This is new tank with 4 gold orandas in it, tank not even a 1 week old. The water is cloudy Here are the test readings: no3=20, no2=0 Ph=8.0 Do I need to change the water, also I have a paver stone with polished river rocks at the bottom, I did have some porcelain ornaments at the bottom but I removed them. How do I get rid of the cloudy water, the water does not smell either.

What kind of filteration do you have hun?

what is your ammonia?

I have a Rena XP2 filter and I don't know my ammonia. Please help I did a 20% water change and cleaned the filter. Also my oranda got like a white spot in its headgrowth.

did u put any wooden ornament it tank?

its natural for a new tank to go cloudy for a few days. this is a bacterial bloom and it will soon go as long as there is no sunlight on the tank. you need to get an ammonia test. the ph is ok too. the white spot on the orandas head could be new wen growth. keep an eye on it and see if it spreads.

edited to ask what colour the cloudiness is. if its greenish or white then its the algae or the dust in the water. if its brown then its bogwood if you have any.

A tank that is one week old would not have a bacterial bloom yet, unless it was seeded with a seasoned filter, BioSpira or some other good source of beneficial bacteria.

I used cycle to jump start the bacterial process. Also my filter malfunctioned and I had to replace it.

The biofilter bacteria convert ammonia (toxic) to nitrIte (still toxic) to nitrAte (less toxic). Until you get your biobugs up to speed, it's on you to monitor their water quality and do water changes to keep ammonia and nitrIte from killing your goldies.

Given your pH is at 8, you're really going to need to keep an eye on ammonia levels cuz ammonia is more toxic at higher pH levels.

When cycling, you really need to know your ammonia levels along with pH and water temperature to figure out how toxic your ammonia is, so you can keep ammonia from getting too toxic. You'll also need to know nitrIte and nitrAte levels to monitor growth of your biofilter bacteria to know when they're up to speed. Plus nitrIte is also toxic and you'll need to add salt to help protect against nitrIte poisoning during that part of the cycle.

The white cloudiness is probably the bacteria that eat debris in your tank. In a new tank, they reproduce too fast at first and cloud the water. Since you don't know your ammonia levels, it would probably be good to do daily partial water changes for now and limit the amount you feed them as more food yields more ammonia.

So what kind of media do you have in the rena and what do you mean when you say you cleaned it?