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I got a 35 gal fish tank over three weeks ago and after the second day after adding fish the water got cloudy and its still not clearing. Three fish died already and I dont know why cause I check the water chems and their all ok. I have two filters going and I clean them once a week even the plants. I went to the pet store and they gave me some chems to put in the water and still cloudy. I let the water set in the tank 48 hours before adding the fish.I have only 10 fish and a sucker fish. I read in my fish book that it could take up to 6 weeks to cycle is this the way it cycles and are my fish stressed because of the water being cloudy.Please help!!!

margaret wegrzyn

Oh dear, another rush job.

Yes, I'm afraid that once you set up an aquarium, it can take up to six weeks for the biological filter to establish itself. There is no magic means of speeding this process up.

Furthermore, if you add fishes to the aquarium too early, your fishes will overload the still-growing bacterial colonies with waste, and they won't be able to metabolise those wastes quickly enough. Which means you end up with an ammonia spike which in turn stresses the fishes, possibly to the point of them dying. Even in very small concentrations, ammonia will have an adverse effect upon the gills of a fish, and may even cause the gill function to be affected badly enough for respiratory arrest to take place, whereupon the affected fish dies.

The way forward is what is known as "fishless cycling". Which involves adding organic material to your aquarium to build up the bacterial colonies over time, until you have a functioning biological filter that is ready to take a small number of fishes. From that point on, you build up the population slowly over a period of weeks until you reach the planned stocking level of the aquarium.

Basically, what you do is, you add a small quantity of fish food to the aquarium every day, as if you were feeding a small number of fishes. This provides the source of organic nutrients that the bacteria need to start multiplying, but does so in a controlled fashion. The bacteria build up in numbers so that after 4-6 weeks, your aquarium is ready to take on a small number of fishes (say 6 small Tetras). Then, after another 3 weeks with the Tetras, say, you can start adding Corydoras catfishes to act as the bottom feeders (making sure of course that you pick a species that stays a nice modest size so you can have 6 or kmore of them in your aquarium because they function better in a group).

One of the concepts I keep pushing on this forum is the need for patience with natural systems. And this is a perfect example of why I keep doing so. The existing fishes are probably none too happy not just because of the cloudiness of the water (which is a sudden bloom of bacteria because the colonies are growing in an unbalanced fashion) but because of the presence of what you can't see, namely incompletely metabolised wastes, stray ammonia an nitrites, and possibly a few other unwelcome things as well. Adding fish to a 48 hour old aquarium was a bad move, and you're now reaping the whirlwind as it were because of this.

Let me guess ... you didn't by any chance get your advice from someone at a big name chain store beginning with "W" did you? If so, oh dear ...

Right, you'll need to do a little bit of reading. Some threads for you to peruse will include these:

An infamous essay of mine

Another infamous essay of mine

Yet another infamous essay of mine

You guessed it - another of my infamous essays

I began my fishkeeping career at 13. I'm now 44 (and going to be 45 in January). You tend to pick up one or two things after 30+ years in the game.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

dont go cleaning your tank and stuff.

i love it how everybody always messes around with their tank. amd they cant seem to have a fish live past 2 years old. I have fish that are older than some members here, because i simply do not re-do my tank all of the time. My tank has looked the exact same for the past 20 years, theres no need to take rocks out, clean the plants, take the gravel out and rub the tank down, etc.

The cloudiness looks not nice to humans but it feels not nice to fish. This is because cloudiness is there because of the chemistry and balance being out.

Ten fish all at once? Don't do that again (even if your fish shops says it is cool to do). Calilasseia has given technical advice so I won't go there again.

Interesting your reading told you that cycling can take six weeks but you let the water only stand 48hrs before adding fish. Being impatient and aqua hobbies don't mix well. Be patient and you will be rewarded.

Welcome to the boards, stick around and learn. People here can be very passionate but don't take that for disapproval. We all need to learn and this is a good place to find things out.



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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~