Cloudiness

[Nachtmare]

Ok so I started my tank by washing the tank and washing the sand. After I filled the tank with sand I started to pour water into the tank. I used something the "break" the water so sand would not be disrupted. And it worked great. However the more I filled the tank the cloudier it got. I have used the dechlorinator and some other tank stabilization chemicals to remove the ammonia and nitrites. It has been 3 days now and looks just as cloudy as it did the first day. I was expecting some cloudy water but not this long without some improvement. Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Skudo09]

Sand normally makes water cloudy for a few days especially if it didn't quite get rinsed enough. Some sand is worse than others too. I found I had to do water changes to get rid of the cloudiness when I set up my tank initially.

What other agents did you use other than dechlorinator? Dechlorinator is all you should need to add. I would be careful using other chemicals as some can not be good for axolotls. How are you planning to cycle the tank?

 

[Boomsloth]

I used play sand in my fish tank and even after rinsing it 8 times it still made the water cloudy. I did large water changes daily and after about a week it cleared up.

 

[Nachtmare]

Yea I washed the sand and the water was clear after I washed it a few times so I figured it would be ok. And the other stuff I am talking about is the Ammonia/Nitrites/Nitrates.
I was gonna do some water changes just to see if that might help. probably will start that in a few minutes.

 

[Boomsloth]

That's my tank after I added sand on just that side. I had the sand running under a hose for an hour and it still made the water cloudy. I'm doing my first water change and will post once it's all clear again.

 

[Nachtmare]

This is what my tank looks like currently. Starting some water changes at least a little bit everyday. Hopefully it will clear up within the next few days. It's been 5 days so far.

 

[Boomsloth]

I just did about an 80% change. Doing a little bit each day will slowly take out the suspended particles that won't settle but one large change will remove most of them. As long as you're treating the water there shouldn't be an issue with larger changes

 

[Jonjey]

It may be what's called a bacteria bloom and it occurs when a vast amount of media is added to a tank. So if you add a big new canister filter the media will build up in the water column before getting into the media. The same thing will happen with adding lots of sand, substrates are a vast amount of space for bacteria to grow so when you add lots of sand it will create a bacteria bloom. It will go away on it's own within a couple days, the less water changes the better as long as the parameters are healthy, and it will probably disappear over night so don't give up if it doesn't look like it's getting clearer. Also clarity chemicals and stabilizing chemicals usually do more harm than good, for some reason or another.

 

[Boomsloth]

It may be what's called a bacteria bloom and it occurs when a vast amount of media is added to a tank. So if you add a big new canister filter the media will build up in the water column before getting into the media. The same thing will happen with adding lots of sand, substrates are a vast amount of space for bacteria to grow so when you add lots of sand it will create a bacteria bloom. It will go away on it's own within a couple days, the less water changes the better as long as the parameters are healthy, and it will probably disappear over night so don't give up if it doesn't look like it's getting clearer. Also clarity chemicals and stabilizing chemicals usually do more harm than good, for some reason or another.

I don't think he added anything live yet or ammonia into the tank. His pics are just an empty tank with sand. Bacteria blooms usually happen if the already established media or substrate is disturbed causes them to free float and multiply before settling back down. This just seems like play sand dust and clay causing cloudiness.

 

[Nachtmare]

Do you treat the water before or after you add it to the tank. I have a bucket full sitting with some dechlorinater in it and will probably add it to the tank tomorrow. I know it doesn't really matter when you treat the water especially since my tank is empty, just wondering what someone else does. The bucket isn't too big so I'm not doing a giant water change just a tiny one. The only things I have added are dechlorinater and ammonia which should eventually turn into nitrates by the end of the cycle if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Boomsloth]

I add prime into the tank before I add the water.

Oh didn't know you were adding ammonia already. To be honest id hold off from the ammonia and do one large water change and see if that clears things up. Then start cycling the tank. That way you know it's not the sand causing the cloudy water.

How large is your tank? I recommend getting any type of gravel cleaner/water changing hose adapter. I got mine because going back and forth with a bucket was a chore. Now my water changes take less than 15 minutes for each tank.

 

[Nachtmare]

Yea if I do not see a change in the next couple days I will probably just start over. My tank is a 29 gallon tank. And good idea with the tank hose. I washed all the sand and the water was clear after it sttled in the bucket so I am assuming that's not it but I could be wrong. I went to an aquarium store(not a pet store) and got myself some Seachem Stability which I was told to add as soon as I started my tank which I did along with that I was recommened Prime which is the dechlorinater that I am currently using. So those are the only things I have added.

 

[Boomsloth]

Sometimes it's clay particles that were in the sand dissolving into the water. Eventually after enough large water changes it'll go away

 

[Nachtmare]

Yea could be. Kind of difficult knowing if the sand is truly clean or not haha Hopefully with enough of a water change the cloudiness will disappear, guess only time will tell. Within the next week or two I should be getting my decoration so my tank wont look so boring

 

[Nachtmare]

Well it's looking better cloudiness wise I've been doing a little bit of a water change everyday after I let the water dechlorinate in a bucket first.

 

[DiscusDream]

If you are using Prime to dechlorinate the water in the bucket, you don't have to let it sit out for any length of time, especially if you don't have anything in your tank yet. When I am doing a water change, I take out as many buckets of water as I want, then just replace it all right away. Even for my tanks that have fish in them, I just get the temp as close as I can from the tap before I add it to my tank.

It will clear up faster if you do larger water changes, then you can move on to the business of cycling.