Help!!!

[rubberducks]

ok, so I went out this weekend and got everything I needed for my new tank (minus the fish). I got everything together and it looked great! I went with the Eheim Ecco 2236 (for 80gal even though I got a 55gal.) two heaters, thermometer, and Power-Glo light. I decided on natural gravel, real plants, lava rock, and drift wood. I cleaned everything with water before I put it all in and soaked the wood for 2 days with water changes (the water was clear).

So I have two problems,

1) yesterday around 3pm was when we finished the tank and I checked it around 10pm and it was still very clear. This morning I went to turn on the light for my plants and the water is now a brown murky color??!!! what did I do wrong and how do I fix it??

2) I bought Nutrafin Cycle... I didn't realize it was to be used WITH fish. When I bought it I asked the guy if I use this instead of "over feeding the tank" and he said yes. So I started right away using it in the tank and tested the water and it is tolerable for some fish as it is right now, but I don't want to chance killing a fish... (or five) So what do I need to do, can I just stop using it or should I go ahead and get a fish or what??

any help on this would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

[Northernguy]

Cycle is not the greatest bacteria boost.Tetra safe start or stress zyme.
You are not too late to get some ammonia and do a fishless cycle.
You will need a liquid master test kit Or just get the ammonia and nitrite test kits for now.
Your water is brown from tannins.Your water must not have been too clear.Its ok,it will go away.Do a water change.

[KingFisher]

It's most likely the wood causing the brown water. If you have a pot large enough, you can boil most of the tannins out of the wood. Just change the water every hour while you are boiling it and stop when the water starts to lighten up. Carbon in the filter will also help remove the residual tannins that leach out.

[jackson17]

Do a fishless cycle. It will save you so much stress, trouble and money. On the left side of the page there is a link to the ebook.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/ebook.html

Here, it will explain all the joys of cycling a tank. Fishless (recommended) and fish in cycle (long, stressful, dying fish, stressing fish and more money). Read up on the two, then decide what you want to do. It should answer all your questions about cycling, if you don't already know about it.

Good luck =]

[rubberducks]

So I decided to do a water change since it has only been 2 days for the tank to be set up I did an 80% figuring it wont hurt anything. Took the wood out to soak a little more just in case (water is still clear??) I bought stability as my helper to fishless cycling and a liquid testing kit (API master kit) The tank looks great and it has been about 7 hours so far but we shall see tomorrow morning...

I did find when cleaning my tank with the siphen that in some areas I was getting brown "dirt" like substance in some areas and none in others... I forgot that I put in tablets for my plants, could this actually be the cause of my problems and if so do I just leave them in there and they will dissolve them selves in time? thanks again for all your help with this, just trying to get the gist of a new tank... (don't wanna mess it up)

[mac]

Sounds like the tablets could be doing it, along with the logs. Though IME the tannin from the logs take a bit more time to really be noticeable.

What type of Tablets, and how many did you add? Also were this dirt is, is it were you added the tablets?


mac