Silly me - I put my fish in a new aquarium without letting it cycle....sigh....the filter in the aquarium is carbon and floss....if I changed the cartridge to one that is carbon, floss and zeolite, would it help? Would it harm the Fish?
Should I just leave him in there for the time being?
Its a 2 1/2 gallon aquarium...and I have been doing 25% water changes daily. I put him in there 3 days ago. How long do you think it might take for the aquarium to stabilize?
thanks allHazy water - new aquarium - will Zeolite filter help?Zeolites will remove ammonia thereby stopping the cycle(the bacteria live on ammonia and oxygen). Your job is to balance the ammonia level at a point that is not toxic to your fish,while still retaining enough ammonia to grow the bacteria colonies. This is done by frequent testing and water changes.The changes should never be more than 20% of the water volume. Well, 25% is probably OK.
The cloudiness is harmless,and probably is another bacteria %26quot;bloom%26quot; that will go away after the bacteria consume whatever it is they're feeding on. This may take some time(as much as 3 or 4 weeks). Keep doing the water changes until the ammonia tests at a non-toxic level and then watch for the Nitrate numbers to increase.Hazy water - new aquarium - will Zeolite filter help?The cloudy water is the beneficial bacteria colonizing. It should clear up on it's own in about a week or so.
I'd continue with the daily water changes, though that's most likely going to prolong the cycle, but you have to do it when cycling with fish or else the fish will most likely die. The whole cycle process will take anywhere from 8-12 weeks on average.
I wouldn't add anything like the zeolite to the tank, that'll remove the ammonia/cloudy water, that'll just make the cycle drag on longer.Hazy water - new aquarium - will Zeolite filter help?The hazy water is probably a bacteria bloom and it will run its course. Leave your filter as is and let the bacteria establish itself in sufficient quantities to take care of the excess ammonia. Start doing smaller less frequent water changes. The amount of water being changed is too much and again is not letting the aquarium get into equilibrium.Hazy water - new aquarium - will Zeolite filter help?You need to leave it alone and let it cycle %26amp; turn over before doing any water changes. Leave the fish in also as he will help with the cycle.Hazy water - new aquarium - will Zeolite filter help?What I would do:
Feed sparingly and continue 25% but every other day.
Leave the filter alone...
The days that you don't clean check the water with a testing kit for amonia peaks... if the amonia gets too high, or nitrites, change 15% of the water to bring it back down and then test again the next day... if on that day no spike in amonia or nitrite, leave it alone until it does.
So,
start water change everyother day and change on days you see a spike continue testing.
Then I would by Saturday, keep testing but try to leave alone for every 3 days then change 15%. If a spike, change again. And continue that way for the rest of the work week until you can build it up to the point that you only have to change once a week... I hope that helps and makes sense... the test kits aren't very expensive, just little test strips, I can get mine between 5 and 10 Euro's (dollars probably around the same). The cloudy water will settle down on it's own. Once the filter has established, if you want to add to your filter, that's fine, but you'll need to put the filter media in with the new filter because the beneficial bacteria is in the older filter media... uhhh... I tried... hope I helped! :-)
