CLOUDY WATER DURING NITROGEN CYCLE- ADVICE NEED

[lycan]

Hello I have a 300 gallon tank fish only..... all of my reading are good but NITRATES are at .20 ppm.... I did a 30 percent water change listening to someone and I think I made my process longer. I did a fish cycle. The one fish , three hermit crabs, and one shrimp are fine but my tank is milky white. Please give me advice. Should I leave it alone and it will clear up on its own or do I need to take action? Thanks in advance.....

 

[jay0705]

Fish cycling is not recommend. The inverts especially in an uncycled tank . You say fish only 300, but you have inverts already. Do u have any live rock? If not adding fully cured live rock will help

 

[lycan]

thanks but a experienced reef keeper suggested it....I know better know about fish...but they are fine.... I have 100 pounds of live rock and marine pure in the sump with live rock...SO BACK TO MY QUESTION....will this go away own its own or do I need to do something else. I cant add more rock because it will crack my tank... only the light weight marine pure will help....they are expensive but worth it....again will this go away on its own?

 

[lycan]

also I have turn the lights off on the aquarium... someone that is experienced said to do this to keep let the bloom die off....are they correct or what? There are so many opinions....im just trying to make sense of it all....

 

[lmforbis]

It is probably a bacterial bloom. It should get better on its own as the tank stabilizes. Nitrate levels are an indication that the cycle is progressing. You wrote they were .20 ppm which is great in a cycled tank but low for a cycling tank. You may have miss typed and they are 20ppm which is fine for fish only.

 

[lycan]

The nitrate drop is due to the water change.... It was at 80ppm... I went through high ammonia , high NITRITES, and I did the water change to lower the nitrates....OH I FORGOT TO SAY that my protein skimmer sucked up a rock and then the tank got cloudy as wel.... Maybe that starved the tank of oxygen and filtration.... What do you think?