New Tank Water Cloudy?

[Mtvrdik10]

Hey guys I just set up a 55 gallon tank. New gravel, new Eheim 2215 filter, new decorations. Everything brand new and the first couple of days the water was clear as day. I woke up this morning and the water was cloudy. Is that normal? Or does that mean that the filter is just not working??? I mean the spray bar has water coming out of it so the filter is operating...I'm just confused as to why the water is cloudy. Doesn't make much sense to me! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[nicko@rotherham]

yes m8 mine did it 2 bacterial bloom they call it it will clear mine took over a week but it does go

 

[Mtvrdik10]

Ok good to know. I was about to say. If I bought everything new and spent $150+ on this canister filter that I've heard all good things about it better make this tank look nice!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree, if it was clear the first two days (means there wasn't too much extra dust from the substrate) and now is milky gray/white cloudy then that's a bacterial bloom. The heterotrophic bacteria are eating the excess materials used to glue the tank together (weird eh?)

You cannister filter of course is just a piece of hardware at this point and its needs its "software!" The overall filter won't be ready to handle fish until the biofilter (biological filtration is one of its 3 main functions) has been grown and tested to show that it can handle a bioload. If you are unfamiliar with that concept then you've come to the right place! Our beginners subforum handles a lot of biofilter prep each month and we have a lot of successful beginners and tanks that have "graduated" if you will.

For almost 100 years people have put fish into tanks with biofilters that are not ready yet but in the last 20 years a methodology has appeared that helps to stop this practice, keeping the fish free from permanent gill and nerve damage. If you take a look you will find lots of threads here where beginners are doing the process, called Fishless Cycling.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[wantmorefish]

That happened to me too. The others are right, its a normal bacteria bloom. I used Aqueon water clarifier and it went away. The bacteria is too small for your filter to catch so what this stuff does is it clings to the bacteria making it big enough for the filter to catch. After the cloudiness is gone just change the filter and your all set. Add a little with your next water change and you will be alright. Hope this helps.

 

[Mtvrdik10]

Everyone's say so helps and definitely eases down my stress level, because there's nothing I can't stand more than when something isn't going right with my fish tanks! Thanks guys.

 

[c-dub]

I also found with a finer substrate that it can flare up as well