Thr33Swords Posted June 20, 2013 Report Share Posted June 20, 2013 So I have set up my 490 litre tank about 3 weeks ago and have been doing a fishless cycle since. Since I blew my budget on the planting substrate alone, I used Daltons decorative pebbles for the top layer as it was simply $8 for a 20 litre bag. I washed it as well as I can using a colander, and managed to get it pretty clear. When I flooded the tank it did turn a little cloudy, but figured it will likely settle. 3 weeks later and it's still cloudy. I have been seeding my 1800 l/h filter on my current tank for about a month, and recently moved it over to the new tank to start clearing it up. I ran it for a day and it did make a slight difference, but the water was still quite cloudy. So I started googling and found out about Seachem Clarity, and thought it sounds fantastic and went out to get some. Yesterday I added it to the tank, adding another layer of mechanical filtration to the filter. The bottle said that it should clear up in 1-3 hours, and if it doesn't work, I can safely dose again after that. 4 hours later and no change, so I cleaned the filter media and dosed again. This morning I got up and the tank is 5 times worse than it was to begin with, not to mention it is now a disgusting urine-yellow. As far as I am concerned, this stuff has done nothing but make the tank water look worse. So now I am stuck wondering what to do next. I want to try avoid having to do a huge water change, since I only have a couple of 10 litre buckets, and doing a 50% - 75% water change would take all day. What else can I do? I thought about adding activated carbon to the filter, since I know it is used to remove meds. Will this help? Is it possible this might just be a bacteria bloom since the tank is still cycling? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 20, 2013 Report Share Posted June 20, 2013 What are you using to seed the tank? Many ammonia products contain other additives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted June 20, 2013 Report Share Posted June 20, 2013 How did you clean the filter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 20, 2013 Report Share Posted June 20, 2013 Do you have driftwood in the tank or is just the substrates and pebbles? What is the substrate? Purigen will clear the water and although it is a moderate sort of price you can re charge it for repeated use. There are also Chem Zorb pouches but I haven't used those and do not know if they can be re charged. However, you really need to know what is causing it. Have you done any tests on the tank? What are you using to feed your filter now it is on the new tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thr33Swords Posted June 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2013 Thanks for the replies. At the moment I am adding fish food to the tank to keep the bacteria alive, basically I am using a combination of option 1 and 5 in this link: http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm The tests show that the tank is almost cycled (ammonia is 0, nitrite has spiked and started to drop off, nitrate is picking up), probably because of the fact that I ran the filter on the old tank for a month and also put all the old filter media into the new filter. I have two pieces of driftwood in the tank plus some rocks and substrate. Substrate is flourite and this stuff: http://www.daltons.co.nz/landscaping/bu ... ble-coarse I clean the filter by syphoning water from the tank and then rinsing the media in a bucket. My live plants have not arrived yet due to the weather in the South Island, so I am going to try running activated carbon in the filter for a day and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 20, 2013 Report Share Posted June 20, 2013 How long have you had the driftwood in the tank? It may be leaching its tannins which would account for the colour in your water - (looks like any variation of a cup of tea without milk). Thats what I think it most probably is. If so the carbon will help, the purigen will most probably remove most of it but it can continue to leach for months. Fish will be happy, you won't like the look! Unfortunately I can't look at your links, having exceeded my households bandwidth for the month :oops:, downloading fish pics I think :roll: I have increased my limit but it wont be available until after midnight tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thr33Swords Posted June 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2013 Hmm, I don't think it is, since the driftwood and half of the rocks all came out of my established tank along with all the silk plants I had in there as well (to bring over more beneficial bacteria). Oh, don't you just hate it when that happens? Luckily we have 300gb a month at home since we're all Internet junkies. Basically from the first link I am cycling the tank by introducing fish food and raw shrimp to introduce ammonia into the tank, and adding bacteria from my established tank as well as Nutrafin Cycle as a backup. The gravel from the second link is basically washed decorative gravel people usually use for the top layer in pot plants and gardens. I washed the gravel in a colander before adding it to the tank, but I think it still kicked up a bit of dust. I am guessing the cloudyness is either tiny particles from the gravel, or a bacteria bloom, but I still don't get why the Clarity I added made it so much worse haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 20, 2013 Report Share Posted June 20, 2013 Maybe it didn't make it worse, maybe you woke up to a much clearer version of the tank than you would have if you have not added it. I would perhaps add charcoal and then do nothing for up to a week except perhaps a couple of small water changes. If it keeps getting worse then you will know something is feeding it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8jaggy8 Posted June 21, 2013 Report Share Posted June 21, 2013 You could try a product called Nutrafin Clearfast, what it does is ionically bond the floating particles to form small balls opf dirt which fall into the gravel which can then be syphoned out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted June 21, 2013 Report Share Posted June 21, 2013 As Seachem Clarity is a flocculating it needs something to act on. I have seen the same problem in pools where too much flocculating agent is added. The quickest way to fix an overdose of flocculating is to add dirt :digH: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted June 21, 2013 Report Share Posted June 21, 2013 As Seachem Clarity is a flocculating it needs something to act on. I have seen the same problem in pools where too much flocculating agent is added. The quickest way to fix an overdose of flocculating is to add dirt :digH: :sml1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 21, 2013 Report Share Posted June 21, 2013 That is a possibility. Also you may have caused a bacterial bloom with your fish food. All of these problems could have been avoided if you did what grandad did and just add a few fish and show a lot of patience. There is nothing cruel about cycling with fish if you use a few and add more slowly. I think sometimes we create problems by getting too technical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted June 21, 2013 Report Share Posted June 21, 2013 :gopo: :iag: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thr33Swords Posted June 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2013 Ok so update time: after running carbon in the filter for a day it has completely cleared up. I also have my fish in the tank now and they are happy as happy can be. Thank you all for the suggestions and advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critter_crazy Posted June 22, 2013 Report Share Posted June 22, 2013 Clarity did this to me also when I set up my big tank. There was a teeny bit of cloudiness from the newly washed gravel but I was told I should put clarity in anyway. I should have listened to my gut because it made it terribly cloudy and just did not calm down. After a week I got so angry I ended up emptying and refilling the tank (all 750L of it!). Good to hear yours has cleared up with carbon! :thup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thr33Swords Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Clarity did this to me also when I set up my big tank. There was a teeny bit of cloudiness from the newly washed gravel but I was told I should put clarity in anyway. I should have listened to my gut because it made it terribly cloudy and just did not calm down. After a week I got so angry I ended up emptying and refilling the tank (all 750L of it!). Good to hear yours has cleared up with carbon! :thup: Ouch >_< emptying and refilling a 750 litre tank sounds like a massive pain in the neck. I have to say I am stoked that it cleared up, I really didn't want to have to drain the tank as you ended up doing, mainly since I used up all of my dechlorinator filling the tank lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlesquarefish Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Yip same thing happened to me. My problem was I had used slightly warm water from the kitchen tap mixer. Added seachem thinking the cloudyness was from the new gravel. Ended up emptying and refilling. Luckily mine is only a 125l. Crystal clear now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 simple little tip that I use every time and have never had a cloudy tank. Gravel vacuum while you are filling, sucks up an amazing amount of crap even after spending hours washing gravel. plus I tend to use the cheapest gravel I can find due to spending more $$$ on fish than gears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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