New Tank, No Fish, Cloudy Water

[milese3103]

Hi,

I am new to this so really need some help.

I purchased a Fish Box tank (60cm) from Pets at Home on Sunday.
I washed the Gravel (in honesty very quickly), fake plants and ornaments; I then added these.
Following this I added the Filter, Thermometer and Heater.
I then added the tap water followed by the Tap Safe and Filter start provided. I then turned the filter and heater on.

Now 2 days later the water is so cloudy I can just about see the back of the tank.
I don't see the need to test the water as there won't be any ammonia as I have not yet added fish. How can I clear this cloudy water? As a lot of sights/advice seem to just contradict each other.
Some people have said to do water changes by 20%, others say to leave it to let the good bacteria grow.
I am so confused and don't want to buy any poor fish's incase they die.

Please help!

 

[fluttermoth]

The cloudy water is a bacterial bloom; very common in new tanks and will go away on it's own in time, or you can do a few really big water changes to help it along. As you don't have fish in, it's really up to you which route you want to take.

Are you going to do a fishless cycle? It's much safer than a fish-in one.

 

[the_lock_man]

The chances are it's a bacterial bloom, as Flutter says, but it might just be down to the quickly-washed gravel.

The bacteria will not grow on their own, not even by using the Filter Start. The bacteria will only grow in the presence of ammonia. Either this can be a by-product of the fish you introduce (the traditional method) or you can use bottled ammonia (the new-fangled way).

Click on this and read the sections called "The Nitrogen Cycle", "Fishless Cycling" and "Fish-In Cycling". I would personally recommend the Fishless Cycling as the easiest route to a healthy and stable tank, but you might decide that Fish-In is right for you.