Cloudy/dirty Aquarium Water

So my daughter has had a 10 gal aquarium for a little while. one basic goldfish for almost 2 years. we usually fill with tap water and add conditioner, which works fine. lately she got behind on cleaning and it started getting high on nitrites and nitrates, cloudy kind of dirty water. Last night we took out about 30-40% of the water and put new water, some conditioner, and stuff to balance the ph and nitrates. This seemed to clear the water somewhat, figured I did good. I assumed the test strip would be close to the same with all the levels higher like last night, and take a little while to start correcting, but the water has turned back to being that dirty cloudy look. is that to be expected for now, and how long should I expect it to be that way until it starts clearing up? Or is there some tips on what to do when all the levels need some work. I'm not used to having issues, and am definitely not an expert at this...all those bottles look the same and confuse me as to what to buy. HELP!

 

What did you add. What levels are your ammonia, nitrite and Nitrate. What filter do you have and have you done any maintenance on the filter

 

What did you add. What levels are your ammonia, nitrite and Nitrate. What filter do you have and have you done any maintenance on the filter

Ok, let's see...nitrates are off the chart, nitrites are at 1.0 just starting in the "stress" level, sort of hard but not as bad, alkalinity just entering the high level at about 200, pH actually decent at 7. We added a little Tetra easy balance plus and aqua safe since we put tap water in. Filter is a Tetra Whisper 10I and we just rinsed it down...I didn't want to completely replace and lose any possible good bacteria or whatever to call it.

 

Did you rinse filter in tap water if so cycle is probably shot. Did you test ammonia?

Test your tap water to see what nitrate level your tap water is.

 

I have one of those 5 in 1 test strips but don't know how to test amonia. The nitrate level of my tap water reads about 10 which says is ideal...

Dang it about the filter, but it had some gunk build up on it. I didn't scrub or clean it persa, just didn't a quick rinse

 

Without knowing ammonia I would guess it is a bacteria bloom caused by losing cycle and cycle restarting

 

Side note... I don’t know why they sell test kits without ammonia test, as ammonia level is one of the most important if not the most important thing to test for in fresh water tanks. I highly recommend getting an ammonia test. Ideally spending the money on apI liquid test kit.

Hardness and alkinity isn’t that important for most fresh water fish so unless you have enormous swings I wouldn’t even worry about that (unless you eventually by very sensitive fish)

 

So, while I waited for a response I used a new strip I just bought at PetSmart with the other stuff when trying to take care of all this....it said nitrates we're bad, but nitrites decent, hardness not great but not in the danger zone, pH is perfect. So if cloudy and mostly it's nitrates that are bad bad...is that something fairly easy to remedy, and how would you suggest??

 

To fix cycle issue and help fish. Get an ammonia test kit and Prime. Do a large water change (at least 50%) test the tank water and if ammonia and nitrite is 1 or below dose the tank with prime for entire volume of tank. Keep doing this every day or every other day until ammonia and nitrite is at zero and nitrates are above 10 (since that is what your tap water nitrate is)

 

Ok. I'll try that and probably come back to this with a reply in a few days to a week. Thank you so much for all the help and feedback .I've been trying to learn as I go. Been doing decent til recently .

 

So, while I waited for a response I used a new strip I just bought at PetSmart with the other stuff when trying to take care of all this....it said nitrates we're bad, but nitrites decent, hardness not great but not in the danger zone, pH is perfect. So if cloudy and mostly it's nitrates that are bad bad...is that something fairly easy to remedy, and how would you suggest??

The only way to lower nitrates is to do large water changes. If your tank is heavily planted the plants will help but really water changes are what you need to do. 50%+ every Day. Test strips are notoriously inaccurate and really the only ok level of nitrite is zero.