Ok... here's my delima. I have a 29 gallon tank with a dual penguin bio wheel filter. I have had the tank set up for about 3 months now and it took a really long time to cycle because I had a very hard time getting my pH and other water params where they needed to be to complete the cycle. Once all the params were where they needed to be, I figured that the tank was completely cycled. So last weekend, I decided to do and complete water change and since then, The tank has became a complete mess! My fish is not stressing out which is great but the water looks terrible. It is really cloudy and the params are as follows:

Ammonia: 6.0 ( I have added ammo-lock but I have also performed 25% water changes every day instead because I know that that works better than the ammo-lock)

Nitrate 0 ( I have a nitra zorb pouch in the media basket to help with this and it works great!)

nitrite 0 (great)

Hardness 125 (good)

Here's where the problem comes into play once again........

pH 6.2 ( I have the crushed coral in the tank. I have also added more and this has not helped. I have tried pH up 7.5 and this has not helped. I have also tried baking soda and this has not helped)
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the tank has became so cloudy that I can not even see the back of the tank and I have to look really hard to find my bright red and orange oranda (if you can imagine how cloudy that is) I am looking for some advice on what to do next. I am on a seriously low budget right now so I have to be really careful what I can buy right now. I am still doing a 25-50% water change daily so that the ammonia does not harm my fish, but even the ammonia has not came down with the water changes. Please can someone help me? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I am at a loss for words right now. I thought I knew a little about fish but this has really got me stumped?????

Thanks
Dawn

Personally, I'd throw the ammolock away and get prime because you won't get accurate ammonia readings when using ammolock. So can you get prime or amquel?--preferably prime.

Is the cloudy whitish?

So where's the coral? and how much do you have in the tank?
If your tap water isn't well buffered and you did a large partial water change, it'll take a while for the coral to dissolve and catch up.

You really need a KH test.

Let's start by raising your pH up to around 7 over a couple of days. That way if you really do have ammonia showing it'll be less toxic.

Baking soda *will* work. For a 29 gallon tank, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda will raise KH by 1dh or 17.9ppm. predissolve in tank water and then add slowly to a high flow area. Give it a bit to disperse and then check pH again. You can repeat, but try not to raise pH by more than .4 per day. Do that daily till pH is at 7.

Ok... here's the problem! this has been done now for over a two week course of time. The cloudiness is whitish. There is about one cup of crushed coral in a piece of cut up panty hose. It is in the media basket in my filter. It should have already settled down after the initial water change. as far as the kh in my tap water, yes it is low and I do have a test for that. I have done the baking soda per the directions you have given me as well as other members of the board that have posted in other forams, and this has also not worked. It will rise between 6.2 and 6.4 but within a day, it will bottom back out at 6.2

The cloudiness is still there and my ammonia is still there. Like I said right now, I am on a very tight budget, so I wouldn't be able to buy the prime, so I guess that I will just do the 25% water change daily and leave the ammo-lock alone until I can purchase the prime.

Are there any other suggestions that you might have?

Thanks for your help so far!!!

You don't know whether ammonia is there or not given the ammolock is still in the water. and even if there was, it wouldn't be toxic because your pH is 6.2. At pH of 6.2 you could have 8ppm ammonia showing and it wouldn't be toxic because of the low pH. I'd keep doing partial water changes daily, to get the ammolock out of the water so you can tell how much ammonia's there. I'd also add the 1/2 tsp of baking soda at each partial water change to start raising pH and KH. Baking soda will work if you keep adding it.

With a pH of 6.2, it's going to take multiple doses of baking soda to bring pH up and keep it up because the bicarbonates get used up buffering acids. So the first few doses will get used up raising pH because there is a surplus of hydrogen ions in the water (that's what makes it acidic--low pH). At that point if you don't add more baking soda, pH will fall again cuz there are no bicarbonates left to buffer the acids being produced in the tank. the next few doses should increase KH as well. The goal is to keep adding baking soda to to point you have a surplus of bicarbonates in the water, so that as acids are produced they're buffered and pH doesn't drop. I'd bet you just didn't add enough baking soda.

After we're sure you're not showing ammonia, KH needs to be gradually brought up with baking soda to around 120 which should maintain pH in the high 7s.

The white cloudy will resolve. It's a bacterial bloom and is common in new tanks.