Hi I'm new to all this. I have recently brought a fish tank for my little boy. I have followed all the instruction from the manufacture however my tank has become cloudy within the last 24 hour.. No fish have been put into the tank as yet.. Filter has been running since Sunday.. Can anybody help me why this is happening and is there anything I can do to resolve it.
Newbie - First Tank
- Thread starter Andy72
- Start date
Hi Andy, 
to the forum.
What you're experiencing is a 'bacterial bloom'. Basically, there are all sort of spores and dormant bacteria around everywhere. When you set up a new tank, they take the opportunity of colonising it and multiplying, which is what causes the cloudiness.
It's nothing to worry about (although if you had fish in, it could cause a lack of oxygen) and will go away, either on it's own, or with a few large water changes.
As you're new to the hobby, can I point you in the direction of our 'beginner's resource centre'? It's full of useful articles for newbies; the ones on 'cycling' will be the most important for you right now
to the forum.What you're experiencing is a 'bacterial bloom'. Basically, there are all sort of spores and dormant bacteria around everywhere. When you set up a new tank, they take the opportunity of colonising it and multiplying, which is what causes the cloudiness.
It's nothing to worry about (although if you had fish in, it could cause a lack of oxygen) and will go away, either on it's own, or with a few large water changes.
As you're new to the hobby, can I point you in the direction of our 'beginner's resource centre'? It's full of useful articles for newbies; the ones on 'cycling' will be the most important for you right now
Fintastic!
Fishaholic
iantaylor
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One warning fish keeping is addictive
Lolly123
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Hi and welcome.
As fluttermoth quite rightly pointed out the beginners section is a must read. It can all seem quite daunting at first, but everyone is here to help and once you have your head around the basics, you should be fine.
Just for a little bit of info, I'd recommend not adding fish at this point, otherwise you'd be in a fish-in cycle, which requires careful and consistent monitoring of your waters parameters, such as ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc and a large number of water changes.... you'll find info on this in the above section, any questions, feel free to ask.
What you'd be aiming to achieve is to go through a cycle in which your filter builds up 'good bacteria' which enables it to break down fish waste, excess food etc. You can do a fishless cycle by dosing ammonia to your tank and recording the results you get week on week, you would need a reliable testing kit, preferably liquid. This process can take a number of weeks, it's been a long time since I had to cycle my tank but I think somewhere between 6 and 8 weeks is the norm for the process to be complete. It does sound a long time, but fish-in cycles can be detrimental to the fish and quite stressful if you don't keep on top of things, multiple water changes everyday can wear you down week after week and I'd always recommend fishless cycles where possible.
I'll try not to overload you on info, but please do have a good read of the beginners section, which explain what you'll need to do in order to have a nice introductory in to fish keeping.
As fluttermoth quite rightly pointed out the beginners section is a must read. It can all seem quite daunting at first, but everyone is here to help and once you have your head around the basics, you should be fine.
Just for a little bit of info, I'd recommend not adding fish at this point, otherwise you'd be in a fish-in cycle, which requires careful and consistent monitoring of your waters parameters, such as ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc and a large number of water changes.... you'll find info on this in the above section, any questions, feel free to ask.
What you'd be aiming to achieve is to go through a cycle in which your filter builds up 'good bacteria' which enables it to break down fish waste, excess food etc. You can do a fishless cycle by dosing ammonia to your tank and recording the results you get week on week, you would need a reliable testing kit, preferably liquid. This process can take a number of weeks, it's been a long time since I had to cycle my tank but I think somewhere between 6 and 8 weeks is the norm for the process to be complete. It does sound a long time, but fish-in cycles can be detrimental to the fish and quite stressful if you don't keep on top of things, multiple water changes everyday can wear you down week after week and I'd always recommend fishless cycles where possible.
I'll try not to overload you on info, but please do have a good read of the beginners section, which explain what you'll need to do in order to have a nice introductory in to fish keeping.
Hi everyone, thank you for all your advice. I have got to understand a little more about starting up my first tank. Woukd i be correct in thinking, that i now need to add some ammonia to my tank? If this is correct how ofern do i need to add this? If i need to record the results what figure am i looking for? Sorry for all the question, still trying to get my head round all this.
Lolly123
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Hey again.
Assuming you have got your test kit and have a bottle of ammonia you may well be good to go. if I am correct you can pick bottled ammonia up from boots, but there is info on that in the beginners section, as you need to be careful what you buy.
I'd recommend testing your tap water first and recording the results. Test your ph too. It's always good to know what is present in your tap water before you start your fish-less cycle. If I remember correctly you are aiming to get your ammonia reading up to about 4-5ppm it can vary as to how many drops you add per gallon I think, so this may require a little trial and error. Once this drops to about 1ppm you want to dose again to the value of 4-5ppm. The process continues in this fashion until your nitrites spike and so on. Raising your tanks temperature will aid the process slightly too.
It's been a long while since I've been on the forum and given advice, so double check in the beginners section, I believe there is a pinned thread which takes you through fish less cycling step by step.
The process can take a while as mentioned before but it's definitely worth doing it this way, make sure to record your results consistently so you can post them on here and everyone can track your progress and give advice where needed.
Assuming you have got your test kit and have a bottle of ammonia you may well be good to go. if I am correct you can pick bottled ammonia up from boots, but there is info on that in the beginners section, as you need to be careful what you buy.
I'd recommend testing your tap water first and recording the results. Test your ph too. It's always good to know what is present in your tap water before you start your fish-less cycle. If I remember correctly you are aiming to get your ammonia reading up to about 4-5ppm it can vary as to how many drops you add per gallon I think, so this may require a little trial and error. Once this drops to about 1ppm you want to dose again to the value of 4-5ppm. The process continues in this fashion until your nitrites spike and so on. Raising your tanks temperature will aid the process slightly too.
It's been a long while since I've been on the forum and given advice, so double check in the beginners section, I believe there is a pinned thread which takes you through fish less cycling step by step.
The process can take a while as mentioned before but it's definitely worth doing it this way, make sure to record your results consistently so you can post them on here and everyone can track your progress and give advice where needed.
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