New tank, milky water, help!
9 posts
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ismellfishy - Posts: 11
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:37 am
New tank, milky water, help!
Hey guys though i've had several fish tanks in the past, many have ended in failure due to inexperience and improper planning. This time i hope to do everything right and actually reasearch instead of just going on a spending spree. I have a nice 55 gallon tank which i recently filled with gravel (which i ran some water through before putting in the tank) and some white sand in certain spots. Then i filled the tank with purified water and added a few plants and some driftwood. The water was a little milky at that point and i assumed it was the loose sand that needed time to settle so I didnt pay much attention to it. Later that afternoon i poured a sample packet or two of "AquaSafe water conditioner" that came with my tank bundle. There wasnt an immidiate change in the water's condition, but a few hours later and the milkyness got worst. So now im wondering if it's a normal thing that happens to new tanks like this or if i may have put too much of that water conditioner thing. Has this happened to someone else? If so, how long until it clears up. If not, what do you suggest i do? Thanks in advance.
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dizzcat - Posts: 648
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am
I say give it a day or so and if it still does not clear do a 50% water change. Some sand and gravel will do that even with a massive washing.
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blueshoes2208 - Posts: 1077
- Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:01 pm
agree... it can take a few days for the water to settle ne stuff... well... maybe salt takes a while to settle haha forgot his is the freshy forum...
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tomargir - Posts: 39
- Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:18 pm
New tanks need time to settle. This is absolutely normal.
If you haven't put any fish in there yet, PLEASE take the time to read about fishless (ammonia) cycling and go for it. If you want i could give you some information on how i cycled my tank using pure ammonia.
You will find it a lot easier to maintain your tank later on if you cycle properly.
If you haven't put any fish in there yet, PLEASE take the time to read about fishless (ammonia) cycling and go for it. If you want i could give you some information on how i cycled my tank using pure ammonia.
You will find it a lot easier to maintain your tank later on if you cycle properly.
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ismellfishy - Posts: 11
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:37 am
Ok, so it's been about 4 days and the water is still milky and has a funny smell, i think i'm going to take out 50% of the water like dizzcat suggested. And i would love to hear some info on you how cycled your tank tomargir
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tomargir - Posts: 39
- Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:18 pm
THE NITROGEN CYCLE
The key to maintaining an aquarium is the solid establishment of the nitrogen cycle. When fish excrete, the nitrogen contained in the waste is converted to ammonia and ammonium. The nitrosomonas bacteria are then responsible for the conversion of ammonia/ammonium into nitrite. Nitrite is then converted into nitrate by nitrobacter bacteria. The final stage of the cycle is the conversion of nitrate intro nitrogen. The first two processes (ammonia > nitrite > nitrate) are aerobic, while the denitrification process (nitrate > nitrogen) is anaerobic.
THE NITROGEN CYCLE IN THE TANK
In nature, even if there existed no nitrifying or denitrifying bacteria, the build-up of ammonia and nitrogen oxides would not be harmfull for the fish, due to the large volume of the water in which they live. However, in a home tank the volume of the water is small, so any amount of ammonia or nitrogen oxides (nitrite,nitrate) can affect the fish severely.
What you want to do then is try to replicate the natural nitrogen cycle within the tank, by providing with the conditions for nitrifying bacterial colonies to develop. Generally speaking these bacteria can colonize every spot in the tank. To give these bacteria even more room to multiply, the aquatic industry has come up with specially designed biomedia, which can be place in external canister filters.
Given the right circumstances, nitrobacter and nitrosomonas will start multiplying steadily. However, since denitrifying bacteria thrive only under anaerobic conditions, the nitrogen cycle in the tank usually stops at the nitrification process. In other words, the process ends with the constant build-up of nitrate. At this point, you have 2 options. Either resort to wet/dry trickle filters (which can provide the necessary unaerobic conditions for the denitrification process) or do partial water changes. I assume that you will do the latter.
FISHLESS CYCLING
Nitrifying bacteria need food in order to develop and multiply. Nitrosomonas feed on ammonia and nitrobacter feed on nitrite. So there is 1 thing you must do to cycle your aquarium: feed it with pure ammonia on a daily basis. In this way you will be emulating fish excretions.
How much ammonia is enough? Many people suggest that you cycle with concentrations as high as 5mg/L. For me this is way too high (except if you own a pet store with tanks stocked to the brim). The obvious way to go is to estimate how many fish you want to add to the tank and calculate the concentration from there. Something between 2-3mg/L will do the job in most cases.
So once you find the appropriate concentration, you calculate the volume of ammonia that you must be adding in the tank (on a DAILY basis). After some time, nitrosomonas will start to grow and you will see the ammonia concentrations dropping, while nitrite will start rising. Don't stop adding ammonia at this point. After a while, nitrobacter will start to grow and you will see nitrite concentrations drop and nitrate concentrations rise.
The cycling process will be complete, as soon as both ammonia and nitrite have dropped to 0 ppm. At this point you must do some water changes in order to bring back the nitrate concentrations to around 10-15ppm (that's fine for a freshwater tank, for a saltwater the only way to go is wet/dry filtering and 0 nitrates). And then you must fully stock the tank immediately. (by fully stocking, i don't mean OVERstocking - just stock with the # of fish you have planned beforehand).
The whole process might take up to 2 months to complete. However you can greatly speed-up the cycle by using some biomedia from established tanks.
SOME THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Nitrate concentrations can rise dramatically during the last stage of the process (up to 100ppm for instance). Since algae thrive under high nitrates, it would be wise to keep your lighting down to minimum, so as to prevent unwanted algae growth.
Now as far as your problem is concerned. If the smell of the water is ammonia, don't worry. That's what you want. As a matter of fact i wouldn't be worrying about anything else than establishing the nitrogen cycle at this point. I think that the murkiness of the water will go away after some time.
I wouldn't recommend doing water changes before nitrate starts to rise. By changing the water you reduce the ammonia and nitrite concentrations and thereby deprive the precious bacterial colonies of their food source.
I will send you the detailed cycling tables by om.
The key to maintaining an aquarium is the solid establishment of the nitrogen cycle. When fish excrete, the nitrogen contained in the waste is converted to ammonia and ammonium. The nitrosomonas bacteria are then responsible for the conversion of ammonia/ammonium into nitrite. Nitrite is then converted into nitrate by nitrobacter bacteria. The final stage of the cycle is the conversion of nitrate intro nitrogen. The first two processes (ammonia > nitrite > nitrate) are aerobic, while the denitrification process (nitrate > nitrogen) is anaerobic.
THE NITROGEN CYCLE IN THE TANK
In nature, even if there existed no nitrifying or denitrifying bacteria, the build-up of ammonia and nitrogen oxides would not be harmfull for the fish, due to the large volume of the water in which they live. However, in a home tank the volume of the water is small, so any amount of ammonia or nitrogen oxides (nitrite,nitrate) can affect the fish severely.
What you want to do then is try to replicate the natural nitrogen cycle within the tank, by providing with the conditions for nitrifying bacterial colonies to develop. Generally speaking these bacteria can colonize every spot in the tank. To give these bacteria even more room to multiply, the aquatic industry has come up with specially designed biomedia, which can be place in external canister filters.
Given the right circumstances, nitrobacter and nitrosomonas will start multiplying steadily. However, since denitrifying bacteria thrive only under anaerobic conditions, the nitrogen cycle in the tank usually stops at the nitrification process. In other words, the process ends with the constant build-up of nitrate. At this point, you have 2 options. Either resort to wet/dry trickle filters (which can provide the necessary unaerobic conditions for the denitrification process) or do partial water changes. I assume that you will do the latter.
FISHLESS CYCLING
Nitrifying bacteria need food in order to develop and multiply. Nitrosomonas feed on ammonia and nitrobacter feed on nitrite. So there is 1 thing you must do to cycle your aquarium: feed it with pure ammonia on a daily basis. In this way you will be emulating fish excretions.
How much ammonia is enough? Many people suggest that you cycle with concentrations as high as 5mg/L. For me this is way too high (except if you own a pet store with tanks stocked to the brim). The obvious way to go is to estimate how many fish you want to add to the tank and calculate the concentration from there. Something between 2-3mg/L will do the job in most cases.
So once you find the appropriate concentration, you calculate the volume of ammonia that you must be adding in the tank (on a DAILY basis). After some time, nitrosomonas will start to grow and you will see the ammonia concentrations dropping, while nitrite will start rising. Don't stop adding ammonia at this point. After a while, nitrobacter will start to grow and you will see nitrite concentrations drop and nitrate concentrations rise.
The cycling process will be complete, as soon as both ammonia and nitrite have dropped to 0 ppm. At this point you must do some water changes in order to bring back the nitrate concentrations to around 10-15ppm (that's fine for a freshwater tank, for a saltwater the only way to go is wet/dry filtering and 0 nitrates). And then you must fully stock the tank immediately. (by fully stocking, i don't mean OVERstocking - just stock with the # of fish you have planned beforehand).
The whole process might take up to 2 months to complete. However you can greatly speed-up the cycle by using some biomedia from established tanks.
SOME THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Nitrate concentrations can rise dramatically during the last stage of the process (up to 100ppm for instance). Since algae thrive under high nitrates, it would be wise to keep your lighting down to minimum, so as to prevent unwanted algae growth.
Now as far as your problem is concerned. If the smell of the water is ammonia, don't worry. That's what you want. As a matter of fact i wouldn't be worrying about anything else than establishing the nitrogen cycle at this point. I think that the murkiness of the water will go away after some time.
I wouldn't recommend doing water changes before nitrate starts to rise. By changing the water you reduce the ammonia and nitrite concentrations and thereby deprive the precious bacterial colonies of their food source.
I will send you the detailed cycling tables by om.
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a6footkak - Posts: 1
- Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:37 am
the aquasafe just makes tap water safe for fish.
try aquaclear, it clumps all the small white particles together so that you can filter them out faster.
its just 50 gallons of water there is no need to worry about a water cycle or nitrogen cycle.
just get a decent filter pump and change the filter every two weeks or so.
with the filter and aquaclear the water will clear in less than a day.
try aquaclear, it clumps all the small white particles together so that you can filter them out faster.
its just 50 gallons of water there is no need to worry about a water cycle or nitrogen cycle.
just get a decent filter pump and change the filter every two weeks or so.
with the filter and aquaclear the water will clear in less than a day.
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tomargir - Posts: 39
- Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:18 pm
"no need to worry about a water cycle or nitrogen cycle"
With all the respect, this is not correct. If the aquarium does not cycle properly he will have constant problems with ammonia and nitrite.
I strongly advise against using chemicals to fix the water conditions (well some of them can be beneficial, such as declorinating agents, vitamins etc). The best thing to do is establish the nitrogen cycle and then have a worry-free maintenance routine.
The nitrogen cycle does not have anything to do with the volume of the tank. Every tank, from 5 gallons to 5 tonnes must be properly cycled. Changing (or cleaning) the filter will not help with the ammonia. If there are no nitrifying bacteria in the tank, ammonia and nitrite will keep piling up. I know that many aquarists think that they can overcome this problem by stocking with hardy fish, but this is not the right mentality. The truth is that due to the fact that most fish nowadays are bred in captivity, they have become much more tolerant to ammonia and nitrite levels. However, this doesn't mean that since they SHOULD be kept under non-optimal conditions.
Long exposures to these chemicals can slowly deteriorate the health of all the tank's inhabitants. So it's allright if you want to use aquaclear (or any other brand) if you are impatient about seeing the water crystal clear, but you shouldn't skip the cycling process.
With all the respect, this is not correct. If the aquarium does not cycle properly he will have constant problems with ammonia and nitrite.
I strongly advise against using chemicals to fix the water conditions (well some of them can be beneficial, such as declorinating agents, vitamins etc). The best thing to do is establish the nitrogen cycle and then have a worry-free maintenance routine.
The nitrogen cycle does not have anything to do with the volume of the tank. Every tank, from 5 gallons to 5 tonnes must be properly cycled. Changing (or cleaning) the filter will not help with the ammonia. If there are no nitrifying bacteria in the tank, ammonia and nitrite will keep piling up. I know that many aquarists think that they can overcome this problem by stocking with hardy fish, but this is not the right mentality. The truth is that due to the fact that most fish nowadays are bred in captivity, they have become much more tolerant to ammonia and nitrite levels. However, this doesn't mean that since they SHOULD be kept under non-optimal conditions.
Long exposures to these chemicals can slowly deteriorate the health of all the tank's inhabitants. So it's allright if you want to use aquaclear (or any other brand) if you are impatient about seeing the water crystal clear, but you shouldn't skip the cycling process.