Empty Tank & Cloudy Water

[constellatia]

Hi, I set my tank up Friday afternoon (it's now Sunday) and my water has been cloudy for the past day or so. The tank is completely empty aside from water. The tank is 20 gallons and equipped with a power filter. Any ideas as to what could be causing my cloudy water? Thanks!

 

[Bdyoung]

Is there a light on? Could be an algae bloom. It could also be cycling, although not likely since there's nothing in it. Did you rinse the filter media? It could be dust particles from the media. Do you have any mechanical filter media in your filter?

 

[constellatia]

There is no light on the aquarium, it actually remains in the dark most of the time. I cleaned the filter thoroughly. The filter comes equipped with AquaClear Foam, Activated Carbon and BioMax, so it does have a mechanical filtration process paired with chemical and biological. All I can think of is maybe the filter needs another good rinse and I'll do a water change.

 

[Bdyoung]

Did you rinse the carbon?

 

[Bdyoung]

Also what are you filtering it with?

 

[constellatia]

My boyfriend says he rinised the other pieces thoroughly but forgot to rinse the carbon; that's probably the culprit.

 

[Bdyoung]

Yeah carbon has a lot of fine particles in it and they need to be rinsed out

 

[Coastal Groovin]

If your new tank is cloudy it because it has started to cycle itself and you are starting to go through a bacteria bloom. I don't see carbon making a tank cloudy. It can take 2-6 weeks for a tank to cycle itself. If you have axies or newts in the tank already you will need to use an ammonia test kit everyday. You will also need to do a couple partial water changes(20%) every week so you don't kill your animals. That's the hard way. The easy way is two throw a dozen or two feeder guppies in the tank. Do a 20% water change every week and wait 4-8 weeks. READ THIS says almost the same thing. Just replace the word Oscar with Newt or Axolotl. They are kept almost the same way. Temperature being the only difference. Water quality is the same. How to Cycle a Fish Tank - Oscarfishlover.com

 

[Bdyoung]

Normally it would be the cycle but they stated it was completely empty