White Cloudy Water - 24Hours Into Seeded Cycle

RobGoldsmith

Fish Crazy
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
326
Reaction score
0
Location
Devon, UK
Guys

I am 24 hours into setting up my new tank.
I have:

Added two cups of the gravel from my cycled aquarium
Put some of my filter sponge from cycled aquarium into new aquariums filter
Added weed from cycled aquarium
Cleaned filter of cycled aquarium with new aquarium filter
Added deco from cycled aquarium into new tank

I have noticed that 24 hours in, I am getting white cloudy water, you can see it being pushed around by the filter. Is this a good or a bad sign?

(Done no testing)

Help

Thanks
Rob
 
Hi Rob, cloudiness sounds perfectly normal and could be due to debris from the stuff you've been doing combined with blooms of heterotrophic (not the autotrophic ones we want to grow in the filter) bacteria finding stuff to eat in your new situation.

Your immediate concern is that you'll be quickly killing the beneficial bacteria if you've not intoduced them to an environment with food. The first species (the A-Bacs) need simple ammonia (we supply that will simple household ammonia as you'll see in many threads in this section of the forum) and they produce nitrite(NO2) which the second species (the N-bacs we call them) will process into nitrate(NO3) which we eventually (months later after we introduce fish) (or weeks if your mature media "takes") remove each week via water changes. Look to Boots in the UK or Ace Hardware in the USA for bacteria food ( :lol: otherwise known as simple pure household cleaning ammonia!) The ammonia must not have any fragrances, dyes, surfactants or soaps. When shaken it should not foam any differently than simple water.

Start with only 4 hours of continuous light for those "weeds" as the ammonia and light can trigger vast amounts of algae.

~~waterdrop~~
 
Thanks for the reply!
I was worried about the beneficial bacteria dying. Would it help to add some food or perhaps a starter fish?

Thanks
Rob
 
Hello,
As Wd advised adding H/H ammonia is the best way forward. The problem with doing a fishless cycle with food is you never now where you are at, by that I mean dosing the right amount. Doing a fish in cycle will put some stress on the fish plus theres a lot more work involved, water changes will need to be done daily for sometime(weeks) if your mature media dose not kick start the cycle. Some where on this site there is a link on the methods and how to do a fishless cycle.

Kind regards, Keith.
 
Will adding ammonia keep the good bacteria (that that i added from the cycled tank) alive?
 
Yes, it will also promote growth for the A&N-bac colonies.
Do you live in the uk?
Do you have a master test kit?

Skins.

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861

If you go to this link you will have all the info you need to do your fishless cycle
 
Yeah, Devon
I only have a nitrite/nitrate test kit right now. Strips that are dipped in

Rob
 
If you have some flake food, go ahead and put a very small pinch in right now so that it can start deteriorating. As soon as possible, check out any Boots or Homebase places you can drive to and try to find the simple ammonia. You can do searches on the forum here and find pictures of the actual boots bottle, I think its white plastic with a blue cap and lettering. You also need to drop by a tropical fish shop and pick up a full test kit. Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. Without ammonia, the bacteria will begin dying at a faster and faster rate following day one, day two etc.

~~waterdrop~~
 
Hi Rob,
I live in Exeter(small world)
You will need a master kit(ammonia,nitrite,nitrate & pH) Api freshwater master kit is the most used on here and you can save yourself some money if shop online(Ebay}.
As for the H/H ammonia that will be found in Boots for £1.85 500ml which will be more than enough.

Let us all know how you get on, Keith.
 
As Wd Said for the time being you can put some flakes in to keep bacs going until you get your h/h ammonia. I tried to cycle my aquarium with food and gave up, never knew if i was putting the right ammount in but now i am using liquid ammonia which is a lot better. Mind you i have made some mistakes a long the way, Waterdrop was at hand to help me out.
Kind regards, keith.
 
Keith - Lympstone, up the Grecians!

Yep excellent, i shall go out after work tomorrow as I will be in town! I hope that all my bacteria I added from the other tank wont die! What a nightmare!!!

Is there a simple way to calculate how much to add per litre?

Shall also look for a test kit on ebay and see when that is delivered!

Thanks
Rob
 
The food is just to feel like you are doing something and perhaps to save some bacteria if ammonia can't be found. Finding ammonia fast is the thing of real importance. WD
 
for now do what Wd said and put a few flakes in (F.A.O WD, could Rob use some of is own urine)
Keith.
 
Few flakes in and also a lot of fish crap came out when i pored in the water from cleaning the filters together. Seems to be a baby snail arrived in on the weed, not that he will help haha.
 
Sorry Rob forgot to tell you, you will find a tab at the top of the page "CALCULATOR" (the ammonia calculater is at the bottom of the calculator page)

Keith.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top