I left school for the weekend but before I left on Friday I did a 30% water change, vaccuumed the gravel, added a second cartridge (my filter allows you to put 2 cartridges in at the same time), and put in a fish feeder that i've used before with no cloudiness problem. I normally do my water changes and vaccuuming 1x a week but I was on crutches and had to stretch it to 2 weeks. So I noticed a lot of stuff in the gravel when I was vaccuuming, and I was unable to get it all w/o taking out a lot of water.

So I left right after I did that, and returned on Sunday. My tank has been cloudy (a white tint) ever since. I tested the water and it's fine besides the pH is a bit off (6.0). I used a water clarifier and that did not work like it normally does with tank disturbances (ie: drunk people putting excessive fish food in the tank). I threw out the used cartridges and replaced it with one new one. I purchased a little baggie at the store and filled it with carbon to put in the filter with the new cartridge... and it's still cloudy.

I even talked to a very knowledgeable man about my situation and he agrees that it is very mysterious. It seems like I can't do anything else to improve the cloudiness. I have a 20 gallon tank with one fancy fish, and a filter that pumps 30 gallons per hour.

These are my stats I have recorded so far:

Monday (Yesterday):
GH-180
KH-40
pH-6.5
NO2-0
NO3-0

Tuesday (Today):
GH-180
KH-0
PH-6.0
NO2-0
NO3-0

I was recommended to put a teaspoon of baking soda in the tank to increase the pH. I will try that really soon.

I really hate that I don't know what's wrong! Zeebo is still very active. Is it okay if I continue to turn his light on? or will that worsen the cloudiness?

your kh is what keeps ph stable and at 0 that won't happen you will always be fighting ph from crashing baking soda will just be a temporary fix ..I hope somone comes on to help with that ..sorry I am not experienced in how to higher Kh because mine is super high ..if your water is cloudy because of a good bacteria bloom ..leave it ..those are the bacterias that breaks down ammonia ..you need to worry about the kh .

Your extremely low KH values need to be corrected. Low KH is what caused your recent precipitous drop in pH. In order to maintain a steady pH, your KH needs to be at least 100. This is the product that most people find most helpful for low KH:
http://www.goldfishconnection.com/shop/det...44&catId=24

The other potential cause of problems is inadequate filtration. You need a filter that turns over 10x your tank volume each hour. In your case 200 gallons per hour. If your filter only turns over 30, then I would definitely replace it with bigger filter ASAP (although try to transfer at least some of your old filter media so that you keep your beneficial bacteria).

What are your ammonia levels? Are you using dip stick tests (the fact that you don't have an ammonia value makes me guess that you have the 5 in 1 test sticks)? Those don't tend to be precise enough. You would be better off with a drop-type test kit (costs about $30).

Unless the cloudiness is greenish (and is associated with a bloom of algae), I wouldn't think that turning the light back on would hurt anything. Please wait for someone more knowledgeable to say for sure, however.

Good luck!

P.S. Generally it works better to keep your questions together in a single thread. Didn't you post about this problem a few days ago and receive several replies? If you keep to a single thread, it will help prevent people from giving you repetitive advice.

QUOTE(Acupunk @ Apr 22 2008, 01:56 PM)

Thanks for the advice.

I created a new thread because my original one was mainly about whether cloudy water stresses fish out. The people who responded made me realize that my issue may actually be very serious, so i decided it would be best to come here and explain in more detail.

Its your KH and Ph that is causing your tank to go cloudy. This happened to me on my 80 gal tank. This also may cause fish problems if you dont correct it as the PH going down can cause death. I would get the stuff from goldfishconnection as I have it and it works wonders. Since I used it I havent had a Ph crash at all....

So the baking soda helped my ph go back to normal (7.0) and increased the KH. Yay! but the water is still cloudy...i don't get it. I am traveling with him tomorrow (1 1/2 hours). I guess he will have to travel with cloudy water... Maybe this is a bacteria bloom? From what I read, it's not harmful. Is that correct?

Hi DollFace, (I still chuckle over your name! )

I'm not a water expert, but there are few things I should mention. Your KH should be around 100 to maintain the pH for prolonged periods. If your KH is low, you can put crushed coral in your filter to help bring it up and maintain it. Many here use Buff It Up with excellent results, but I don't know if it's for KH, pH, both or what.

The cloudy water could be bacterial bloom, and it could be many other things. I had a bout with cloudy water, and I never did figure out what it was caused by. My tank was cycled, so it wasn't that. I was doing 60% water changes every other day to keep it "semi" clear. Oh!! Memory burst, here!! Try giving your gravel a HUGE cleaning!! When I really dug my syphon in the gravel and just left it there for a few seconds, it brought up dark gunk that I hadn't normally seen! It took a few cleanings before I had the whole tank done, because I would have drained the tank for sure if I did it all at once.. Wow - I forgot about that..
That sort of fits with you not being able to do a good gravel cleaning... It can't hurt, right? Then you'll have fresher water for him to travel in, too.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Debbie

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm glad I am not the only one who dealt with mysterious cloudiness. I will definitely syphon the gravel again immediantly after class. Hmm and I like the coral idea too. Can I put it in the same thin bag I have my extra carbon in? Do i need to rinse the coral well?

pH of 7 is not "normal" it's just neutral. Goldies' ideal pH is 7.4. If you are going to deviate from it, you are much better being higher than lower.

With pH, you first need to achieve the correct pH of 7.4, and then you need to sustain it(which is more difficult).

Baking Soda is very good at raising the pH but very poor at sustaining it. You will need to use crushed corals to sustain the pH.
If you use Buff it up, it will sustain the pH for about a week with by itself.

Now you live in the Southeast, which has the lowest KH in the country(Fishy Fish is the only exception to the rule that I have ever heard of.... ). Because of your ultra-low KH, if you are not going to be using Buff it Up, I would aim for a pH of 7.6-7.8; so if it goes down(which I'm sure it will) will still keep it in the acceptable range.

I assume your tank is cycled and you have no ammos, correct?

I have never used coral myself, but I do know that it needs to be rinsed very well. Otherwise you end up with (don't laugh) - cloudy water.
I don't see why you can't put it in one of those bags. I don't know how other people use it. Maybe some of them will chime in!

Debbie

I am experiencing cloudy water right now ....until I took a look at my filter ..it was running slower than usual so I took it all apart cleaned every nook and crany in tank water...there was stuff growing in there that I have never seen before ..we are having really warm weather so my tanks went to 72 to 77 over the last week or 2..so good idea to keep filter in check..most of "this stuff" was in the intake tube slowing things down and my water got cloudy ..

Jack of Hearts, I have 5 in 1 test strips and they don't test for ammonia. Just GH, KH, PH, NO2 and NO3.Thanks for the suggestion. I checked it out and took it apart. Everything looks fine.