Help...Cloudy water

[Setsuna]

Hey there. I have a 60cm high x 29cm wide x 30cm deep tank. In it I have two bronze corys, two kuhlie loaches, two hillstream loaches, one betta sp. and six guppies. Also there are live plants in the tank and some driftwood which was soaked in boiling hot water for a week and a half.

There is an undergravel filter and an internal filter.

In setting up the tank I used 'Cycle' which consists of 'good' bacteria to help the tank stabilise.

I noticed two days ago that the water was looking a little cloudy. I did a 1/4 water change yesterday, 'vaccumed' the gravel and cleaned out the filter. I also noticed that some of the live plants (the 'dragons flame' and Ambulia) had been both eaten and were starting to look much worse for wear. I removed all these plants leaving in the bunch of Vallisneria and the hairgrass.

Today there was no change in the cloudines. I did another 1/4 waterchange and added some 'rush' (looks similar to val.) and another hairgrass. I also cleaned the filter out again.

I feed my fish "go-pet tropical fish flakes" (two large flakes crushed up twice a day) and two sinking spiralina discs every other day for the corys and kuhlies.

Apart from the cloudy water, there seems to be nothing else wrong. All the fish show no signs of disease and are all lively. Does anyone know why my water has become cloudy overnight? Am I overfeeding my fish?

[Fishguy2727]

how long has the tank been setup? it is still cycling if it is cloudy and you need to monitor ammonia and nitrite. if either of those tests come up too high you need to do a water change, otherwise just wait it out so the good bacteria can establish themselves according to your bioload. the only additive that works is bio-spira (not cycle or stress zyme or anything else). wait at least 3 days after a water change/gravel vacuuming to clean the filters or else you will be removing to much good bacteria.

[Setsuna]

The tank was cycling for a week before I added the live plants then another week before I added fish. I didnt see a bacterial bloom at all in that time. Do you know where I can order bio-spira from online, as my LFS doesnt stock it.

[Fishguy2727]

it wasnt cycling if there was no source of ammonia. so it didnt really start to cycle until you added the fish unless you were fishless cycling. how long has it been since you added the fish. will your LFS order it for you?

[Setsuna]

I've been adding the fish a few at a time for about a week. I had done a fishless cycle. No the aquarium won't, theyre not the nicest of people (they stole a fish from another petstore that they had ordered in for me and were going to charge me $20 more for it!) and the other place petstock cant get it in.

[Fishguy2727]

what was your source for ammonia? was the cycle complete (you monitored as ammonia and nitrite spiked and are now both back to 0)?

[Setsuna]

I used some water and gravel from my sister inlaws tank which has been established (without problem) since feburary this year. I couldnt monitor the ammonia then as neither my sister inlaw nor I had our tester kits (ordered from interstate) and the aquarium doesnt offer water testing unless you bought a fish from them that died that same day.

[Setsuna]

You rekon its a peak in ammonia levels?

[Fishguy2727]

if you started the tank with water and gravel 2 weeks before fish were added (plants wont provide ammonia for the bacteria) than any good bacteris in the gravel (effectively none in the water) died long before the fish were in there. so you still provided a new sterile tank, so you should now be going through the cycle.

[William]

To add to answer above:
Which mean you should feed very sparingly during a couple of weeks and if possible get some more gravel/water from the established tank to help speed up the process.

Very Frequent water changes during the cycling period can also be a good idea. This will somewhat slow down the cycling process but will help keep a better water quality in the tank for you fish during the cycle.

[Setsuna]

Okay awesome, thanks guys ^_^ I'll keep ya updated