calcium in water

[Tcian]

Hi folks,

I recently set up a tank with blue glass gravel, colored glass rocks and mounted the hood under the tank just for a different kind of look. My wife put in some large, very old seashells while I was waiting to decide on type of fish to put in. I pulled out the seashells after a couple of days because they did not look right in this type of setup. Since the shells have been in the tank the water has been cloudy and nothing seems to remove it. I have been doing multiple partial water changes every week and have run a micron filter for two weeks with only minor results in clearing the water. I gave some of the glass gravel to a friend who set up her tank with no cloudy conditions so that eliminates dust in the gravel. I am thinking that the shells which were about 20 years old gave off a lot of calcium into the water. Have not checked for hardness but at any rate the frequent water changes should have solved the problem. Any ideas on this would be appreciated as I am thinking that I should just tear the tank down and start all over.

 

[GuppyDude]

were they like sea shells you got from the beach? if so then they will make your water cloudy from them disolving in your water (also could be nasty stuff in teh shell that you didn't get out wen u cleaned it). wen u get shells for a tank, u userally have to buy them at a lfs or craftstore, theses shells have been glazed to preserve them and keep them from disolveing away (and they are also clean).

 

[Bignose]

To fully answer this question, you will have to measure your hardness and pH. If your water is hard and high pH, the shells most likely are not dissolving a lot. If your water is soft and low pH, the shells are most likely dissolving quite a bit. The KH and pH tests are pretty cheap, but if you do not want to buy the whole kit, most LFSs will do the tests for you.