Extremely cloudy water in new tank

Hello all! I’m new to the hobby and have been doing lots of research. About a week and a half ago I got a new 10 gallon, washed it out with water well, added well rinsed gravel and water with conditioner. All was well until the evening the following day when my water began to get cloudy. I did some reading and saw that it was likely a bacteria bloom and should clear in a few days. At the time I had no ammonia for my fishless cycle so tried to get it started with some fish flakes and a frozen shrimp that I left in for 2 days. This wasn’t working very well so I went on a hunt and was able to find some pure ammonia and brought ammonia up to about 4-5ppm. It has been nearly 2 weeks now and there’s been no improvement in my water clarity, if anything it has gotten worse. I’m running a hob filter and heater at 78F. Water parameters are ammonia: 4ish ppm, nitrite: 0.25, nitrate: 0.25 and a pH right around 7. I’m wondering if I do anything about the cloudy water or just let it run it’s course? Also, I saw that new water would just make it worse but my water has evaporated quite a bit and is getting low on the filter and heater, should I be okay to top it back up?
Any help for a newbie would be greatly appreciated photos attached if it helps

 

Start by cutting back on the ammonia...4ppm in 10 gallons is way too much.

You can go as high as 2ppm but if it were me I'd keep it around 1ppm in a 10 gallon tank.

Dont worry about the cloudiness, its normal. It will clear up over time.

This whole process can take over a month so don't mess with the filters or the substrate right now.
Just change out some water until your ammonia is sitting somewhere between 1-2ppm and let it run.

Its perfectly fine to top off the tank with dechlorinated water.

 

Wow… thanks for the fast reply! I dosed it a little high because I am leaving to visit family for a few weeks and figured it would need more ammonia while I would be gone to keep bb fed throughout. Any tips for that or will I just have to start over when I come back?

 

Wow… thanks for the fast reply! I dosed it a little high because I am leaving to visit family for a few weeks and figured it would need more ammonia while I would be gone to keep bb fed throughout. Any tips for that or will I just have to start over when I come back?

Now why would you be cycling a tank if you have to leave for a few weeks? Lol

I'll tell you what....don't change anything. Dont do anything until you get back.

Leave the 4ppm in there....it will create a bunch of nitrite for your tank to keep busy with while you are gone....then when you get back you can do a big water change and dose 1-2ppm of ammonia and you should be close to finished by then.

Turn your heater sideways and put it deep into the water so that evaporation doesn't expose it....if you have lids for your tank....put them on.

Touch base when you get back home.

 

I know, I was a little too ambitious lol just excited and was hoping to have it cycled for when I got back. It was after I got it all set up that I really did the deep dive into cycling and realized it’s going to take a whole lot more monitoring than that and it’ll likely be a lot longer before I have fish
Oh well, the journey should be fun
Thanks so much for all the info, I’m sure it won’t be the last time you hear from me haha