On christmas my girlfriends uncle got a 20g for his kids. After a week of "cycling" he added the fish, 18 to be exact all small fish ie neons, guppies, swordtails. Well after a week of having the fish in the tank his water became cloudy. He went to a LFS where they proceded to sell him a bunch of chemicals that would "clear up" his tank. After adding the chemicals the fish started droping like flies he went from 18 to 5 in a matter of days. Via email he has come to me to find out why his water is cloudy and right now I cant think of a reason with the info he gave me so I'm turning to ya'll for a little bit of help.

Heres the info:
25% wc a week
the tank is not near a window
Filter is a 20g cascade HOB filter.
Ammonia was high. didnt tell me the reading
PH was off. Used a PH stabelizer.
Did a 100% wc and the next day it was back to being cloudy.
The cloud looked like fog and didn't have a green tint to it.

Thats all of the info I got from him.

If you need more info please list what needs to be asked and I'll ask him.

Thank you

White murky water is a bacterial bloom. The water quality being out of wack is what causes them. Either from newness, overfeeding, medications or the PH being off. He needs to test the water and see where the readings are this will give him a starting point. Ill bet the ammonia level is off the chart.
Basically the beneficial bacteria needs time to catch up with the bio load of the tank. So this is what I would do.
1) cut back on feeding
2) 25% water changes daily until the ammonia is under control
3) get a good filteration with bio-wheel (if he dosnt have one)
4) add fish slowly in the future, mabey 2 a week so the beneficial bacteria has time to adjust to the increased load.

Hope all works out well for him. Ed

Sounds like a bacteria bloom caused by too much ammonia in the tank. It is very common in new tanks that aren't cycled yet. Cut down on the amount being fed and keep doing frequent water changes.

Well you beat me to it Ed...lol

Bacteria bloom or Infusoria make cloudy water in tanks. Regular water changes, less food, and they'll burn out soon enough.

Dang. I to was beaten by the Ed.

Well, ya'll beat me to it! Not much to add. Too many fish too quick and I'd bet a bit of overfeeding in there, as well.

WYite

I would like to contribute! No chemicals are going to help. Tell him to stop using chemicals...Make sure to tell him to get a dechlorinator...Prime....also maybe add an air stone to get some more oxygen going.

Thanks guys! I'm passing on the info now!

I passed on the info and this is what I got back

"Wow, that’s a huge help – thanks. I am really at the end of my rope with trying to solve this thing. I feel like the pet store has me chasing my tail and worse still, they have already wiped out my whole tank with the chemicals they suggested. Thanks for taking the time to research this; I will let you know the results. I will pick up a dechlorinator, as well."

In my first email with him I sent the info you gave me Ed and Paul, I also sent him a link to FWM to

My girlfriends uncle is the type of person when he starts something he gets in to it all the way so once he gets this tank back to normal and everything is on the up I'm going to start droping MTS hints.

So thank you all for helping out.

Any time Mike...best of luck to him...we are always eager to help out, esp. when I see a post in the freshwater newbie forum!

Glad to help Mike!

Pet stores are just ... well. It happens.

Small tank, not cycled, no dechlorinator?! not staggering fish introductions.

I once had the chance to get a bag of very young bumblebee shrimp FOC. Our friend arrived with them at 4am after a train ride. Setup a 15gal on the desk here with very short notice, using a fresh filter and water from a mature tank. I think it had been running for a few hours when I dropped them in. By morning there was a bacterial bloom and a few hours after that they turned pink and 'done'. I think I tried some ammonia lock product which I had kicking around but didn't save any of them.

I put it down to a concentrated ammonia in the bag they'd travelled in. Fresh from import. Should have netted them perhaps. Oh well. The 15gal broke when knocked in storage anyway because the glass was paper thin and was replaced by a 25gal.

I do a mini water change about 20%. then I take half the water out and let the tank run for about a week this way. It clears up by then and I just add new water to top it off. Works every time.

Almost forgot. Using ammonia remover can make things worse. Like zeolite and all the crap. They can cause the tank to go into mini cycles out of the blue. I never use any of this in any of my tanks. I also do not use any carbon. Carbon is only good for people who like to keep over stocked tanks