Cloudy water, high ammonia, unstable ph, need help???

Question

I have a 20 gal. freshwater, 3 fish, had tank for about 5 weeks, upon initial setup, got 2 (mollies) fish, cycled fine, 2 weeks later, got 1 (molly) fish, cycled fine, left for work one day a week ago with crystal clear water, came home to extremely cloudy water, did 2 15% water changes in the 4 weeks prior, have done multiple since, no change, have tried treatments, conditioners, etc, still no change, current conditions in tank are: ammonia 6, and PH (did a test, came out yellow, color not on measuring card) if i had to guess would say about 5 and tank is 75F . I am new to all of this, just trying to keep fish alive, any help or suggestions would be grateful.

Answer 1

ok... several things are possibly going on in your tank, so let's start at the top. If the cloudiness is white or milky looking, that's a bacteria bloom and will take care of it's self once the tank is well settled in and balanced. If it's green then it's an algae bloom. That's due to excess light and excess nutrients in the water. I see you have some ammonia in the tank, that indicated the cycle isn't complete or was seriously disturbed recently. If you pH test gave you repeated bad indications like you mention, replace it. I suggest getting a kit with liquid drops, not test strips. The strips are unreliable and go bad easily. You also need to know one other thing, the hardness of your water. For the pH to drop quickly you would have to have low carbonate hardness. This you can fix with a small handfull of crushed coral in a mesh bag in the filter or hidden in the tank. I would suggest you most likely have a bad test kit though. So how to fix everything? Try these steps:

For now and until the ammonia drops you will need to change water to keep the ammonia level in a safe zone. Don't clean the filter or anything, just change water. Use a gravel siphon available from any pet store to clean the gravel as you go. Keep the ammonia lowered this way until the tank recycles and no ammonia shows on your test kit. Once you get to this point you are ready for regular maintainance.

Do a 25% water change each week. Use your gravel siphon to clean the gravel as you go. Every other week, wash off the filter cartiridge in the dirty water before you pour it out and replace the carbon inside. If you can't do that, replace the entire cartridge. Wipe off any algae that has grown on the glass or orniments. That's really it.

Tips:

Be sure you don't over feed your fish. Feed them only as much as they can eat in 3-4 minutes once or twice a day.

Raise the temperature to 78-80. The fish will be more comfotable that way.

Only use the tank light when you are home to enjoy the tank. Even then, no more than 10-12 hors a day. This will help prevent algae growth.

Use nothing other than dechlorinator and a little salt in the tank. Mollies are technically brackish water fishes and will do well with some salt in the tank. About 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons will be good. Remember to replace the salt you remove at water change time. Only replace the salt for the water you remove. If you take out 5 gallons for a 25% change, add back only 1.5 tablespoons of salt. Noniodinized table salt is fine for this.

Don;t worry too much about the pH at this point. The regular cleanings and water changes will most likely put it in a range that the fish will be comfortable living in.

This will get you over the cycle hump and keep the tank clean and clear. Don't expect instant results, it may take 2-3 weeks for everything to settle down completely, but then you will be home free. If after the tank cycles and settle completely the pH is still a problem, post a new question with the new tank info and we will be able to help you with that problem.

MM

Answer 2

Have you changed your filters? I had this problem and every week i put in a new filter with the charcoal in it. in about 3 weeks it cleared up. I do not rinse out my filters. i put in new ones each time. Hope it works out well.

Answer 3

Sounds like your tank should be cycled so there are definately things going on here that need resolved.
Ok, first when you set up your tank, did you wash your gravel well? this could be playing a part in the cloudy water, as well as possiable bacterial bloom. Over feeding is another reason the tank water can become cloudy. As for the gravel, your filter will pull it out eventually, the bacterial bloom will also settle and clear, the over feeding is something you need to control. Too many waterchanges in a short period of time can also lead to the cause of bacterial bloom. Cut back on the water changes.

Stop using treatments to attempt to clear the water.

Ammonia is high this is going to counter act what I just said, and you are going to have to do a 25% water change. It needs to go down quickly!

Your PH can be caused by a number of things. First, test your water source. Are you running a water softener? Distilled water? Rain water? these will all show a very low PH. Do you have bog wood in the tank? this is another culprit of lowering PH. However when adjusting or changing PH, do it slowly! A quick drop will harm the fish.

here is more on PH and how it works and what effect it has on your tank.

The property of water to resist changes in pH is known as buffering capacity. You can determine the capacity of your buffering system by measuring total hardness. A reading of 4-6 dH or higher is usually adequate to keep the buffering system in place and maintain a stable pH. A reading under 4 dH means there isn't enough of a buffering system and the pH is likely to drop. For higher pH levels, you will probably want to aim for 6-12 dH. Many hobbyists choose to measure only Carbonate Hardness (KH), which is a measure of the calcium carbonates in your water. This test is also effective in maintaining a proper buffer system. When testing for Carbonate Hardness, a reading of 75-100 mg/L is adequate for most aquariums, while a reading of 100-200 mg/L would be desired for higher pH levels. For the purpose of freshwater aquariums, measuring either total hardness or carbonate hardness is necessary, but measuring both independently would not be needed.

You need to know that anywhere in your aquarium where detritus (a fancy term for dirt) accumulates is a source of Phosphate production. As detritus accumulates in your gravel bed and on your filter pads, the Phosphate levels in your aquarium rise. Free Phosphate ions may bond with calcareous buffering material, precipitating calcium from your aquarium, and reducing your aquariums ability to keep pH stable. This is why it is so very important to clean your filter pads regularly and vacuum the aquarium gravel with each water change. In addition, your tap water contains buffering ions. Doing regular partial water changes will help to replenish the buffers which have been lost. This is important in all aquariums, because fish respiration and organic wastes alone will cause a gradual drop in the ability of your aquarium to buffer against pH swings.

Now the question becomes what to do if the fish you want to keep have very special pH requirements. If your fish prefer a pH level which is reasonably close to the pH your aquarium water is naturally buffered to, then I do not recommend you make any changes at all. Unless you are keeping an extremely specialized fish your fish will be fine. On the other hand, if your fish have pH requirements which are far from the values in your tank, then you have work to do.

Let us consider methods of raising the pH of your tap water. There are many additives on the market today which claim to raise your pH. Most of the liquid products on the market today are a 50/50 success at best when used alone only to find the ph will soon return to the normal level of 6. You also need to use a product to increase the buffering ability of your aquarium. To maintain a stable pH in the upper levels of the pH scale for fishkeeping, I would recommend using a buffering substrate such as crushed coral. You can add crushed coral to your existing aquarium. You can place larger amounts of shells or chrushed coral beneath the substraight in the tank. I personally place the crushed coral in a mesh bag and place the bag in my filter. You will want about 1 kg of crushed coral per 40 liters of water to buffer the water to hold a pH around 7.6. This method does not allow for the use of large quantities of crushed coral, but can be effective if you only need to make small adjustments to your aquariums buffering ability. This is why ocean items such as shells and ocean sand should not be used in a fresh water aquarium. It does raise the PH level.

Be assured that attempting to control pH is the most frustrating experience for a fish hobbyist. I would guess that 50% of the problems encountered in new aquariums are a result of the aquarist attempting to change the pH level. Few fish keepers actually need to adjust their pH. For the majority of aquarists your tap water pH will be adequate. The dangers of adjusting the pH incorrectly far outweigh any benefit you may receive by moving your pH a few points on the scale.

Remember, when it comes to adjusting your pH, less is more! Stability is most important. Routine maintenance is the key to keeping your pH stable and your fish healthy!

Also, do not use baking soda in your tank. Over doing the ph plus adding additional salt is not going to do your tank any good. It will also revert back to 6 when the carbon filters pull the Soda out.
Hope this helps

As always, if you need additional help, feel free to email me.