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Cloudy stuff in tank that this noob can’t identify


Bullsnark
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I can’t upload the video from iPhone because it is the wrong file type, but it swirls around in the water and is leaving a slick film on the inside of the glass. It looks like bacteria or something from what the rocks look like, and this tank is a new tank with the gravel, filter, fish, live and plastic plants all from a smaller tank that was about three weeks old.   There are nine guppies, one gold mystery snail, one albino pleco, and two betta in this tank.  The filter has three sponges, and the bottom is filled with bio rings and gravel.image.jpg.630aaefb994ea859a562c884e4e09981.jpgimage.jpg.2141c9334b414cecd68965e90f3d1340.jpg

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On 8/25/2021 at 7:14 PM, Bullsnark said:

I have another sponge filter and dual outlet air pump coming on Friday, so hopefully that will help. I am also getting more plants this weekend, so that can’t hurt anything can it?

I hope this doesn't sound patronising but if you don't know about the nitrogen cycle and cycling tanks etc I highly recommend you look into it (not rocket science or anything just one of those things if you've never been told about you just don't know about it). 

Only reason I mention it is because you said about adding an extra filter helping - it won't hurt and long term may or may not help but you won't notice a difference straight away - filters work with the help of nitrifying bacteria but that bacteria takes time to grow and simply adding more filters doesn't add more bacteria (only more surface area for the bacteria to grow on but still needs the same amount of time). You can add bottled bacteria but not everyone believes it works. 

As your tank matures the cloudiness should go - live plants help a lot too and practically everyone here myself included will preach over and over again - the more plants the better! 

Of course there's a good chance you already knew all that in which case my apologies and pretend I never replied haha!

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I was referring to whether adding more plants during the bloom would cause any adverse effects. From some further looking, it appears that this bacteria is simply in the water column and hasn’t made its way into the media and onto surfaces in a permanent biofilm yet, so it’s just visually displeasing more than anything. The bacteria will do their job, and hopefully take up residence outside the water column soon. The plants were going to happen regardless, I just didn’t want to disrupt the cycling of the tank adversely if it needed to happen the way it was going; as in if it needed to clear first before adding the plants

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Looks like a bacterial bloom. Do you have a test kit? If so I would test it because there could be Ammonia or it could just be since you newly set up the tank. How big is it? You also said that the tank had two bettas the one that I saw on the filter looked like a male. I would rehome on of them because it could turn into a pretty nasty situation. I have also always wondered if guppies and Bettas can go together because of the long fins. Looking at the stuff at the bottom of the substrate it looks like a little bacteria colony which probably happened from how you just recently set up the tank. I would take away more of the fake plants and add some more live plants as @KentFishFanUK suggests. Happy fishkeeping!

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On 8/25/2021 at 9:26 PM, Bullsnark said:

I was referring to whether adding more plants during the bloom would cause any adverse effects. From some further looking, it appears that this bacteria is simply in the water column and hasn’t made its way into the media and onto surfaces in a permanent biofilm yet, so it’s just visually displeasing more than anything. The bacteria will do their job, and hopefully take up residence outside the water column soon. The plants were going to happen regardless, I just didn’t want to disrupt the cycling of the tank adversely if it needed to happen the way it was going; as in if it needed to clear first before adding the plants

Pretty sure the only potential problem would be if the water was so cloudy not enough light was getting to the new plants but I doubt that's much of a possibility, you can definitely add plants during cycling without disrupting it - and most likely it would speed things up if anything 

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On 8/25/2021 at 10:26 PM, Bullsnark said:

It’s a 20 gallon tank and the two beta are happy together. The guppies haven’t been nipping at the beta at all. The male is Gilbert “Gill” and is a Dumbo Half—Moon, the female is Gretchen, a dragonscale FE155708-6A40-45C6-8E2E-9A9A3C05D7CD.jpeg.a29373308e6f6f79e703c2e00ed26e2d.jpeg

That's good that it's working for your guys, some Bettas are mean! Haha. I think it's normally the Bettas who nip the guppies rather than the other way round? Guppies are usually peaceful. Either way sounds like you got a nice chilled out pair. Nice looking Betta too!

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Do you have a test kit? It looks like you may be at the beginning of the cycle, with the bloom. The cycle takes time, and throughout, there will be toxins such as ammonia, and later nitrite, that can and will harm/kill your fish.

Here is what will help:

1) Test kit - Levels will change daily in a new set up.

2) Water Changes, based on the test results. Ultimately with fish, I would be leery letting ammonia rise above 1ppm, at the most. Even there I am leery...but see #3.

3) Seachem Prime, which can help detoxify the ammonia (see post 2) for about 24-48 horns. It will also remove chlorine and chloramine.

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Once I get back home I’ll take a picture of the other one. Gretchen is sexy too.  I plan on breeding them together later and we wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be hostile, so we put them in together and watched. There’s plenty of cover and sight line breaks now, and more to come

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On 8/25/2021 at 4:38 PM, quikv6 said:

Do you have a test kit? It looks like you may be at the beginning of the cycle, with the bloom. The cycle takes time, and throughout, there will be toxins such as ammonia, and later nitrite, that can and will harm/kill your fish.

Here is what will help:

1) Test kit - Levels will change daily in a new set up.

2) Water Changes, based on the test results. Ultimately with fish, I would be leery letting ammonia rise above 1ppm, at the most. Even there I am leery...but see #3.

3) Seachem Prime, which can help detoxify the ammonia (see post 2) for about 24-48 horns. It will also remove chlorine and chloramine.

It was treated with prime to start with, but no test kit. 

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You may want to add an extra airstone.  The heterotrophic bacteria does consume oxygen.  It will dissipate as excess nutrients (ammonia nitrite unused by filter bacteria) in the column are used and filter bacteria establish.  Plants now vs later will help use up that excess. Good luck 😁

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On 8/25/2021 at 5:04 PM, Guppysnail said:

You may want to add an extra airstone.  The heterotrophic bacteria does consume oxygen.  It will dissipate as excess nutrients (ammonia nitrite unused by filter bacteria) in the column are used and filter bacteria establish.  Plants now vs later will help use up that excess. Good luck 😁

I turned the big one off for the picture so you could see the details better without agitation. There is a 14” air stone running down the center  image.jpg.d1ff7160176dbc48bd0eaeaaa7f116f4.jpg

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On 8/25/2021 at 4:34 PM, KentFishFanUK said:

That's good that it's working for your guys, some Bettas are mean! Haha. I think it's normally the Bettas who nip the guppies rather than the other way round? Guppies are usually peaceful. Either way sounds like you got a nice chilled out pair. Nice looking Betta too!

And here is Gretchen 4AA873DE-D04D-4171-A523-E0B1C6ADD39A.jpeg.ed1ba356953c687d59fa81d2f615176d.jpeg

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The Prime is a great idea to start initially, but will only temporary detox ammonia for 48 hours, max.

Since you don't have a test kit yet (Strongly and respectfully encourage this asap), you can double or triple dose Prime every 48 hours proactively. If you have a 20 gallon, 1 capful should be 2.5x dose, which should be a good starting point. If ammonia goes higher when you get the test kit, I believe you can dose up to 5x the dose. (Roughly 2 capfuls)

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