smileyfish

My tank has been cloudy lately ive had it for about 3 months now. It seemed to be finished cycling just a month ago. Although the feedback from the tests looked fine (ammonia and nitrites-0, nitrates 2-4) the water looked very murky and kinda looked like someone poured brick dust in. I was dissapointed and for a while neglected the tank doing the very basics of feeding and changing the filter media. Ive now started up a sort of vow to the tank. I have a notebook that ill take notes about the tank, test results, fish behavior etc. Im really stepping it up. The one thing thats strange is despite the still cloudy(ish) water the ammonia and nitrites are still at 0 but the nitrates are 0 (maybe a little above). What does this mean?

aquarist48

Hello Smiley. Your tank could possibly be going through a bacterial bloom. Very common in newly established tanks. It will go away eventually with water changes and gravel vacuums. As long as you are showing some nitrates I would say everything is fine other than the bloom.
You may want to cut back on your feeding a little bit. Not necessarily the amount of times you feed but the portions.
Best of luck. I'm sure you'll get some more responses soon.
Ken