Murky Water!!

[bobd_uk]

I'm moving house and I've set up a 2nd tank at my parents to put the fish in while I move.

It's filled now, and only has stones from my current tank in it, along with the obvious heater and filter. I added some ph buffer which reduced the ph from 9.5 to 7 which is fine, but now the water has all gone murky, like a watered down milk kind of colour! ph and gh are still fine in there though.

Any thoughts on how I can make the water clear again?!

Thanks,
Bob.

 

[Alien Anna]

Carbon in the filter, perhaps?

Personally, I wouldn't touch those pH down chemicals with a barge pole - they cause far more problems than they solve and they have the large potential to kill fish. Also, since they contain large amounts of phosphate, they encourage algae growth.

If your pH is coming out of the tap at pH 9.2 what is it after it's been left standing for a day or so? I'll bet it's considerably lower (I know mine is). Some bogwood in the tank, plus some RO water to "cut" the tap water and you can almost certainly get the pH down far more safely (and cheaply).

 

[Lateral Line]

pH adjusters frequently throw a precipitate if they have to move the pH a lot, and yours did.

When I was UK side, the water was also very alkali and hard as nails, (chalk boreholes), bought an RO unit in the end, fiddling with rainwater was just to much fiddling.

A diatom filter will remove the haze.

Good luck with the move by the way, always a headache.

 

[bobd_uk]

Cheers - the ph is fine now - ordinarilly I wouldn't use the chemicals, but I needed to get the tank sorted quickly as I'm moving next Monday! ph was 9 after 2 days standing!

Do you reckon that carbon will clear the water then? I'll give it a go!

Cheers!

 

[Kossy]

Also don't forget that just added water needs to have its bacteria boom but yes the chemicals probably added to the murkiness.

 

[Kossy]

...carbon should remove the chemicals (because you use it to remove medicines)

 

[Lateral Line]

Sure try Carbon, but generally, Carbon is much better at removing organic compounds, (like drugs and medicines), it may not have much effect on an inorganic suspension - if you got some handy, well can't hurt to try, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

The things is, if it is an inorganic haze, it is harmless, just unnattractive, if this is a move respite, that may not matter.