# Water turned white!



## piranhamagnet (Jun 30, 2004)

Anyone know how this happened? Im currently cycling my tank with 100 feeders and rosies in my 180 gallon tank. I remove all the dead fishes at least two times a day. The rate is at 10-15 feeders dead each day and it's been cycling for almost 3 weeks now. I decided to do a 33% water change yesterday about 60gals of water. Then I woke up and notice the water being very cloudy ! I only siphon the gravel and added Ammonia lock and tap safe. I might have added too much...thats the only conclusion I came with since both have de-chloromia and de-cholorine (if that's how you spell it). Anyone have any ideas? Anyone know why my water turned white or extreemly cloudy? how do i fix this?

Readings: Ammonia 0
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate: 40
ph: 7.0

Thanks


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## Guest (Aug 11, 2004)

It might be a bacterial bloom. Conditions became right for a population explosion of bacteria. If that's what it is, it won't hurt your fish and it will probably clear up on its own in a few days.

Since you have no ammonia and some nitrite, it appears your aquarium cycling is moving along well.


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## EZ_Ian (Feb 21, 2004)

Bullsnake said:


> It might be a bacterial bloom. Conditions became right for a population explosion of bacteria. If that's what it is, it won't hurt your fish and it will probably clear up on its own in a few days.
> 
> Since you have no ammonia and some nitrite, it appears your aquarium cycling is moving along well.


 mmmm bacteria bloom


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## timmy (Mar 29, 2004)

piranhamagnet said:


> Anyone know how this happened? Im currently cycling my tank with 100 feeders and rosies in my 180 gallon tank. I remove all the dead fishes at least two times a day. The rate is at 10-15 feeders dead each day and it's been cycling for almost 3 weeks now. I decided to do a 33% water change yesterday about 60gals of water. Then I woke up and notice the water being very cloudy ! I only siphon the gravel and added Ammonia lock and tap safe. I might have added too much...thats the only conclusion I came with since both have de-chloromia and de-cholorine (if that's how you spell it). Anyone have any ideas? Anyone know why my water turned white or extreemly cloudy? how do i fix this?
> 
> Readings: Ammonia 0
> Nitrite: 5
> ...


 Doing a water change probly got rid of the ammonia (which is bad) and brought the nitrites down. I would leave the tank and wait. My tank got cloudy when it was cycling. Bout the nitrites, you will see a drop in them over night, i would say within the next 2 weeks>


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## piranhamagnet (Jun 30, 2004)

so just dont touch the tank for 2 more weeks?


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## piranhamagnet (Jun 30, 2004)

Is it true taht the white water is the final stage of cycling since there's bacteria bloom?


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## Guest (Aug 11, 2004)

piranhamagnet said:


> Is it true taht the white water is the final stage of cycling since there's bacteria bloom?


 I'm not sure. 
I would say the better way to measure the progress of your cycle is by testing for ammonia and nitrite. Since you have no ammonia, I would say you're at least half way there. All you need to do is wait for enough of the nitrite-oxidizing bacteria to grow to bring that number to 0 and you'll be set to stock that tank with some killers.











> so just dont touch the tank for 2 more weeks?


Pretty much. You can do some small water changes if you want, but since the tank is stocked with feeders, it's not imperative.


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## piranhamagnet (Jun 30, 2004)

DonH where are you?! I need your helP!!! what am i suppose to do now. This is a bacteria bloom, I dont understand what triggered it to recycle again. Should I drain my tank or what?


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## DonD (Mar 11, 2004)

First, read the pinned article at the top of this page about bacteria blooms.
Next, doing water changes during a cycle will not slow it down. Unless of course you are doing like 80% changes. The only way to remove enough ammonia/nitrites through water changes to affect the cycle is to remove a ton of water. I would say that using the ammo lock stuff is a bad idea though. If you want to keep the levels of ammonia down enough to keep the fish from dieing to quickly, simply do water changes. A normal change of 30-50% will knock the ammonia/nitrites down enough to make it easier on the fish, but not so much as to interfere with the cycle.


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## pygocentres (Jul 22, 2004)

I think it's typical that the water turns white during a cycling phase. It's due to bacteria blossom. I would advise letting it sit for a bit and then do 25-30% water change after it settles.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

piranhamagnet said:


> DonH where are you?! I need your helP!!! what am i suppose to do now. This is a bacteria bloom, I dont understand what triggered it to recycle again. Should I drain my tank or what?


 Did you kill off the bacteria on your filter media rinsing it under a sink ? Did you completely replace your media recently ? Any dead fish stuck in your filter and is your gravel vacced ? Did you have a cycled tank and all of a sudden you removed an ammonia source to feed the bacteria ?


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

WTF would you use ammo-lock during cycling?

The whole point is to build up beneficial bacteria, to eat up the ammonia, not to use a chemical to do the job for you.

DonD, Jerry, DonH, what do you think?

Let it go, don't do water changes. Don't add any chemicals except for dechlorinator. You obviously already had an ammonia spike, your nitrites are up, and so are your nitrates. Just ride it out now.

Next time, if your super concerned about the feeder fishes health, cycle it with pure ammonia.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

doctorvtec said:


> WTF would you use ammo-lock during cycling?
> 
> The whole point is to build up beneficial bacteria, to eat up the ammonia, not to use a chemical to do the job for you.
> 
> ...


His tank was already cycled. It is recycling. QUOTE (piranhamagnet @ Aug 11 2004, 08:49 PM) 
DonH where are you?! I need your helP!!! what am i suppose to do now. This is a bacteria bloom,* I dont understand what triggered it to recycle again*. Should I drain my tank or what? 
Ammo Lock will not remove the ammonia but just de-toxify it. One teasponful will de-toxify 3 ppm of ammonia. Not necessary to use it during cycle.


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## piranhamagnet (Jun 30, 2004)

doctortec for one stfu. lol.








My tank is cycled everything is back to 0. Thanks for helpin .


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## DonD (Mar 11, 2004)

OK, one last time. A bacteria bloom is NOT a part of the cycle. It does not indicate a "re cycle" or the like. Read the pinned article at the top of this forum.
And I swear I responded earlier on in this thread...


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