How should I clean the water of my tropical fish tank?

Question

I have just bought my first aquarium. I set it up a few days ago, and got the filter and heater running to start preparing the water. I have no live plants or fish yet. After 4 days, the water still seems a little cloudy when you look through the length of the tank, and there also seems to be a film on the top of the water. I have just increased the flow of the pump to try and clear the cloudiness, but what can I do about the film on the surface? I want to make sure that the tank is ready for the plants, and then the fish !!

Answer 1

The water will seem cloudy for a while. If you clean it, it will get cloudy again. It needs to cycle. By this I mean-
1. Make sure the water is the appropriate PH and temp for a period of time so you know that it is stable.
2. Add the plants to the tank. It's likely that the water will not change much with the addition of plants only.
3. Add fish to the tank. The water may get even more cloudy for a little while. (few days)

There are both good and bad bacteria for a fish tank. Once the good bacteria in the tank take hold, the water will clear up. If you clean it, you will get rid of the good bacteria that keep the tank healthy. Do some reading online, and ask your pet store about cycling a new tank. Asking the fish store is a really good idea, because you may as well build a relationship with them now - you'll probably have more questions later.
The only reason to "clean" the tank is water management. Get some of the strips that have like 5 tests on them and you will see what I mean.

Answer 2

Did you completely rinse everything before you put it in? I don't use live plants - half the time they are infested with tiny snails that will plug up your filters eventually. There are a lot of products on the market to clear cloudy water - check with your local aquarium supply store. You can also try changing out 1/3 of the water using a vacuum hose (depends on the size of your tank). You should also give it another week and then run some tests before putting in live fish. You can get a testing kit very reasonably, they even have little paper sticks that you just dip in the water to get results in 5 different categories. Don't put in any live fish until everything is right. That's what I did and my fish are 2 years old, healthy, and no problems.

Answer 3

I wouldn't worry about cloudyness before you put the plants in. They are quite robust. As a matter of fact, putting the plants in will cause a lot more cloudyness than you have now. 4 days is really quite a lot.

What you could do is clean the filter quite often. Especially when setting up a tank it gets clogged quite easily.

edit: Unless you plan to have really delicate fish, you can normally put the fish in after about 2 days after the plants, that is, if you add nitrification bacteria, which are normally part of a starter kit. It's also important, not to put in too many fish. The rule of thumb is: not more than 1 cm of fish/ liter of water. If you stick to that, equilibrium will find itself quite easily

Cloudyness is not that relevant anyway. The most important thing is that nitrification starts as soon as possible, so that you won't produce too much ammonia in the tank as soon as the fish get in.

Answer 4

Go to the store and purchase three things:
1. PH Stabalizer for fish water, generally you will use a couple drops per each 5 gallons of water

2 Water clearifier (choose a contentrated formula that is designed for the size of your fish tank) It needs to have alagecide and active emzymes that will control the balance of aquatic microorganisms. the cloudiness will susbide once the fungi, protistans and fungi are removed.

3. Also, if you plan to get fish soon-get an anti-ik treatment. It takes time to establish a marine ecosystem--with the adequate balance of microorganisms. Get a firm handle on ick BEFORE it becomes a problem. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

The fish store told me you don't add any fish for about 1 month but you can add plants earlier so you get the biological balance going.

The film on the top might be from stuff coming out of your charcoal - if you didn't wash it off first. Your heater could be set too high and encouraging algae to grow. Or you may even have minerals or somesuch in your water. Don't know for sure.

You could check and see if your local fish store will test your water for you and they could give you better help.

It took us about 4 months to get everything balanced and we lost some fish along the way. Don't get discouraged.

Answer 6

That sounds like a bacteria bloom of some sort. I'd do a 50% water change and get an ammonia test kit before adding fish. (Plants such be okay in small numbers early on.) Are you using a chemical to speed the cycling of your tank. (Some might cause an oiliness on the surface.)

Answer 7

Do a one third (33%) water change. Clean the filter material in the dirty water and then some tap water treated with Tap-safe (don't use plain tap water). Run the system for one week and repeat if necessary. In future don't overfeed the fish. It may also e advisable to use a disease preventative preparation to protect your fish from fungal / bacterial infections.

Answer 8

Have you checked your water temperature? You might want to re-think the live plants, sometimes they come with snails on them and once you get snails in your tank, you can't get rid of them. They sell a chemical called clean and clear that should get the cloudiness out of the water

Answer 9

I would start over, my guess is the gravel was dusty. let the plants get settled first and they'll help get the water comfortable for the fish. It wouldn't hurt to start with one cheap but good, fish and add 1-2 at a time until you have what you want.

Answer 10

you can clean your fish tank by doing regular water changes every week and it will clear out in about a week dont forget to keep a constant temperature of about 76 degrees buy a thermometer and check your temperature if the temperature fluctuates dramaticallly your fish will get stressed out and likely die also test your water parameters to see whats causing the film
whats in the top of yur tank is protein you can buy a protein skimmer and that will keep your water very clean and clear you will have much better water parameters.well thats about all you need to do for your tank.