Need Help, What Has Happened

[rfisher]

Hi All,

A friend and myself both set up tanks at the same time. They are indentical tanks bought from a LFS. We have bben getting them ready for the lst 4 weeks or so now.

Anyway my friends P.H readings were a little on the high side, so he bought some 'Proper P.H' solution. Put the recommended dosage in on Monday night. Within two hours the tank had started to go a little cloudy. By Tuesday evening the tank looked like this:

The instructions said that there may be a slight clouding of the water, but we werent expecting this.
He has followed the dosage instructions to the letter, we have changed the media in his Fluval filter to the Carbon pad in the hope that it will clear the water quicker. It has made a little difference this morning when we looked but not much. When we had another look this morning we noticed that the substrate is covered with this white stuff it looks a little like a white algae, we have assumed it is this P.H stuff just settling on the substrate. Could we remove this using a gravel cleaner? Does anyone know if this is normal, should he just wait it out and see if the water clears? He is a little impatient and is already thinking of getting rid of the water and starting again. Which will be a shame because, unlike me he has been fishless cycling properly and the readings for his tank, apart from the P.H, were nearly there.

Can anyone help please?

Regards,

Rich.

P.S I am posting for him because he cant get on the internet at work. Thanks

 

[WILDER]

Your ph will be up and down in a cycling tank, so please don't mess with the ph, it's more hassle than its worth. what are your others stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, as you can get a bacterial bloom and it looks like one too me, it will eventually clear.

 

[millym]

hi
by high ph what do you mean??? the water pH varies greatly throughout the uk eg: us in london have very hard water ph often 7.8-8.
as said fiddling with the pH is just not worth the hassle unless you are trying to breed certain fish or keep certain pH 'fussy' fish
what sort of fish is your mate thinking of keeping once the tank is cycled???
i dont like any sort of additives to a tank water unless their absolutely neceesary and when fish are in a tank drastic pH swings will cause far more problems/stress than just accepting the water you have.
as an example cardinals & rummy nose tetras are reputed to only thrive in soft/acidic water, we had ours for nearly 3 & a half years in nasty thames pH 7.8 water for nearly 3 & a half years with no probs (but we did buy them from lfs in our area)
as for the cloudiness i would prob try some frequent small gravel vacs/water changes over the next couple of days & see how its looking.
but it may just be easier to start again. what are you using for your cycling?? pure ammonia ( avail from robert dyas hardware) is what i used for our fry tank & it took less than 2 weeks to cycle.
good luck to you both!!!

 

[rfisher]

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies.

He didnt want to wait, he did a complete water change rinsed the substrate and is starting again. It had cleared a little after we changed the normal filter for the Carbon one. Never the less he couldnt wait and has started again. Now he has to cycle all over again, idiot. He even replaced all the filter media so he couldnt get things going quickly with previously harvested media. Never mind it just means that my fish will go in before his. Thanks for replying for him though.

Regards,

Rich