New Tank Syndrom... But...

[TheConstantGrower]

Just as the title says... got that thick, and i mean THICK, cant see ANYTHING thick, white cloudyness in my tank.

10 gallon tank with standard hood light, nothing special, waters been crystal clear for weeks, its fully cycled and doing fine, its not near the windows nothing has changed, i feed a combo of dried worm / frozen brine / tetra flake to make sure i got a balanced diet in the tank and ive been feeding like that on almost all my tanks. ive been doing 10 - 15% daily changes for the last 4 days and it just goes right back to fully clouded up in UNDER AN HOUR.

Thats pretty intense.


as i said it fully cycled, the nitrate hangs out around 30ppm which is where i keep the majority of my tanks. the filters are clean and the media mature. ide say my tank comes full cycle in about 14 hours. the fish are healthy, lively, eat just fine, but i havnt seen my ghost shrimp or the back of my effing tank in a week, im getting pretty pissed and none of my other tanks are having issues at all...

sorry for the anger guys but this is just too rediculous, any ideas tips hints anything at all...

For the love of all that is holy help.

 

[TheConstantGrower]

Bump

 

[shelaghfishface]

hi
i think, and that IS think, its bacterial bloom,maybe dont do the water changes and wait a few days, tho by the sound of you have had an effing bad time of it just now too...read my post below this one it will cheer you up no end, ( or maybe makes your probs go away for 10 mins anyway)

dont worry you`ll soon have it sorted im sure

shelagh xxx

lol, talk about stating the bloody obvious,but after my day its all i can manage x x

 

[TheConstantGrower]

I read your post about all your troubles, i sat there for 10 minutes and couldnt come up with one thing to say other then "wow, that really sucks im sorry" But dont quit, please dont quit.

im sure bacteria has something to do with my issue here, but more to it, theres a thick white nasty film on the top of the water, in addition to that theres small tight bubbles forming at the edge of the water line as well, the water just isnt getting cleaned, but the filter is spotless, cleaned it in some old tank water today just to be sure.

im wayfused

 

[Miss Wiggle]

mabe obvious but you don't say so i'll ask..... have you checked your ammonia and nitrite? if not then please check them now and post the results.

are all the fish looking OK and behaving normally?

It certainly sounds like a bacteria bloom which can be from a mini cycle, the mini cycle may have finished (without you even noticing it) but the bacteria bloom hangs around a couple of days.

First port of call is a whopping great big water change, like 80% or so. When this started is there anything that could have triggered it, like a water change or filter clean that day??

 

[Fineas]

Been there myself and due to there suddenly being no oxygen in the water I lost 10% of the tank stock. Exactly the same as you, stable well established tank with no changes. Did a 50% water change and upped the oxygenation. The tank cleared in about 36 hours.

Ken

 

[TheConstantGrower]

I cycled the tank for 22 days without fish, using straight ammonia, getting the tank able to process 6 - 7 ppm of ammonia in 12 - 14 hours. and once it arrived at that i did 2 more days of that just to be sure it was processing, had about 30 - 35 ppm of nitrate and the nitrite was fluctuating properly during the cycle.

then i added fish.

2x Peppermint platy's (1 female and 1 male)
3x Ghost shrimp
1x Algae eater
1x Apple snail / golden mystery snail

2 days later, poof, white water, not cloudy water, WHITE water.

The filter was brand new at the start of the cycle, and i keep an eye on it to see if it needs a cleaning and then i just swish it around in old tank water if it does (which it hasnt yet, but i did today as a problem solving idea which as of yet has not worked)

About 2.5ppm of ammonia in the tank right now, negligible amount of nitrite and only about 10 - 15 ppm of nitrate

It seems as though my cycle stalled when i added fish, i woke up today around 2pm and ran a test and ammonia was off the charts with no nitrite and no nitrate. did an 75% water change, waited an hour came back, tank was clouded 100% again, but nitrate went up to 15ppm nitrite 0 ammonia 2ppm.

Ive always had a wall of bubbles on one side of the tank, the filter always runs and the tank hangs around 75 - 78F and receives no direct sunlight at all.

 

[shelaghfishface]

be patient ( i know,tough call) and if it is a bacterial bloom after a mini cycle i will clear up in a couple of days, i had this in jambo and buddies tank, really hacked me off. it sounds/looks like your filter is back doing what it should be, have you just started a new bottle of water con or filter booster or anything?? my conditioner makes my water bubbly, and a bit of a "greasy film" on the top

nothing worse than staring at a cloudy tank,so i feel for you
shelagh xxx

 

[TheConstantGrower]

i guess ill just have to take care of it as per usual for now and see where it goes, keep up with the water changes and let it start the cycle back up again.

Really bums me out, take all that time to cycle the tank just to have it stall out when i put in fish, i was seriously hoping to avoid the stress on the fish and not have to do the daily water changes.

Oh well, guess its all part of the game

 

[kj23502]

I read on here once that one of the Mods actually used a paper towel and laid lightly on the top of the water and pulled it up right away and that took the filmy stuff off. I don't remember which one did that??? but I remembered it was a mod b/c I was surprised they did that.

 

[Tolak]

Never trust your water supplier, double up on dechlorinator.

 

[TheConstantGrower]

Never trust your water supplier, double up on dechlorinator.

Ive always used the 5ml per 10 US gal. i guess ill use 10ml per 10 us gal.

I use stress coat+ from API for my dechlorination needs, i use 5ml on ever water change irregardless of size and i usually throw it in the tank before i add the water from the tap.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hold on sorry, did i understand this right?
you did a normal fishless cycle, adding your 5ppm of ammonia until that processed in 12 hrs, then added ammonia for a couple of days more and then added fish?

If that's the case you've only gone through half the cycling process, you need to wait for the nitrite to spike then drop down to 0 in 12 hrs as well, this often takes a few weeks after the ammonia has dropped.

Sounds like you've finished the cycle too early and consequently are now cycling with fish so it's daily water changes until both ammonia and nitrite remain steady at 0.

 

[TheConstantGrower]

Oh i know miss wiggles, i did so, i just didn't think it needed to be fully mentioned, i started with bacteria in the tank so the first part went pretty easy, the long part (about a 16 days) was getting the nitrite to process in 12 hrs.

my cycle legitimately stalled out for no apparent reason, but i went to it today and its way better, the cloudy is on its way out, the ammonia is in check the nitrate is climbing... its not perfect yet so i will have to keep doing the water changes daily till it cycles again.

This one TRULY boggles my mind, ive had a cycle stall on me before but it was usually because i forgot to add ammonia one day or something, but all is well the fish are happy and active, im feeding them every other day till the cycle starts back up. 15 - 25% water changes daily after feeding.

Thanks for all the help everyone, im still filing this one under M for mystery.