Newbie Here, Need Help

[Rhys1506]

Hi guys,

I set up my fishtank on wednesday. I washed all the ornaments, gravel, tank ect, put in my filter and heater and filled it up with water with some declorinator. I had a problem with my filter as it was producing random bubbles and sounded very rough when doing do. So on thursday morning i went to my local pet store and they exchanged the filter. I came back and put the filter back in to the tank without doing a water change (simply because i didnt know if a water change was needed). I played around with the filter and heater to make sure they were in a good enough position. I always made sure that i washed my hands before i do any maintanance on the tank. All was fine in the tank yesterday and water looking crystal clear. I woke up this morning and noticed that the water was cloudy. i left for a few hours and i took 2l of water out of the tank and replaced it i done the same this afternoon. As im new to this i dont want to go any buy fish after a few days and find out that i shouldnt have changed the filter without doing a water change. I have a Aquastart 320 tank with a 101f filter that it came with and a 25w heater.

I have attached a pic bellow to show you guys. Is the couldy water meant to be there? Will it go of its own accord or do i need to do somthing to the water/tank/equiptment.

I havent put any fish in the tank yet!

Thanks

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Have you cycled the tank fully?

 

[ian]

i'm going to move this to the freshwater section.

 

[Rhys1506]

Have you cycled the tank fully?

No i havent

 

[bristlenoseitplecoman]

before you get fish you need an air pump too. also when doing mantinence on your tank don't use soap on your hands because the leftover chemicals will poison the fish. My tank also used to be cloudy and I still don't know why but it went back to normal when I bought chemical balancer for my tank.

 

[Harlequins]

This is quite normal in a newly set up tank it will go away in time.

I'm glad you haven't added fish yet,basically your filter isn't ready to handle the fish just yet and you will need to cycle the filter,best way is to do a fishless cycle using ammonia etc...have a read in the beginners section (also a link under my signature)this has very good info about cycling the filter and why etc etc...

Nice tank & welcome here

Btw - its not necessary to purchase an air pump if you don't want one as previously mentioned.

 

[Rhys1506]

This is quite normal in a newly set up tank it will go away in time.

I'm glad you haven't added fish yet,basically your filter isn't ready to handle the fish just yet and you will need to cycle the filter,best way is to do a fishless cycle using ammonia etc...have a read in the beginners section (also a link under my signature)this has very good info about cycling the filter and why etc etc...

Nice tank & welcome here

Btw - its not necessary to purchase an air pump if you don't want one as previously mentioned.

Thanks, That is a great help

 

[london_kev]

To be honest you don't need an air pump. I set up my tank and running a tank now with about 13 fish and 8 shrimp and all are doing well. If you skim the out flow of the water on to the surface water that's normally pretty good.