dissolve off'. I don't know numerical stats as I'm at work at the minute and I have a memory like a sieve. I've got a sponge filter in, using gravel substrate.

 

[waterdrop]

OK, so we'll say tank 7 days old, beta in tank 5 days. Did you check with your water authority to confirm that they use chlorine and not chloramines to treat the tap water? (That's not pertinent to the cloudy issue but I want to be sure you're conditioning correctly for the safety of both the beta and the bacteria.)

Milky whitish cloudiness in a brand spanking new setup like that is quite normal. Its a bacterial bloom (although we can sometimes be mistaken and the substrate just still had dust but I doubt that's the case here.) A bacterial bloom comes about when the heterotrophic bacteria that are present in all water find that they have something to eat and reproduce on. In a new tank the removal of the chlorine/chloramine frees them up and, surprisingly, the first thing they often find to eat are leftover chemicals from the silicone glue that glues the glass together. There also may be some organics in the tap water that they can consume.

The cloud you see are the actual microscopic bacteria which are reproducing in such great numbers that their combined body mass can be seen with the naked eye. A bacterial bloom is quite harmless and will go away on its own eventually. It is a frequently seen thing near the beginning of any type of cycling.

Since you are in a Fish-In cycling situation, you will need to be testing about twice a day with a good liquid-reagent based kit and recording the results in your aquarium notebook. The goal in fish-in cycling is to figure out (you have to be a bit of a detective) what percentage and frequency of water changes will keep both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) below 0.25ppm before you can be home to change water again. Fish-In cycling usually takes about a month. The way you know its over is when you can go for two full days without any traces of ammonia or nitrite showing even though you didn't change any water. Near the very beginning of the month you may get some zero days that sort of look like this but of course the cycle hasn't really started yet. Its near the end of some weeks that you want to look for that ending sign.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Brilliant, thank you very much.

I thought the white stuff was bacteria and "normal"; I just wanted someone to confirm it for me since I don't want to be harming my fish . The cloudiness doesn't seem to be as bad so fingers crossed something is working .