Why is my Fish Tank Cloudy?

J

Joshua

New member
the cloudiness has a very low visibility, i have a 2 foot tank,it has High Ammonia and A PH of about 5, it is 2 weeks old with about 5 Fish, No Plants.
Yeh thanks everyone for your help i just hope everything will be fine, how long does it take for the water to clear, its been like it since saturday. BTW my ph has gone to 7.0 so that should be alrite, i have 2 phantom tetra's, 1 silver sharky, 1 black loach thingy and a bristlenose catty
i intend on putting my fish into my large 4 ft tank but i gotta buy a light and set it up, any advice before i get started? i have plenty of river sand id like to use
 
Simple: Your tank is cycling.

http://www.worldcichlids.com/faqs/cycling.html

You can read up on a few different methods of how to ease the cycling phase. It's not easy, and I PROMISE you that you will loose at least one fish. But, don't worry, I did it once.

There's also a helpful chart on that website. It's a simple explanation of what's going on inside of you tank.
 
Your water quality is very poor.

The part that is of the greatest concern is the ammonia levels in the tank. Get yourself to a petstore ASAP and pick up some NutraFin Cycle Biological Aquarium Supplement, SafeStart, or whatever nitrifying bacteria adding product they have ready and at hand. Also get some water treatment to make sure that you've not got anything in your tap water (chlorine if you're on city water) and some Seachem Neutral Buffer.

First do a 50% water change, adding the neutral buffer to the water you're going to put back based on the full size of the tank when full. Also add the water treatment to the water again dosing for the full tank capacity.

Once you've added the water back to the tank, then you're going to add the nitrifying bacteria product to the tank.

What you have is an un-cycled tank and a weak or non-existent Nitrogen Cycle ( http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm ). What we have done is to remove some of the polluted water, added fresh and treated water that is buffered at a PH of 7 (neutral) and added a product that will jump-start the nitrogen cycle.

This isn't the best course of action (that being doing a fishless cycle before adding fish) but this is the best we can do until the cycle establishes itself.

Don't worry about the cloudy water, at this point it is either caused by the lack of a nitrogen cycle and will clear up as the cycle establishes itself...or is some other problem and can be addressed later.

In either case, this is the least of your worries.
 
your tank is cycling... you need to be doing small partial water changes until it finishes cycling. try keep the ammonia and nitrite under 1ppm. once the nitrate spikes your ammonia and nitrite should stop rising. then you only need to change 25% once a week.
 
I agree with others, your tank is cycling and therefore you need to concentrate on ammonia/nitrate/nitrite readings and not pH. The pH will fluctuate during the cycle anyway.
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=175355

There is a chance you will lose fish as the ammonia/nitrites spike.

Also, with regard to your tank set up, I would recommend returning the "Silver Shark", if that's a Bala Shark (Balantiocheilos melanopterus) it will get over 12", needs to be in a shoal and needs a tank over 6 feet long, not 2 feet!

I would recommend IDing what your Loach is properly - a lot of Loach species need to be in groups and may well be too active for your tank.

The Phantom Tetras should be in a shoal of at least 6 - but wait until your tank is cycled.

And be careful with the BN Pleco, these guys are huge waste producers so you need to make sure your filter is up to the job!
 
Gosh your ph level is very, very low! The only fish really capable of living in a ph level of 5 is cardinal tetra and discus fish, if you don't have either of these fish, I would double check either on here or google what the ph level for your type of fish should be. Most fish live between 6.5-7.5. Your water is cloudy because you have a bacteria bloom in your tank caused by the good bacteria being established to help your tank cycle. Your tank has not yet cycled as you have a high reading of ammonia. Cycling is where your fish waste is converted into ammonia, ammonia is converted to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate. You will first see a spike in ammonia and then it will dip, and you will then get a spike in ammonia and nitrite readings, and then they will dip, the nitrite will then be converted into nitrate so your ammonia and nitrite levels should read 0 and nitrate should be just above 0. Once this occurs your tank is cycled, and when it is able to consistently maintain these readings after several months it is 'established'. The cloudiness is a good thing, so don't do excessive water changes as this will remove the build up of good bacteria that will help converted the ammonia into something beneficial to fish as ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate as toxic to fish. Good luck!
 
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