The water in my 16 gallon tank is cloudy!?

Question

The tank water has been very cloudy for quite a while now. I rinsed the gravel before i put it it, i have reduced the feeding of the fish, and i got a catfish for clean-up duty.The tank is filled with baby fish from a different tank. I have used alot of commercial products like "Water clairifier" and stuff like that. The water quality is decent, however, we were battling ammonia, and then we used "ammonia lock" and it turned out fine. My dad, however, bought "pH up" and used it, which i know is bad, and the ph is just fluctuating all over the place, which is very bad. Any ideas on how to clear the cloud, or just help me in general? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

the only chemical you should use in a tank is declorinator

and possibly medicine if needed

did you cycle the tank

Answer 2

cycle your tank to make the ammonia and nitrites at 0. or did you already cycle your tAnk? if you did that means the cycling process is done and dont rinse the gravel use an a gravel vacuum. so it wont get cloudy.

Answer 3

Do a 25% water change and reduce the amount of food.

Answer 4

My best guess would be that you haven't cycled the tank. If you have you may have added too many fish at once and the tank is now going through a mini-cycle, as the bio-load has dramatically increased in a very short amount of time and the bacteria in the filter can't handle it. You should always add your fish slowly and wait 3-7 days before adding more. If you want the tank to cycle, leave it and the cloud should clear up within a week. If you want the fish to have a better chance of living, do a large water change. Realise if you do this the tank won't cycle.

Good luck :)