Freshwater Tank Cycling

Question
Hi Karen,
I have a brandnew 33 gallon tank that I am trying to get up and running. It has been cycling for about 7-8 weeks and seems to finally be done. i have run tests on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and now all 3 of them have spiked and dropped down to normal levels. Now, my water has become very murky and cloudy. I am using an Aquaclear filter so I replaced the carbon filter, thinking that would clear up the water. No such luck. I tested the water again after about 3 days and everything is still good and the water is still really cloudy. What should I do? Thank you!
Christen

Answer
Dear Christen, Congrats on the new 33gal!!
Cloudy water is often due to a bacterial imbalance in the aquarium. It's usually most common in fairly new aquariums such as yours. It could be that there is an imbalance of bacteria due to it not being in level with the waste nutrients. Especially if you have a good amount of fish in the aquarium. Be especially careful with not overfeeding! ;-)

The easiest remedy towards this problem is daily water changes at the rate of about 30% at least everyday. Really severe clouding does best with 50% everyday. You must insure to make the replacement water equal in temperature to that of your aquarium and insure it is properly dechlorinated everytime with a good water conditioner.
It may take awhile, cloudy aquariums always demand patience on the aquarists part!

But keep up with water changes and insure you aren't overfeeding and you should have a clear and healthy aquarium again very soon!

I really hope this helps and feel free to write with anymore concerns...

Best wishes!
Karen~