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Re: I need big help with my new 75 gallon? Hard, cloudy, ammonia water.
your tank is cloudy cause its cycling and you likely have a bacteria bloom. If they cloudyness is white thats what it is. If its green thats algea and you can kill it off by turning off the lights of your tank and covering it with a blanket to "blackout" the light. Leave it blacked out for 4-7 days until the water is clean. This will not harm the fish .
Because of your high ammonia you will need to do a 25 percent water change right away and retest to make sure it is now in acceptable levels If not do another 10 percent until you get low readings (the lower the better, none is best but not realistic in a newly cycling tank so just go for low readings) Fish will start dying at .25 ppm ammonia. You can improve this by doing partial waterchanges every day or everyother day as needed. You said your ammonia is high, i assume you have a test kit, and thats good.It will make it easier to know when to change the water. Check your tank daily and do a water change before your ammonia gets to the .25 ppm. Ammonia at or above that will kill the fish .
Cycling is a process that every tank goes through. I am not an expert at describing it but it basicly is something like this. Your fish produce ammonia and waste (uneaten food also does this)a bacteria in the water consumes or "eats" this waste . When it does this it produces nitrite, when nitrite is in the water a second type of bacteria consume it and produce a byproduct called nitrate. Nitrate is only removed by water changes (there is no bacteria to "eat" it). so while your tank is cycling (anywhere from 3 weeks to several months) you will have to do frequent waterchanges to keep the ammonia and nitrite at levels that are not toxic to your fish. After the cycle is complete and you have a big enough colony of the benefitial bacteria to control the ammonia and nitrite you will only have to do periodic water changes to remove nitrate and replace minerals in your water. I personally change 10 percent of my water once every 7-10 days and do a 25 percent water change once a month when i vacume out the gravel. you will want to do a water change every couple days no matter what and especially when you notice any high readings. There are several articles here on the forum about cycleing i suggest you read them when you get a chance. It will be a pain for now but wont last forever and your fish will thank you for it by being healthy and happy. You can monitor your cycle and watch it progress by paying attention to the readings : as the ammonia readings go up and the other two are at zero this is the beggining, then you will see the ammonia start to drop and nitrite start to rise, this is the middle , then the nitrite will start to drop while the nitrate starts to rise (do not let nitrate get above 40 ppm or fish can die) i do water changes to keep this very low. Dont ever change more than 50 percent of your water during one day while its cycling or it can mess up the process . When the cycle is complete you should have 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, and less than 40 ppm nitrate (i water change until my cycled tank barely regitersters nitrate) It is also a good idea (many have had success) using over the counter products from lfs or walmart that change the ammonia (ammonia lock) and there is also one product that changes nitrite or nitrate into a less harmful form (sorry i cant remember which one , i think its called nitriban or nitraban) . You should consider using these products since you are cycling with fish and any of these three are toxic to the fish and these will lessen the effects. Most people cycle with no fish now using ammonia but since you have fish your options for cycling are limeted. Just remember WATER CHANGE WATER CHANGE WATER CHANGE. Dont forget to treat your incoming water with a dechlorinater to remove chlorine typically added to city water if you dont have a well. Hope this helps and feel free to ask more questions anytime.
Oh by the way: Be very careful adding in the water clearing products. They function by making the particles "sticky" so tiny particles clump together making it easier for your filter to sift them out of the water column. This can make things stick in your fishes gills or the product can even coat the gills , killing your fish by suffocating it. I never use them (plus i dont think they help with bacteria only particulate matter anyway).
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365g south american and african cichlid tank
125g port wine acara and jack dempsey tank
55g marine reef tank
30g long oscar grow out tank
40g converted sump "time out tank" with occupants LOL
10g hospital tank (no patients)
Last edited by cichlidgirl; 01-21-2008 at 02:32 AM.
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