white water

[ninja]

Hi everyone,

Last night I set up my first ten gallon tank. I put a filter on it and turned it on. Next I added a Start Right Tank Buddy to clean the water. It is a tablet that you put in the water when adding new fish and to "condition" the water adn dechlorinate it. Anyway the water turned a whitish color and I am worried if it will stay like that because now it looks like I haven't cleaned the tank for weeks when I just got yesterday.

Also I followed the instructions which said 1 tablet per 10 gallons.

THanks

 

[Alien Anna]

Sounds very dodgy to me, and the theory behind it sounds worse. What exactly do you think "condition the water" means?

Have you added fish yet? (Please say you haven't!).

Please give us more information about what you've done so far (apart from this tablet thingy) and we can probably save you some grief. What do you know about cycling a tank?

 

[AquaNut]

I know what a tank buddy is. The white water you're experiencing is a bacteria outbreak. This is good. You need those guys in a new aquarium. If you haven't added any fish yet, be sure to add just one or two to start with, or else find some posts on this forum about fishless cycling of your tank.

 

[smb]

Aquanut is correct. What you are most likely experiencing is a bacteria bloom trying to keep up with the amount of ammonia in the tank.
I wouldn't add fish tho. The reason there is a bloom is because there is excess ammonia and they are multiplying to try and catch up with it since it's so abundant in the aquarium.

 

[ninja]

Thanks for the replys guys

Anyway I added a beta fish to the tank about an hour after I put the tablet in, he seems to be doing fine right now.

Also right after I posted I did some research ) on cycling and it said that what is happening is called New Tank Syndrome(nickname) and it is normal and the bacteria should settle and colonize in 5 to 10 days.