Phlebas

Hi all, first post from a newbie.

I have a 3 week old tank with 9 mollies in there for the last 2 weeks.......(plus 4 fry and 2 baby snails who stowed away on some caboomba)
Fish are happy (I think) but I have cloudy water which is a bit annoying....



I have changed 25% water twice with minimal effect.
pH is ~7.5 and quite hard, Nitrites and Nitrates are fine and according to water authority the tap water does not have phosphates.

When starting up the tank I had a big algae bloom after a couple off days which receeded pretty quickly and was mostly filtered out or eaten by the mollies when they were added.

Could this still be algae? The cloudiness has a faint green tinge.

I am loath to reslove to using Algol or similar as I know this will just be a quick fix and not a long term solution.

All sugestions appreciated.

alicem

Welcome to Fish Lore! Nice to meet you!
Let's break down your post and add some questions to better understand your situation:

Did you use a mature filter to start up this tank? What method did you use to cycle the tank?

Yup, cloudy water can be very annoying.
However, your mollies look nice and the plants are great!



Twice in the last 3 weeks?

Fine as in "0 nitrites"? What is the actual ammonia level? .
That's a positive.

Do you mean green water or algae growing on the decorations? How soon did you add the mollies after starting the tank?

Could be, but more likely is a bacteria bloom in an uncycled tank.
It would be helpful if you could tell us the actual ammonia, nitrite & nitrate readings, not just to say they are "fine".

I appologize, I'm not familiar with this product or what it is used for.
Usually a course of large water changes over several days in a row are the best way to approach water quality problems.

Reduce feeding to once a day and only enough that the food never hits the bottom.
This may require you adding very small amounts at a time and watching that the fish eat it all.
Fish can live on alot less food than we feed them. Don't let them fool you, they'd eat until they explode if we'd let them.

Another thing to try is reducing "light on" time to 4 hours at a time for the plants.
A light timer may be helpful for that.

I hope we can help. Try giving us some more info and maybe we can sort this out with you.
alicem

Tony G.

Welcome to Fishlore Phlebas!!!!


Beautiful tank! i love the rocks and the plants! and the mollies stand out alot!

Cloudy water is very normal with a new tank Its actually and algae bloom, so it is completely normal. It should go away after the weekly water changes.

We're glad you joined!
enjoy the site!

TedsTank

Welcome to FishLore!!!! Such a beautiful tank

Your water will clear....just a bit more patience!!!

Do you have any Bettas..it's ok if you don't.

Welcome again and never be afraid to ask us a question!

Tony G.

Ignore Ted, he is having a betta meltdown LOL

You should tell him to get one, it'll drive him crazy! LOL

Phlebas

Thanks all for the help, here is some more info.....

Tank and filter started from scratch, fishless cycle, with a "safestart" to add bacteria. After a week we had water tested at LFS, they said all was "OK" and we bought the Mollies then. (fry born about a week later, lol)

Have since bought test kit (I'm a chemist at heart so this is a chance to play with test tubes again) and results are - Nitrites = 0, Nitrates <10..... will get an ammonia test kit at weekend.

The plants have been in from the start and have been growing well, lots of new growth.

Have changed water three times now, 25% each time. Will try to do this each day over the weekend and see what happens.

Algae was growing on decorations/plants within couple of days of starting the tank.... it was pretty cloudy from day one really.

How do you tell teh difference between algae bloom and bacteria bloom?

No bettas but once the cloudiness is solved I fancy Corydoras or Dwarf Gourami.
So long as the tank does not fill up with mollies!!!! (anything good for eating molly fry?)
The mollies are great fun, the kids love them...... but they are worse than rabbits, lol.

Thanks for your help.... wish me luck with the water changes

P.S. also had to squeeze out filter sponge a couple of times as it was pretty clogged and restricting flow.... did it in the tank water when doing water changes.

Shawnie

did you have fish in the tank when y ou added the safestart? if not, what ammonia source did you use for feeding the bacteria in safestart..
when you add safestart, you are suppose to add all the fish/ammonia source at the same time otherwise the safestart will die off

alicem

Tough to know until either the water turns totally green or the fish start dieing from nitrite poisoning.
If ammonia is showing on the test, probably a bacteria bloom.
If the water turns noticably greener, an algae bloom.

Algae (both green water and algae on the surfaces) grows from extra nutrients in the water.
Nutrients are like fertilizer and can be in the form of several things, like left over food, nitrAtes and phosphates.
The water changes will thin out those nutrients and let the live plants you have get established and out compete the algae.

Algae is a plant, so to speak, and with most plants too stong (or excess) light can encourage it to grow also.
Be sure there is no light from a window shining in the tank during any part of the day.
You can draw the curtains if necessary to prevent that.

It seems I always have some green water issues and then algae grows on my decorations during the first 6 months after a new setup.
It seems to be kind of normal for my new tanks... irritating, but normal.

Good plan.
Frequent water changes will definately help right now. Give them a chance. It'll be a pain, but worth the effort when the water finally clears.
As you get into a routine of weekly water changes, I'll bet things will settle and balance out.

The mollies are pretty hardy fish and the fact that they are producing fry is a positive toward algae bloom, I'd guess...

The corydoras you fancy should help. When things settle with your tank, get a troop of 6.They are a lot of fun.
Waiting will help the tank level out and all the surfaces (decorations, substrate and tank interior walls) season with good bacteria.
The survival rate should be better when introducing corys if the tank has some age to it.

If you squeezed the filter's sponge in the tank, that may have contributed to the cloudyness.
When we rinse the sponges we do it in a separate bucket that contains tank water.

For now I would leave the filter alone so the good bacteria has a chance to get established in the media and on the filter box's surfaces.

I'm curious about which filter you are using. It may be a little small for your amount of stock in the tank.
If you can afford it, it might be a good idea to add a second filter. Over filtering your tank can help the tank stay clearer once you get a handle on that.

With two filters you can alternate cleaning them (one every other week which would equal each filter being cleaned once a month).

When you clean your filter, don't wipe the inside off, just rinse it (with tank water) and put it back together.
That way you don't disturb the good bacteria there.
It may look gunky, but it isn't ususally seen when put into service anyway.

You're welcome, I hope it does help.
You are on the right track getting ahead of this thing.
Best of luck and keep up the good work,
alicem

Phlebas

I say "safestart" but it was a different brand....... instructions said you could add fish immediately or wait..... rather unclear really. Aded fish after one week, now been there for 3 weeks.

Can I assume that no Nitrites or Ammonia, but some Nitrates present will prove there is bacteria?

Shawnie

it depends on if your test kit is a realiable one....strips are inaccurate and cant be trusted on what they tell you......ANY bacteria source you tried, will die off in a week without food...even if it wasnt safestart that you used (which is the only reliable do as it says bacteria IMO ) I still think you are getting false readings and the tank is not completely cycled but again, thats just my opinion

Phlebas

I believe you hit the nail on the head!!

Bought an Ammonia test kit today and almost fell of my seat!! It is sky high, between 1.5-3.0mg/l (PPM)
Fast water change and filter inspection..... believe I may have over cleaned the filter when it was clogged. Big lesson learned the hard way.

Have now added dose of Tetra Safestart and will monitor Ammonia daily.

Not surprisingly Nitrites and Nitrates are zero at the moment, so will also watch them to make sure bacteria is starting OK.

Fish still look fine, but will keep a very close eye on them. Now on minimal rations, poor souls!!

Test strips now consigned to trash!!

Thanks for the help... will keep you posted on progress...

Phlebas

Quick update......

Ammonia holding at between 1.5 and 3 ppm
Nitrites now 0.4 ppm
Nitrates now ~12.5 ppm
pH is a touch above 8

Looks like the cycle is starting again ;0)

On the plus side the water is MUCH clearer too.... will this last throughout cycle? Plants are well established now too.
Fish still seem OK, I now have one more fry which must have been hiding very well - that's 5.

Unfortunately I am becoming aware of my next problem.... Snails!
Quite a few little darlings already and can see the jelly eggs on a couple of plants, drat!!

Will Corydoras or Gouramis eat snails?

Thanks for the suggestions folks, think I am learning (the hard way maybe)

Shawnie

im glad you got a better kit!!
for your snails, put in a nice thick leaf piece of lettuce at nite..and about an hour later after shutting off your lights, use a flashlight and see all the snals on the lettuce and scoop them out with it and walaaaa , give them to your fish store

no corys or gouramis wont eat snails....

Phlebas

Getting there......

Ammonia 1.0 ppm
NO2 >5 ppm
NO3 >20 ppm
pH ~8.0

So Ammonia dropping, now showing Nitrites and Nitrates increasing... I guess this is good news.

Should I do a water change now?
Will a water change slow down the cycle?

Currently testing every two days and keeping track of results.
Anything else I need to do now?

Thanks, P