# HELP ME!!!!! Horrible water problems



## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

My water in my 55 gallon is so white and cloudy if you look at it from the side you can barelly see the fish. The tank has been set up for 4 months so im sure its cycled I have 2 large hob filters on it and just added a 300gph canister on it the other day. I did 2 50% water changes this week but its still bad. I know my problem is that I have a 12" pacu in this 55 gallon but untill i get my 240 gallon done - what can i do??? The nitrate is sorta high, the nitrite is pretty low, ph is acidic, and water is hard. The pacu is a messy eater but twice a wekk i vacuum the crap out of the gravel, what should i do?


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

This is my opinion of what happened. Since you did 2 50% water changes and you still have high nitrates and a low reading of nitrItes your lack of water maintenance caused the water to become so acidic that your PH dropped to the point where your nitrfying bacteria died off and you are now experiencing a bacteria bloom again. You can bring up the PH to better levels by just dropping 1 tablespoon of baking soda predissolved in the tank and then retest ph in about an hour. Put in a small amount of salt predissolved into tank to prevent nitrite poisoning. Once the tank recycles and is complete perform daily water changes to lower nitrate levels. Once they are down to 20-40 ppm perform 30% weekly water changes and this should stabilize your PH. If not you need to add a buffer.


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## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

wow- it looks like i need to start doing some homework on water maintenance. The water has been cloudy like this for months but it only really looks cloudy when you view from the side of the tank. Is it always gonna be like this since i got such a big fish in a small tank?


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## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

does it have to be aquarium salt or will tablesalt work?


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

deezdrama said:


> does it have to be aquarium salt or will tablesalt work?
> [snapback]1178053[/snapback]​


Save your money and use dinary table salt: it works just fine, with or without iodine (for iodine to become an issue, the salt level has to be so high it would have already killed your fish).


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## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

ok I just added a tablespoon of baking soda and a tablespoon of salt- do i have to do this daily?


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## DonD (Mar 11, 2004)

I have to politely but strongly disagree with Jerry on this one.
Nitrifying bacteria are not going to be overly disturbed by a simple water change. They are not free swimming, so changing water isnt going to remove any great amount of them. You may lose a small portion of the ones colonizing the gravel, but it is an insignificant amount.
Now, what does happen when you do water changes is that you free up dissolved solids that were trapped in the gravel and away from the water column. These nutrients are food for heterotrophic bacteria. The increase in the food causes an increase in the bacteria and you get a bloom. That is where the milky water comes from. I explained it in more detail in the article pinned at the top of this forum called bacteria blooms.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

DonD said:


> I have to politely but strongly disagree with Jerry on this one.
> Nitrifying bacteria are not going to be overly disturbed by a simple water change. They are not free swimming, so changing water isnt going to remove any great amount of them. You may lose a small portion of the ones colonizing the gravel, but it is an insignificant amount.
> Now, what does happen when you do water changes is that you free up dissolved solids that were trapped in the gravel and away from the water column. These nutrients are food for heterotrophic bacteria. The increase in the food causes an increase in the bacteria and you get a bloom. That is where the milky water comes from. I explained it in more detail in the article pinned at the top of this forum called bacteria blooms.
> [snapback]1179805[/snapback]​


Hey Don, no problem. I think you misunderstood me on my comment. The original post by author claimed high nitrAtes after 2 50% water changes. I was just simply stating that most likely his PH dropped to the point where his bacteria started to die off due to the lack of water maintenance.


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## DonD (Mar 11, 2004)

Kindly disregard my previous disagreement and kindly place the big plastic L on my head for me. I never seem to get it straight. And really, I CAN read, really I can.


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