Hwx

I have all brand new gear,and tank. I filled the tank with water of course leaving enough room up top for the gravel down below,and the water was sparkling clear until I added the gravel.
Now,I've added the cloudy water treatment and after 12 hours the results are poor to minumally poor. What happened? Could the gravel be contaminated or something?
It's freshwater,pH reads 7.5, the required chlorine treatment was added and PH tested before the gravel too.
I know nothing about the nitrate tests and those other things yet, but I don't think the tank is old enough yet for the need of them, there ain't even any new fish in the tank yet. Can someone reply to my post please.

Beth1965

Ummm, did you clean the gravel before you added to the tank?
Beth

prairielilly

Welcome to FishLore Hwx!

Do you have a filter in the tank? what kind, what rate of turnover (gallons per hour?) was its media rinsed out before you set it up?

Usually if you add new gravel to a new tank and the water gets cloudy, that indicates there was dust, dirt, or silt on the gravel. Rinsing the gravel before adding it to the tank is highly recommended as this gets rid of all that and anything else that may be on the gravel that will harm your fish. I do this with a cheap colander from the dollar store, right in the sink in small batches. Your filter (and time, to allow for settling) will get rid of the rest.

If it's a chemical issue, it may be dissolved minerals in your tap water, but allowing it to sit for a while should change that - they will go back into solution.

What is the 'cloudy water treatment'? Most people here find that fish do best if they minimize the chemicals added to the water. I use Prime as a dechlorinator (it also detoxifies heavy metals and makes ammonia fish-safe for 24 hours), StressCoat when a fish is injured or newly added, and VitaChem as a supplement - that's it.

Glad to hear no fish in your new tank yet! will you be doing a fishless cycle? Here's a link on it for information.

Good luck!

aquarist48

Hello and WELCOME to Fish Lore. Please take some time to read the information on this link before adding fish to your tank. Good luck and have fun!
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Hwx

OOPS ! What with the new advances in fish technology like the Aquatech power filter 5-10 Gal. rate and a built in motor,and Tetra 2-15 50watt. heater without a dang heat adjustment knob and a built-in thermostat, I completely forgot to rinse the stupid gravel before hand.
Its been a while since I last had aquarium set ups, like none since 1975 . So with that said, I used AquaSafe by Tetra with bioextract to neutralize "anything" in the tap water, and then Crystal Clear drops,a plant extract in an attempt clear the cloudy water,which was supposed to have immediate results. It must be dust.
But now, I'm not sure if I should wait and see if it will clear up over time, or change all the water now that the gravel has been through a rinse cycle. lol
What would you do?
I guess its my own fault for not realizing I was jumping into this thing because I had done it before. After I bought a cheap starter tank I found the supply depot that still has the "old school" filters and heaters with thermostat controls and air pump filter regulators which are much better when you know how much charcoal you want to use for overstocked tanks and cycle schedules. I looked really close at the filter cartridge and I can almost count the pieces of charcoal on one hand.
I really wish I kept the old hand book I'm familiar with on tank setups,fish, and maintenance. I wasn't into all that nitrates,and nitrites stuff,we just balanced the PH and that would suffice,and when the tank smelled,or fish started to die off at an epidemic rate, just empty it,clean everything and set it up again.