Hi All-

I set up a new 55 gallon tank to put my pond fish in for the winter. I cycled the tank. I put the fish in. Everything is great for a 8 days and suddenly, I can't see the fish in the tank! The water looks like skim milk has been poured in it. I am guessing an algae bloom but want to be sure! If it is an algae bloom is there anything I should do? Kind of creepy as when the fish get up against the glass they suddenly appear!

Ammonia - 0
PH - 7.0
Nitrite - 0

Thank all in advance,

Jeanne

Hi again all-

I just did a 30% water change to see if that helped. Please, ANYONE, any ideas???

Thanks,

Jeanne

That's normal in new tanks.
It's caused by heterotrophic bacteria (the bacteria that eat leftover fish food, waste, etc) blooming (reproducing very fast). A partial water change was the perfect thing to do as those bacteria consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide and ammonia. It should clear up soon.

I'm curious, how'd you cycle the tank?
What kind fo fish load in is it?

Hi Data Guru-

I used tap water to fill the tank. I added Zyme bacteria as Bio Spira is not available. I added detoxifier. I added the plants. I ran for 3 weeks and adjusted the PH at that time. I added my fish one at a time, 1 day at a time from my pond. I have 5 fish (boy, did they grow over the summer)- 1-black moore, 2 lionheads, gold fantail, red capped oranda.
Thank you for trying to help me!

Jeanne

my tank got cloudy once from under filtration + overfeeding once (turned white color, but not so bad I couldn't see the fish!). Do you have enough filtration going on the tank?

As the water is white, not yellow/green, its not algae, unless its some new algae I've never heard of before