Newbie- Cloudy Water And No Fish

[welshwitch]

Hi all - I am new to this.  Bought a fish tank on Friday for my daughter, took loads of advice from the guy in the aquarium shop and he suggested tropical fish, I was originally going to get a bi-orb and put goldfish in it, then I read on line that this is a definite no-no! Bi-orb's are for people and not for fish so I ruled that out.  Bought the tank and all the accessories, set it up exactly as described in the instructions.  All went well at first but then after about two days the water went cloudy.  I Googled "cloudy water - no fish" and was directed to this forum so I joined!
 
After reading several other posts, it looks like this is normal and will all settle down in a couple of days?  Am not planning on getting my fish for at least another week anyway.
 

 

[the_lock_man]

Welcome. It sounds like a bacterial bloom  which normally clears up in a couple of days.
 
At the moment, you are probably following the advice of the chappy in the fish shop, having set up your tank and filter, and run it for a few days, and then it'll be fine. It won't.
 
Your filter needs to build up 2 colonies of bacteria, to process the ammonia produced by your fish, via nitrite, into nitrate. There is only one way that those bacterial colonies will grow, and that is to feed them ammonia. No amount of running dechlorinated tap water through the filter will grow bacteria.
 
There are 2 ways of providing that ammonia. The first is the way that most fish shops recommend, and that is to buy some fish. In this way, the shops get some more of your money, which is why they like it. Fish produce ammonia as part of the respiration, but it poisons them. The bacteria colonies don't grow instantaneously, so whilst the colonies are growing, the fish poison themselves, so it's up to you to stop that happening, but doing large daily water changes. And frankly, that's a bit of a chore. And a lot of people don't like doing their chores, so they can be a bit lax, and sadly, this sometimes mean that their fish die. So they go and buy some more. If they are particularly lax, they can lose multiple batches of fish.
 
I mentioned a second way, and that is to obtain some bottled household ammonia. There is some available on Amazon at the moment for £3.99, with free delivery. I mention this as it has become very difficult to obtain ammonia in shops, as it can be used by terrorists for bombs. Apparently, terrorists don't know how to use the internet. But I digress.
 
By adding bottled ammonia, there are no fish to be poisoned, you don't have to do daily water changes, and when it's completed correctly, you can go buy a full stock of fish, you don't need to add the fish bit by bit. The down side is that it takes a while for your nice new fish tank to actually have any fish in it, which can be a bit embarrassing when the mother-in-law comes to call, but actually it's a helluva lot easier, for both you and the fish. Which is why pretty much every experienced fishkeeper on the forum will recommend this method.
 
I hope I haven't blown you away with too much info. Any questions, please feel free to post a query in our "New To The Hobby" section.

 

[laurac94]

If you have gravel or sand did you wash it thoroughly? If so it is probably just a bacterial bloom that will settle down once the tank starts to cycle. If you havent so already I would recommend getting the API master test kit, it's about £20 on amazon and will save you alot of money in the future because you can pin point what is wrong with your water so you can correct it and minimise losses ;-)

 

[welshwitch]

thank you so much guys for replying so quickly!  Yes Mr Lock man - it is all a bit scary!  although I am completely committed to doing everything right as I am an animal lover and would hate to do anything that would endanger or harm the fish.  I will see what happens.  Not planning on getting the fish for at least another week to 10 days anyway.  Thanks again for your help.  I didn't wash the sand - so that probably is the reason.

 

[the_lock_man]

Yeah, could well be the sand.
 
If you aren't doing a fishless cycle, then you might as well switch off the filter. All you are doing at the moment is wasting electricity.

 

[greenmumma141]

"Mr Lock Man" hehehehe. That was funny
 
I know it seems like a lot of stress, and you've probably never heard of someone going through this process just to set up a tank, BUT... you actually have a great advantage as you haven't added any fish yet, so you could save a big fat headache and fish deaths by doing a "fish-less cycle". Yes, it does take a bit longer, but in the end, it's worth it, and your tank will be started up correctly, other whise you'll have problem after problem.  Take a look here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/113861-fishless-cycling/
 
This will give you a step by step guide on how to do a fish less cycle. It's actually great bc if anything else, it'll give you plenty of time to really think about what kind of fish you want, and how you want your tank to be.  GL!!!!

 

[CoryLover95]

Yes, definitely check out the fish-less cycle topic.  I stupidly didn't go that route, and believe me it IS a big fat pain.  It usually takes 4-6 weeks, in case you were wondering.  And about the cloudy water - yes, you were right, it will clear up in a few days.  It is a "bacterial bloom" - not the kind of bacteria you want for the filter, but does no harm.

 

[missdarwin]

trust them on the fishless cycle I was in the same position as you 10 weeks ago but now i have a lovely cycled tropical tank, with healthy happy fish...  my tank took 7 weeks to filter which sounds ages but having done a couple of tanks 'fish-in', fishless is the way to go, much less faff!

 

[the_lock_man]

"Mr Lock Man" hehehehe. That was funny

 
Bloomin cheek.....

 

[greenmumma141]

 

[Iwantsomefish]

I had the same thing, cloudy tank before I even put any ammonia in, but after about a fortnight of thick smog like cloudiness ( I couldn't see more than a cm into the tank) it suddenly started to clear up yesterday. So just be patient and it'll go of its own accord.