Verified answer

With no fish, do not worry about the cloud. Give it time and it will clear on its own.

Bacterial supplements are hit and miss, most bottled bacteria contain dead bacteria (unless its been refridgerated) or some don't even contain the right kind of nitrifying bacteria!

What are you using for an ammonia source? The conditioner and the supplement are not an ammonia source. You need an ammonia source to cycle, the bacteria feeds on ammonia.

The cloudy water is indeed beneficial bacteria. Seeing it towards the beginning of a cycle is normal.

fyi, Peacock Fern isn't a true aquatic. It will eventually start to rot in aquariums. I suggest you take it out before that happens. You have to be careful with those plants in a tube, several aren't going to work long term in aquariums. You can try replacing it with hardy true aquatics like Java Fern or Anubias.

However, even with lots of aquarium plants in your tank there is no way you are going to be able to put fish in a week from now. I've done fishless cycles with planted tanks - they are shorter, but not that much shorter. It may not take the full month with them, though, and probably won't take as long as six weeks. You should carefully monitor your levels - look for a rise and then dip back to 0 in Ammonia, another rise and dip back to 0 with Nitrites, and then some Nitrates in the water. The plants may keep your Nitrate levels low, so they won't get super high, but they should be present.

this is my opinion.

everybody freaks out over cycling, but here is the answer! if you have live plants, you can put fish in your tank about 24 hours after filling it. this is only so the water has time to clear up.

the reason behind this is because plants PREFER ammonium and ammonia over nitrate and nitrite. Ive never cycled my tanks. Ive started up 5 tanks like this now and ive never had issues. I don't spend money on BS products, not even water conditioner (your fish will adapt to hard water, unless your tapwater is too extreme) you can take my advice or leave it. im just telling you what works for me. dont waste money on buying bacteria, let it establish naturally. your aquarium is an ecosystem, it needs to be balanced. you cant balance an ecosystem without plants.

As for your water being cloudy, there are different reasons for your water being cloudy. a lot of time it has to do with the bacteria levels. my advice for you is to wait and the cloudiness will go away. in my experiences it only stays around for like 2-3 days at the most. ive heard of it staying for a lot longer, for months, but that isn't very common. sometimes aquarium salt has helped me (but idk if that was from the salt or just from time) but to answer your question your water is probably cloudy because it does not have bacteria. however if you wait, then bacteria will colonize your aquarium and your cloudy water will go away on its own, i guarantee it.

and yes bacteria is good in your filter. if you really want clear water, use an aquaclear WITH A SPONGE FILTER! i cant stress enough how much i love an additional sponge filter on my tank. if you take any of my advice, take this advice and get a sponge filter! stay away from canister filters because when you go to take out the cartridge you lose almost all your bacteria. I use an aquaclear filter with a 40 gallon sponge filter on all of my tanks and my water is crystal clear all the time.

while a professional aquarium service gadgets up a sparkling tank for a shopper, they understand that the shopper will no longer desire their tank to be empty for a month nor have they have been given the time to water attempt and video demonstrate the sluggish progression of biking the tank from scratch. they only set up the tank with a conceivable inhabitants of nitrifying micro organism by skill of utilising filters or gravel from already regularly occurring tanks. in case you will stumble on a source for gravel or clear out pads from an already regularly occurring tank, you could ward off the activity of biking your tank. you ought to journey a bacterial bloom in the process the 1st few weeks yet as long as you do no longer attempt to kill the solid nitrifying micro organism with chemical compounds, they're going to settle into your substrate and/or clear out textile and the water will quickly replace into crystal sparkling.

Thought water was hydrogen & oxygen. & you need plants & sunlight / ultra violet to photo synthesise & maintain oxygen levels or at least an air pump before you can keep fish alive.