lilsoccakid

hey every1. my tank is almost done cycling fishless, and when i went to lift up one of the caves and some gravel, these white clody clusters went everywhere! what is this? should i clean the tank?

atmmachine816

Was it rotten fish food?

lilsoccakid

nope i used the ammonia method. looks like the filter cleaned it up but still some cloudy water

atmmachine816

cloudy water usually means bacteria bloom. What are your levels?

lilsoccakid

i have test strips so there not very accurate (getting the API master test kit soon)

ammonia:.5
nitrite:5ppm
nitrate:45ppm

atmmachine816

tanks not cycled, white cloudy water is a bacteria bloom. Wait until you get api test kit.

COBettaCouple

was that the first time you'd moved the gravel in a while? i'll usually stir up the substrata a bit every day or 2, just to keep toxin pockets from forming.

treehugr

>>was that the first time you'd moved the gravel in a while? i'll usually stir up the substrata a bit every day or 2, just to keep toxin pockets from forming.<<

Toxin - what does that look like? I had noticed some white feathery stuff on the driftwood and in the back corner of the tank (near the intake vent) - is that toxin? I wonder if that's what killed my Cory cat and Yoyo Loach since they are both bottom feeders - maybe they ate some of the toxin?

Also, we are having the same issue with water cloudiness - we cycled the tank back in December and the fish were all fine. Then, after 30 days (with fish) we did a full water change (which I was later told may have been the problem). The water was crystal clear the first few days but then became progressively cloudy each day. Could it have been the full water change? We have a 14 gal biocube, with the bioballs (which we did NOT clean).

treehugr

Also, if it is a "bacteria bloom" - how do we test for that (the API tests have all come out good)? And, more importantly, how do we rectify the problem?