pH and Cloudy water

O

outafaze

Registered Member
Aug 27, 2005
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I bought a used tank and set it up about two weeks ago. I rinsed the filter, tank, and new gravel thoroughly. Upon intial fill the water was bit cloudy but I thought it was from areated water out of the kitchen faucet. I used Amqel+ and NovAqua+ to hanldle my chloramines in the tap water. I even added cycle ( I know its not great but I had already paid for it so I might as well use it). Initial test results: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, pH 7.6, High pH 8.0. After two days pH dropped to 7.4-7.6. The water was a bit cloudy still but I figured it was just the new tank settling in. I added fish and Bio-Spira. Test results have been Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, pH 7.6, High pH has risen to 7.8 from 7.4 over the past four days, staying steady at 7.8 yesterday and today. I'm assuming that the cloudiness is a bacteria bloom from Bio Spira mixed with Cycle. Attached is picture of my cloudy tank.
What could be causing my pH rise? Am I overfeeding? Does this look like a bacteria bloom? I have a Penguin 125 with bio wheel that came with the aquarium. I'm using it for now until I upgrade to a H.O.T. Magnum or Eclipse hood filter combo this week. What are your opinions on these two filters? Thanks for any advice you guys have.

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Don't know what could be causing it to rise, maybe an aquarium orniment? I use seachems neutral regulator to soften my water and keep the ph at around 7. I have a community tank. Adjusting ph is not to hard to do, but getting it to stabilize is. Stability is very important.
 
pH of 7.8 shouldn't be detrimental to the fish. Your main concern is that the pH stays there. You want it to be consistent as fluxuations can hurt the fish. Most people recommend not trying to adjust pH as it can cause fluxuations, whereas 7.8 is perfectly fine and fish will adjust, at least that way it is consistent.

One thing to do is to test the pH of straight tap water and also test the pH of tap water that has sat out for 24 hours. If those numbers match up closely with your tank, don't worry about anything.
 
I'd only worry about the stability of the tank. If it stays at 7.8, that's okay. You'll want to take into a difference in the source water for water changes--and may need to age the water prior to use. Testing water that has been sitting out in an open bowl for 24 hours (or several hours of agitation) will tell you if the water in your tank is being impacted by an object, or if it's normal gas off that't causing the rise. It's unlikely that the pH change is related to the cloudiness.
 
You need to check the pH of your tap water. What type of gravel do you have as substrate? Many types of gravel contain limestones and this will cause the pH to rise. Similarly many rocks will, if you have rock for decor, or any shells in the aquarium. As for the cloudy water, I would imagine that this tank is still cycling, it will clear up, you can purchase a number of products to help the bacterial bloom to "clump" and be absorbed into the filter more quickly. Whether the pH will be a problem for you depends on the fish that you intend to keep. If you wanted Discus for example, they would be better with a lower pH, similarly many South American species. However, for pH would not be a problem for a general freshwater tropical community set up.

Hope this helps - good luck!
 
All this ph talk is great ,but it sounds to me like your tank has not cycled yet,which more than likely will be one of the causes for your ph fluctuations. Once the bacteria is converting all the nitrites into nitrates you will see a big difference in water clarity,at the moment it looks a bacteria bloom. Also if you are adding chemicals and or bio-spira, thius will also effect your ph. Once the tank has cycled everything should settle down.
 
Thanks for the replys. I think the rise was from gassing and cycling. The pH is now back to 7.4 after a 30% water change. I've also added an Eclipse 3 to get more filtration. Will the presence of nitrates be the key indicator that the tank is done cycling? I've been testing ammonia and nitrites daily but nitritrates ony weekly. Ammonia and nitrites have been zero since the Bio-Spiro add. Nitrates were also zero the one time I tested so far, but I'll test for them again tonight.
 
Nitrates are the finished product of yur nitrogen cycle is. If your ammonia and nitrite leve is 0 you have cycled and need to monitor your nitrates more closely. You can tell if your cycle has started if you test positive for nitrates.
 
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